5 Mistakes Business Owners Make with Their Website
When it comes to the businesses owners position on websites there are two distinct camps, those that take time and energy in developing a quality plan right from the start and continue with regular updates, development and maintenance of their site. Then there’s the business owners who slap together what they think is a quality site, overlook several important aspects of a successful website and then sit around wondering why their phone isn’t ringing. The website is an important component of your marketing apparatus. They are similar to homes and cars in the sense that a detailed plan of development needs to be implemented from building all the way on through to continuous maintenance, repair, and upgrades.
Not taking into account SEO
Two key times that any business MUST address SEO is in the initial development of a website and during any future relaunch. Now SEO also falls into the maintenance category as well and I’ll discuss that in number 3. But when it comes to launching a site initially, not consulting an SEO expert or atleast educating yourself on it will lead to doubling the work because you will have to go back and either start from scratch especially if your site is designed without SEO considerations or have to spend hours correcting mistakes.
Now during relaunch of a site, it is also a critical moment to take into account SEO. If a site is relaunched and all the pages are renamed, well that has just caused a lot of broken links. As a matter of fact, if you renamed all the pages you now have an entire site of broken links. Congrats, you just pissed of your future and current clients and you have banished yourself to terrible rankings.
Not making it a Place for Customers to Interact
Your website should not only be a place where your potential and current customers come to learn about your company. It should also be a place where they can learn about your industry. Content rich websites educate, entertain and engage audiences. Your website should be a useful tool for people to come to even though they might not be buying. Fostering interactions between your customers and your company as well as between your customers and future customers develops a community around your product or service. It’s this product
Not maintaining it
A website is like a home and a car. It needs constant maintenance, occasional repair and upgrades. You need to constantly be on top of several key factors including Downtime, bounce rate, visitor numbers, conversion rates, etc. Many business owners don’t even keep on top of downtime on their site. And yes we will wait while you go check your site. I will constantly come back this key point throughout my blog posts and advice to customers. What is one client worth? Well that one client who would have been ecstatic about your product and referred you several thousands of dollars in additional business just left your site because the first two links he hit were broken and it took too long to load. Get the picture. Reality is consumers are programmed to associate any part of your business image with your actual product. So even though you’re the best acupuncturist in town, people will have a subconscious judgment call against you because your website sucks.
Broken links are just one part of the SEO equation. And since the algorithms that control search engines are always changing then you have to constantly be monitoring and evaluating your SEO. If not, you can find your rankings eroding quickly, especially when faced with an aggressive well equipped competitor.
Not developing it
So you’re a baker or a cake decorator. Your site has a great logo, 20 pages of content a real nifty contact us box and lots of pics of your awesome work. Your competitions website is SEO optimized, has recipes, daily tips, an interactive cake decorator, flavor picker, color swatch, calorie counter, has Facebook interactive apps and a mobile version. Guess who’s getting more unique visitors every month. Yes, yes, we will wait while you finish crying. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Lots of free website apps are available for free or minimal cost. You can also crowd source the project and try to get the price you want.
Doing the work yourself
Now I’m definitely guilty of this one. I know. You read a website book, an SEO book and few graphic design books and online marketing books. You say,” I got this!” Guess what? You don’t. You will spend hours creating a website you think is awesome. Well, it’s awesome to you, you like the look, the feel, the navigation. Problem is you’re not your own client. Remember in your adolescence when you would wear ridiculous clothing? and look at yourself in the and think ”I’m the shit”. Well you weren’t. Think of that here.
Graphic designers and web developers are experts in this field. Let them give you a professional look. And before you go saying you’re a small business and can’t afford it. Keep in mind that the economy is in the toilet, and lots of these talented people are out of work and always looking to pick up freelance gigs. So negotiating a reasonable rate shouldn’t be too hard. And just as in number four you can crowd source a lot of the work.
Times are tough. Real tough. But those companies that foster and develop their online presence will reap the rewards of additional revenue channels. And those companies left standing when the dust of this recession clears will find themselves on top of their competition and better positioned to compete with any newbies who would like to enter the fray.
