- Poor/no search engine optimization (SEO)
Significant amounts of time and money can be invested in creating a flashy small business website, but if it’s difficult or impossible to find then it’s a complete waste. Given that the vast majority of first-time visitors to the typical small business website arrive from the search engines, it’s absolutely critical to do high-quality keyword research in order to rank highly and be found. Firstly this involves creating a database of keywords related to your niche, specifying both the number of searches and level of competition for each keyword. This can then be used to define the set of target keywords which offer the best return based on your specific product mix, which should be embedded in a non-spammy manner in the website content. It should go without saying that all content must also be accessible to the search engine crawlers.
The benefits of this go well beyond just increasing traffic to your website however. It’s really easy for small businesses to fall into the trap of writing what they want to say, which is quite often different to what customers want to hear. SEO research by its nature highlights what potential customers are actually searching for and the keywords they’re using, which can be used to create an effective website that interacts with them on their own terms.
Bear in mind also that keywords used and competition can change significantly over time, meaning that SEO must be revisited regularly.
- Slow page load speed
Websites with pages that load slowly have been shown to have an extremely negative effect on several key metrics, including bounce rate and conversions [1]. Given that you have no more than ten seconds [2] to show the average first-time visitor that you can solve their problem, it’s clearly essential to waste as little of this time as possible loading pages, especially the homepage. Google prefers that web and mobile pages load at least above-the-fold content within a second [3], and as they use load speed for web search ranking [4], it’s a very good idea to get as close to their target as possible.
- Text that’s difficult to read
It might seem obvious, but text should always be made easy to read. In very simple terms, this means using dark text on a light background as standard and avoiding artistic or otherwise hard to read fonts.
- No tagline and/or headline specifying clearly what problem(s) will be solved for visitors
The vast majority of visitors to the typical small business website are first-timers. With a good SEO strategy, you can safely assume they’re visiting because they’re looking for a product or service that you provide. However it’s essential to appreciate that on average, you have no more than ten seconds [2] to make it obvious to them that you can do so. If you don’t, there are thousands of alternatives out there, so there’s really no reason for them to stick around. Therefore it’s critical that the first content they see on your site confirms that you can solve their problem. Typically this means using a tagline or headline that makes clear in simple terms what service(s) you provide. This can then be supported by supporting content including a subhead, brief list of use cases and personalized testimonials.
- Spelling/grammar errors
This should go without saying, but nevertheless it’s remarkable how many websites contain such basic errors, which clearly create a very unprofessional impression.
- Auto-playing content on page load
Auto-playing dynamic content, such as flash or other animations, sliders/carousels and auto-playing movies, has a very negative effect on the first impression of the average website visitor, with predictable consequences for bounce rate and conversions. This is not least because visitors hate feeling that they’re not in control of their browsing experience. For example, carousels are extremely popular and are widely used on business websites, even though research shows that most website visitors find them annoying and ignore them [5, 6, 7].
- No primary call to action, especially on the homepage
If you haven’t defined what primary action you want visitors to take when they hit each page on your website, especially the homepage, it’s unrealistic to expect them to figure it out on their own. The result will simply be a website that doesn’t convert. The goal of every page should be to provide the content to persuade a visitor to take a single, specific action, and then make it very obvious how to take it. This will generally mean one primary call to action button that follows the content and stands out clearly from the rest of the page, containing text that is clear and urgent.
- No mobile optimization
Given that over half of web traffic now originates from mobile devices [8], it’s essential at the very least to have a ‘responsive’ website that offers an excellent user experience on all of the most commonly used devices and platforms. If mobile traffic is particularly relevant to your product or service, you should go a step further and consider a mobile-specific site.
References
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