Have you set up your website business but don’t seem to have the sales or conversions you thought you should? Do you wonder what makes people buy from other sites? Have you ever had someone review your website and provide comments?
As startup lawyers, at Legal123.com.au, we see and review a lot of websites. We also see a lot of errors on websites and the problems are common.
Here are the top five things we recommend every website owner checks:
1. Website grammar
If English is not your strong point or your first language, you need to consider hiring someone who specialises or offers this service. It is worth doing as you may be otherwise seen as an ‘offshore’ business if you have poorly written content with bad grammar and spelling mistakes on your website. Some Australian consumers have difficulty with trusting websites and any indication that you may not be local or professional may make a difference.
2. Website speed
Have you come across a website that takes FOREVER to load? And what do you do? You go to another site. There is always another site and it will probably take less time. Normally the load time issue is due to the size of the images on your website. If you are choosing images for your website, make sure you or your developer compresses them to less than 100kb. Potential customers will not wait around for your site to load!
3. Responsive website
If your site is not device responsive, spend the money now to make it so. More and more people are accessing the internet, surfing and making purchases on tablets and mobile phones than ever before. They don’t wait to go home to their computer to do this anymore. Don’t lose the opportunity to grab your potential customer when they find you. You need to ensure you are in the market and on their radar and available to let them purchase. Now.
4. Outdated website
You cannot set up your website and leave it alone. If you do not regularly update it with the latest technology trends and look, it will date very quickly. Look around to see what top websites are doing. Sites like crayon.co have some great examples and give you an idea of the latest trends that are making waves.
5. Dead blog posting
You may be surprised to know that one of the first things potential customers do is go to read your blog (if you have one; if not, get one!) to see what you ‘are about’. They often judge your professionalism and your expertise on your chosen field. It’s a proven credibility and trust tool also.
You need to either post regularly or do not post at all. Potential customers will wonder if you are even still in business if you have not posted for some time.
Making these mistakes with your website can really make you look unprofessional. Most are easy fixes or are easily addressed.
So why do so many websites have these very issues – do some businesses just not care or not notice? Put the time and effort into your website and business, and if you cannot, hire someone who can help you.
Your marketing efforts will go to waste and your SEO ranking will suffer if you don’t resolve these issues.
