Top 5 Website Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Marketing
When prospective customers visit your website to research your company, products/services and who you are, they’ll decide in just a few seconds whether they want to stay and find out more – or leave.
To engage and convert visitors, your website needs to be well-designed and visually compelling, function smoothly and seamlessly and be highly intuitive and simple to use.
Many businesses assume that they can just set up a website and that’s it; all their marketing worries are solved.
But it doesn’t work that way.
Your website needs to be updated constantly to remain technically current, refreshed for SEO and be updated with new content like blogs to attract traffic, or it simply won’t do its job.
Want to ensure your website is enhancing – rather than hurting – your marketing? Read about the 5 most common website mistakes and how to avoid them.
1. Slow Website Loading Speed That Drives Visitors Away
The Impact on User Experience
If your website is slow to load, your visitors will seek what they’re looking for somewhere else. A slow running website sends a negative message about your business. It may cause visitors to question whether their details will be safe with you, or whether their order will even go through. They’ll be put off and end up leaving to find a website that loads quickly.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
A one-second delay in mobile load times can impact conversion rates by up to 20%. Even more concerning, 79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with site performance say they’re less likely to purchase from the same site again. Source – SiteBuilder.
Common Causes of Slow Loading
The most common reasons for slow websites include large, unoptimised images and videos, excessive plugins and widgets, poor hosting solutions and outdated code. Many websites are also weighed down by unnecessary pages and features that add bulk without adding value.
Testing and Improving Your Speed
You can use free tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix or Pingdom to check your website speed. As well as measuring your page loading times, these tools provide specific recommendations for improvement. Regular speed audits should form part of your website maintenance routine.
2. Weak or Missing Calls-to-Action That Hinder Conversions
What Makes a CTA Effective
A call-to-action is a “hook” on your website that persuades your visitors to take a particular action. Do you want them to sign up to a newsletter, request a quote, or download a brochure? It’s designed to move your visitors a step further into your marketing funnel.
The Cost of Confusion
If someone doesn’t know what to do next on a page, they will just leave. Your CTAs need to be super clear and helpful, and they need to be working. You don’t want broken links sending customers to a dead end. This will eventually hurt customer engagement and conversion, and time spent on the website will fall quickly.
Strong vs. Weak CTAs
Weak CTAs use generic language like “Click here” or “Submit,” while strong CTAs use action-orientated, benefit-focused language like “Get A Free Quote Today” or “Download Your Marketing Guide Now.” The best CTAs create urgency and clearly communicate the value proposition.
Design and Positioning Best Practices
An effective CTA should use contrasting colours that stand out from the rest of the page, be placed prominently above the fold and at natural conclusion points in the content and be large enough to be easily clicked on mobile devices.
3. A Non-Mobile-Friendly Site That Hurts SEO and User Experience
The Mobile Reality
Most internet search originate on a mobile device, so Google advocates ‘mobile first’ design. This is a step on from mobile optimisation or responsive design – it’s design that puts the mobile device website experience front and centre. Any site that doesn’t work well on a mobile device will fail Google’s optimisation tests.
Signs of Poor Mobile Optimisation
Signs of poor mobile optimisation include text that’s too small to read without zooming, images that don’t resize properly, navigation menus that are difficult to use with touch, buttons that are too small to tap easily and horizontal scrolling requirements.
The Impact on User Behaviour
Much like the desktop version of your website, if it’s not working as it should, then people will just go elsewhere. People use their mobiles for everything when travelling, waiting in a queue or on their lunch break. So your website needs to cater for their expectations and deliver a seamless mobile experience.
4. Having No Clear Value Proposition
The Critical First Impression
Why should someone choose your product or service over someone else’s? What value is your product or service helping with? Your website needs to deliver this message to visitors clearly simply and fast. Anything less than that, and visitors will simply hit the exit button so position your value proposition loud and clear upfront – giving them a compelling reason to stay.
The 7-Second Rule
Visitors make quick decisions about whether to stay or leave a website. So all you have is a few seconds engage visitors and capture their attention. To achieve this, your value proposition must be immediately clear and compelling.
Crafting Your Unique Value Proposition
Your unique value proposition differentiates your business, services or products from those of your competitors, so it’s vital you encapsulate this in a message that can be instantly understood. Don’t make visitors scroll or work to discover what you offer. They need to know they’ve arrived at the right place from the first second they hit your home page.
5. Poor SEO Meaning Invisibility
Why SEO Matters for Long-Term Success
Getting found in Google is essential for every business, and best practice SEO is vital to achieve good rankings. Your SEO activity is responsible for driving organic traffic and long-term marketing success because by ranking above your competitors in search results you will draw the first clicks. Without proper SEO, your website will remain hidden in the lower search results pages where only a fraction of users will progress to.
Common SEO Oversights
Many websites overlook basic SEO elements like optimised title tags and meta descriptions, proper header structure, image alt text, internal linking and page speed optimisation. Technical issues such as broken links, duplicate content, missing sitemaps and poor URL structure also plague websites, making it difficult for search engines to crawl and index content effectively.
Perform a Simple SEO Audit
Carrying out a simple SEO audit can help confirm whether your website is optimised properly, or whether a more extensive piece of work is needed to get it ranking higher for your keywords.
For useful tips on this and what you should look for in SEO, check out our SEO checklist resource
Final thoughts
Website mistakes are common, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fixed easily with a little know-how and expertise.
Fixing these mistakes can dramatically improve how easily your website is found in Google, as well as your visitor engagement level, conversions and brand reputation – and go a long way in improving your marketing performance.
Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of experts who can help you implement these strategies and achieve your business goals.
