Nearly 80% of businesses face setbacks due to avoidable website mistakes.
Most people believe that frequent posting guarantees success, but over posting is one of the common website mistakes to avoid as it can harm your brand.
First of all, you need to understand that your website is your storefront online. It’s the very first impression that people are going to have of your business. It’s quite understandable that creating a website can be tough, and even the best-intentioned designers and developers sometimes fall into common pitfalls. However, when refreshing or building a new site, avoiding these common website mistakes significantly improves the performance of your site. That is why it is so important to avoid the common website mistakes that will scare those visitors away.
Here are five common website mistakes to avoid so that your site really stands out and will rank high on Google’s results.
Slow Loading Times
Slow websites are a definite no-go. People don’t have very high attention spans, so if your website is too slow, they’ll be off. Long loading times can further lower your search ranking. This is a very critical issue that might tick users off and increase their bouncing rate. Additionally, slow websites kill your SEO as Google ranks websites based on user experience, which includes fast loading times.
Now, don’t be afraid, to avoid making this mistake, ensure your site’s performance is optimized. This can be done through image compression, browser caching, and heavy script minimization. If you’re still confused, tools like Google PageSpeed Insights also help you identify areas for improvement. Now, here’s the deal: when you improve your page speed, you provide users with a better experience, leading to improved search ranking. Don’t forget that this mistake can be avoided by optimizing images and avoiding the use of large files.
Poor Mobile Experience
Having a website that is not mobile-friendly is one of the biggest website mistakes. Generally, more people are surfing the web on their smartphones than on their desktops. This is as a result of the growing use of smartphones and tablets. Therefore, the demand for a mobile-friendly website has become necessary. Hang on, if your website doesn’t work well on mobile, you will probably misplace a considerable part of your audience.
You need to understand that Google also gives priority to its ranking for mobile-friendly sites. So, here’s a solution; ensure that your website is responsive, which means it automatically resizes itself to fit on any device or screen size. This will automatically enhance user experience, and ultimately, your site’s SEO performance. However, make sure to test out your website on different devices for the best mobile usability through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
Confusing Navigation
Misleading navigation annoys one when it is hard for the visitor to sail through the website. Your users should be able to find what they are looking for easily. Furthermore, they should be in a position to get what they are looking for without hassle, not searching in circles. If your site’s navigation is confusing, your visitors may end up leaving frustrated, thus killing the performance and ranking of the site.
Nevertheless, you can avoid this mistake by having a simple and intuitive navigation menu. Also, use clear labeling and provide easy access to the important pages. Appropriate navigation increases the user satisfaction rate, which in turn will increase your search engine visibility over time.
Lack of Quality Content
On any successful website, high-quality content is the benchmark for search engines. The biggest mistake any website can make is publishing irrelevant content. These shallow and irrelevant contents can actually bring down user engagement and hurt your website’s SEO.
To scale through this challenge, make sure that the information given to your targeted audience is helpful, interesting, and relevant. Secondly, use keywords effectively but never stuff them as this will directly negatively impact on your rankings. Don’t forget to keep refreshing your content at will so that it remains new and fresh.
Forgetting About SEO Basics
One of the major social media mistakes to avoid is ignoring SEO. This is one of the reasons many websites never rank well, simply because their owners overlook some of the basics for SEO. Failing to follow through on the basics in SEO is one cardinal mistake that should not be made with a website. This involves things like meta title and description optimization, proper header tags, and sitemap creation.
Ignoring SEO basics can make you miss out on better visibility opportunities. Your meta titles and descriptions should be attractive and relevant to your content. Additionally, update the sitemap periodically so that it will let the search engines crawl or index your site more efficiently.
These 5 common website mistakes to avoid can destroy your online presence. Don’t forget that a well-designed website is much more than a digital brochure; it acts as one of the most effective lead-generation and sales tools in the digital age.
All of this boils down to one point: A good design and optimization of a website not only attract visitors but also converts them into loyal users. So keep these website mistakes to avoid in your mind and you will be halfway through making your website more efficient and worthwhile.
Do any other website mistakes come to your mind, which you want to add in this list? Please share in the comments below.