7 Reasons Why Your Website Sucks

The Popular World of Website Suckery

When you see your own company's website every day, you become blind to the signs that your website is misrepresenting your brand. Fixing these 7 mistakes, if you've made any of them, will lead to a vastly improved web presence for your business.

1. Your Website Is Not Mobile Friendly

People with limited data plans won't wait for websites that load slowly, and search engines are not too fond of them either. Your website isn't mobile friendly, and therefore, it sucks, if the text is too small, people need to scroll or pinch to view important content or the checkout process is cumbersome for people on a smartphone or tablet. If this is true, your website is losing 80% of its visitors to websites that are mobile friendly.

2. Your Website Is Confusing

If your visitors cannot find what they are looking for quickly, they will become frustrated and leave. Put design elements, such as the menu, where visitors expect them and provide clear instructions on ordering or visiting your local business.

3. Your Website Uses A Stock Template

Website design conveys your brand's personality and tells visitors what differentiates your business from the competition. If your website uses a stock template, it will look exactly like hundreds of other sites on the Internet, which puts people off.

4. You Have A Great Design But No Marketing Plan

Websites shouldn't exist to show visitors how great your business is; a great website informs people how your products or services will benefit them. It's possible, with a first-rate web designer, to have a beautiful website that has a structured approach towards sales. When visitors land on your website, they should immediately know what you are selling, why they should buy from you and finally, there should be an effective call-to-action that encourages more conversions. Without a simple, clear hierarchy, visitors become distracted and leave without making a purchase.

5. Your Website Is Outdated & Not Secure

First impressions are everything. When potential customers land on your website and notice that you don't bother to update your website, they will assume that you neglect your business as well. If your site has dead links, no recent blog entries and it uses design elements, such as scrolling text or animated GIFs, that were trendy a decade ago, it needs updating before visitors begin assuming that your company went out of business in 1999. If you dont have an SSL on your website for security, your asking for trouble.

6. Your Website Team Is Unreliable and Expensive

This is probably the most important point. We hear it all the time. "I sent them changes weeks ago and haven't heard back. Nothing has been done." In our industry, we call this "mystery is margin". This is when the introverted web person collects a paycheck and does zero work, but creates the illusion of productivity and value. Same story different day. At webmarkets, we have specific plans to combat this idiocy the majority of web designers call good business. This scenario isnt good for anyone. 1- Business profits and productivity go south, 2- The unreliable web designer ends up losing this client anyway.

7. Your Website Isn't SEO Optimized

What is SEO optimized? In the SEO industry its known as on-page optimization. This is where you implement your SEO strategy and conduct keyword research to submit content for meta titles, meta descriptions, meta keywords and select short, keyword-rich URLs. Yes, this needs to be done on every single page on your website, and each page should have its own unique content. These are the top 4 aspects of back end on-page optimization work that isnt visible to the average user. Google and other search engines crawl this data to accurately rank your website. This is extra work and can be time-consuming, mainly because of the unique SEO strategy and implementation process. Well, this step is often skipped by unreliable web designers because of just that. It takes time, and if your client cant necessarily see it, they will never know.

SEO Quake is a free tool we use that can view and analyze on-page optimization for any website.

What Do You Do Now?

Honestly, this is just scratching the surface. If making these changes seems overwhelming, consider having a professional web designer overhaul your website. Contact webmarkets for details about website creation and management plans that fit your business objectives and budget.