The whole purpose of your website is so that consumers, who are potential customers, can find you, become aware of and remember your brand, answer any questions that are holding them back from purchasing, get them onto your mailing list for future promotions, and make the sale.
While getting a user to go onto your website is the first challenge to overcome, once they are there, you have an opportunity. It costs you money to design a website. If it is not well-designed you stand to lose far more in terms of potential revenue.
Keep your bottom line in mind. Check and recheck your website until you are satisfied it contains no errors and will appeal to consumers. Start by ensuring that you have not made the following common mistakes of many other business owners.
Launching a Poorly Prepared Website
As exciting as it is to finally see your website up and functioning, don’t rush this. Make 100% sure of every fact, and triple check spelling and grammar. See that every link works.
Above all, look at your new website through the customers’ eyes. Where are the eyes naturally drawn to, and is this the first impression you want to make? Is the site professional and of high quality? This is how the customer will perceive your brand and a negative response at this stage will affect your rankings and traffic.
Consider your content. Does it strike the right tone? Is it divided into manageable bits of information separated by suitable headings or categories? Are there any aspects that are unnecessary, repeated, outdated, or cluttered?
Check that each webpage has a clear purpose, for example, FAQs, contact information, blog. How easy is the site to navigate? It is important that you see this from the customers’ perspective.
Not User Friendly
Organize your website so that users are directed to the information they are seeking. Bear in mind the different reasons a user might be on your website, e.g., price comparisons, to purchase, drawn by blog. Include a search feature.
Don’t crowd everything you know on a topic into a blog. This will give consumers all the information they need to start looking for providers among your competitors. Use hyperlinks to provide definitions or for off-topic aspects. Before the launch, recheck that your links are still going to an active page.
Unsupported Formats
If you have ever been on a website where a video doesn’t load correctly, you will grasp why this is not user friendly. Unsupported formats such as when the website only handles MP4 formats, but the video uploaded is a WMV indicates that you may not have the correct plug-ins, or the graphics card cannot handle the upload. For advice on graphics cards click here.
Varied Page Designs
Your website colors and font should fit with your brand and the different pages of the site must be consistent. Each page shouldn’t look like a new website. Everything should tie back to your brand and not have users wondering if they have jumped sites.
Omitted Call to Action
A call to action is exactly that. You want the consumer to take the next step. This could be a purchase or agreeing to receive emails from you.
Pay attention to these five areas when setting up your website and let it work for you.