Even in 2018 a lot of websites are still making the same mistakes. These mistakes have a huge negative impact on your site.
They?re costing you business and you?re losing money.
Fortunately these are all things that you can fix. Some might take a little bit more effort than others but you should definitely make fixing your website a priority this year.
Mistake #1: Your Website Isn?t Mobile Friendly
An absolutely massive number of people are now browsing the Internet on smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices.
Back in 2014 in fact the number of mobile Internet users surpassed the number of desktop users.
If your website isn?t optimized for mobile this results in a terrible user experience.
You?ve probably experienced this yourself. Having to do things like pinch-zoom to read text or trying to tap on tiny links only annoys your visitors.
Some companies still have separate mobile websites that don?t have all their content.
If your website is frustrating to use on mobile people will leave and you will lose business.
Not only does mobile optimization affect the user experience but it also affects your SEO as well.
Back in 2015 Google announced that websites that aren?t mobile friendly would be penalized in the search results.
They also released this tool that you can use to check and see if your website is mobile optimized.
If your website isn?t mobile friendly you need to speak to your vendor today about Responsive Design.
With Responsive Design your website will resize and adjust to whatever size screen it?s being viewed on.
This offers the best possible user experience on both desktop and mobile.
If you?re just starting out and building your first website we can help you set up one that?s mobile optimized as well.
Mistake #2: Your Website Takes too Long to Load
The speed at which your website loads is incredibly important.
- 47% of consumers expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less
- 40% abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load
- A one second delay decreases customer satisfaction by about 16%
A slow loading website is especially frustrating for mobile users. Especially if they?re trying to access your site over a data connection.
Your website?s SEO is also impacted by how fast it loads. Google has also said that they factor load time into how well your website ranks.
Fortunately there are lots of ways you can improve your site?s loading time.
We wrote about a bunch of them here?.
Mistake #3: Your Website is Confusing to Use
Too many websites in 2018 are still confusing to use. Take a look at your website right now.
Can people easily find what they?re looking for?
Do your visitors know what to do next?
Is it easy for people to find your contact information?
You need to make each page of your website as simple as possible. There should be clear calls-to-action explaining exactly what you want your visitors to do.
There should be absolutely no confusion.
The design should be simple, clean and your navigation should only have a few important links.
Offering too many links or options is confusing and makes it more likely your visitors won?t take any action at all.
Mistake #4: You Still Use Annoying Pop-Ups
Pop-ups are always annoying no matter what you put in them.
A much better option is to use a slide-in that appears when a user scrolls to the bottom of a page.
This is a thousand times less annoying.
A large box that takes up an entire page and forces you to close it before you can continue what you were doing will only annoy your visitors.
In the event that you absolutely must have some sort of pop-up make sure that they:
- Only appear once and not right away.
- They?re relevant and you don?t use the same message for every visitor.
- You track them to see that they work, if they don?t then get rid of them.
- Use pleasant language that doesn?t try to guilt-trip people.
- Are easy to close. Your visitor should have to search for the X button.
Mistake #5: Audio that Plays Automatically
It?s hard to believe this is something that websites are still doing in 2018 but yes it is.
This is another one of the absolute most annoying things on the Internet.
If someone visits a website and loud audio starts playing they?ll leave. It?s way easier to click the back button then try to figure out how to stop the noise.
Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter that autoplay their media always do so with the audio muted.
If you have to have some sort of media that plays automatically make sure you do the same.
Mistake #6: Using Keyword Stuffed Copy on Your Website
This is something that stands out immediately. This may have worked 20 years ago but Google is way more sophisticated now.
The text on your website needs to be written for humans, not search engines.
Yes it?s still important to have keywords on your websites but writing a paragraph about how you service a city and throwing in keywords for every single community or suburb actually hurts your SEO now.
It?s obvious to everyone (especially Google) that you?re trying to do SEO and it makes it look like you have no idea what you?re doing.
Even in 2018 website vendors still try to do this. They?ll have you submit a list of local keywords and then auto generate a wall of text for your homepage.
This wall of text is exactly the same as it is on every other website they make.
Needless to say if your website or SEO vendor is still doing this in 2018 then you need to fire them immediately.
Mistake #7: Not Including Social Sharing Buttons
If you have a blog or any sort of content marketing strategy then you need to make it as easy as possible for people to share your content.
Getting more shares means that more people will see your content. Your traffic and even your search engine rankings will improve too.
This point ties back to mistake #3. You need to make your website as easy as possible for people.
If someone reads an excellent article on your site they?re probably not going to log into Facebook and copy and paste the article?s URL to share it.
They might intend to share it later but in most cases they probably won?t.
If there?s no quick and easy way to share your content most people won?t bother.
There are lots of easy and free ways to add social sharing icons to your site.
Make sure when someone finishes reading one of your articles the buttons are there so they can easily share it while it?s still fresh in their mind.
Mistake #8: Not Making Your Website the Centre of Your Marketing
Your website is the number one most important part of your marketing.
All the advertising, social media work, networking, prospecting, etc. is designed to get people to your website where they will see your listings and why you?re such a great agent to work with.
They will then contact you using the contact information they find on your website.
If your marketing is bringing people to a website that?s making these mistakes you?re wasting your money.
In most cases they?ll just leave your website.
If they do stay then they won?t have as good opinion of you as they should.
This is why fixing your website is the most important part of your marketing strategy. It should be done before you do any sort of advertising.
If you?re already doing advertising then improving your site can massively increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.
For years people have said to think of your website as a digital store or office.
You wouldn?t spend money on advertising to get people into your store if your store was a mess, no one could find what they were looking for or people couldn?t even get into your store.
Don?t do the same thing with your website.
If you?re guilty of making any of these mistakes don?t worry. 2018 is a new year and you can give your website a fresh start.
If you need help fixing any of these mistakes feel free to ask in the comments or on the forums.
We?ll do our best to help you our or point you in the right place.
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