Exploring common mistakes small businesses make when developing their online business presence.
1. Invisible
What's the point of having a web-site if no one can find it? The day of building websites and hoping someone stumbles over it has gone. Today its all about being found on search engines through search engine optimisation. Being visible refers to how highly your page ranks when viewers search for related products and services. The higher your website ranks, the better chance you have of someone finding your business through popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
2. Incomplete
In the early 90’s it seemed every second web-page you found had a sign reading “Under construction” often with little to no content at all. Now In today’s online market, first impressions are everything.
Sadly, even today there are many web development teams and DIY jobs that leave the web-page "Under construction". When a visitor lands on your web-page for the first time if they have a negative experience, they will leave and never return.
3. Long-winded
Without a proven article structure, its easy to get carried away and talk about your business from the business owners perspective. Visitors are impatient, so when they land on your web-page you have a 10 second window to introduce your business and succinctly communicate the benefits of your product or service.
4. Intruding Media
You know the sites we’re talking about. The ones that blast audio from your speakers or play a video the moment you land on their web-page Putting music and personal taste aside, the lack of user control will make visitors uncomfortable and will drive people away from your web-page
5. Distractions
Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Looping Animations. These are mild distractions at best and will frustrate visitor and add no value to the web-page
6. Forced registration
Having each customer fill in their own details sounds like a marketeers dream, but there are smarter and less obnoxious ways to achieve achieve this. Visitors don’t want to wait, they want your web-page to deliver easy to understand information, and they want it yesterday. Forced registration will be seen as an invasion of privacy and a time wasting exercise. This is best postponed until the point of sale.
7. Obscure contact details
In the world of online marketing, trust is everything. A large number of well known businesses are trying to cut back on after sales service to cut costs, and are intentionally hiding their contact details to deter customers from calling in to ask questions or complain. This disturbing trend creates unrepairable damage to visitors looking to become potential customers.
8. Unprofessional
It can be tempting to have a young family member or friend of a friend build an amateur website for peanuts, but the consequences could cost you many thousands of dollars. Visitor expectations are climbing exponentially and what was acceptable last year could drive visitors away this year and in the years to come. Its essential to keep your online presence fresh and up to date with the current design benchmarks to avoid
9. Third Party Advertisements
These take the form of banners or links that are placed by either shoddy website developers or free web-hosts to promote their product or service through your businesses web-page
10. Free Domains
Domain names are cheap enough as it is without the need to use a free domain service. Free domains are free for a reason, no one really wants them because they don’t inspire trust in visitors. Its easy to pick up a
.com or
.com.au for under $60AUD per year, so theirs no excuse not to have one.
Is your web page driving away customers?
We hope this article has been useful and adds value to your business.
Check back here next month for more news and information.
