You’ve spent countless hours building and designing your website and finally go live, ready for the customers to come rolling in. You wait days, weeks, and maybe a month- but nothing happens. You’ve made a few tweaks here and there, but still no one seems to be clicking. If you’ve been in this situation, you’re not alone. Take a look at these ten common website mistakes that drive customers away and see if your website might need a few changes.
Quick Overview
- Low Quality Content
- Difficult to Navigate
- Poor Design
- Not Optimized for Mobile
- Poor Images
- Slow Load Times
- Lack of Accessibility
- Unclear Calls to Action
- Difficult to Read
- Irrelevant Keywords
1. Low Quality Content
Content is the most important part of your website. It’s how people get to know who you are, what you’re offering, and whether they think you’re the right fit for them. Low quality content is an instant turn off. Language that’s too flowery and vague or jargon that’s too technical not only reads poorly with human readers but also doesn’t perform well in search! Updating the content of your website to be clear, concise, and attention-grabbing is critical to your success online.
2. Difficult to Navigate
UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) are two of the most important elements of a website. You want visitors to be able to easily understand what you do and find the information they’re looking for, not get lost in a sea of menus. Make sure that your site is easy to navigate so you can keep customers clicking and learning more about your business.
3. Poor Design
They may tell us not to judge a book by its cover, but the truth is that a website’s first impression will always be its design. Poor design will always be a major reason that your website is driving away customers. Over time, users have grown to be more trustworthy in websites with good design.
Take a step back and look at your website through the eyes of your users. What does your color palette look like? Are your fonts on-trend, or behind the times? These questions and more can help you decide if it’s time for a site redesign, or if a few small changes might make a big impact for your brand.
4. Not Optimized for Mobile
These days, over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website is only optimized for desktop, over half of your visitors might be clicking away because they can’t properly see or navigate your site. Now more than ever, you need to make sure your website is mobile friendly.
5. Poor Images
A picture is worth a thousand words – and that includes those on your website! Whether its illustrations, pie charts, or beautiful photos, the images you feature might be bringing your website down. Especially if they’re blurry, outdated, or don’t fit the content. Make sure your site is filled with high quality images to keep visitors interested in seeing more.
6. Slow Load Times
We all want to visit websites that load quickly, and get us the information we’re looking for as fast as possible. If it’s been a while since you’ve tested your website load times, here’s your reminder to double check that you’re not leaving customers behind due to lag.
7. Lack of Accessibility
More emphasis is being put on accessibility than ever before. Accessibility refers to designing your website so that all visitors, including those with disabilities, can navigate it. Readable fonts, alternate text for images, and video captions are just a few of the ways that you can make your website more accessible for everyone.
8. Unclear Calls to Action
When someone visits a page on your website, they should be able to immediately tell what you want them to do. You can’t drive or keep users on your website if they don’t know where to go or what you want them to do!
Maybe you want them to read a blog post, watch a video, or buy a product. Whatever it is, the call to action (CTA) should be clear. Pages with too many CTAs can confuse your customers and lose you an opportunity to connect.
9. Difficult to Read
No matter what you’re writing about, you want your clients to be able to easily understand what you’re trying to say. This is where knowing your audience comes in clutch. A blog meant for physicians might use medical terms that the average person isn’t familiar with, while a website for teens might use modern slang that would feel out of place elsewhere. In general, 85% of your audience will understand language at an 8th grade reading level, so that’s a good place to start when writing your content.
10. Irrelevant Keywords
Keywords are, well, key for helping your website reach the right people. If you’re a steakhouse, you’re probably not looking to bring vegans to your website. But with the wrong keywords, you may be doing just that – bringing in an audience that doesn’t gel with your brand. Do some keyword research and double check that the people you’re bringing to your site are in the market for what you have to offer.
Let’s Collaborate and Bring in Those Customers
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why your website might be driving away customers. If it feels overwhelming, fear not – Innov8 is here to help you get on track. Click here to schedule a consultation and get started!
