Three Website Mistakes You Could Be Making

Things have changed online in big ways recently. The face of the internet is getting more efficient, geared towards quick interactions and mobile browsing. However, it’s not enough to have a beautiful, interesting website – Your website needs to be smart, too. Gone are the glory days of booting up your favorite free website designer and loading a page with keywords. We don’t live in the days where a website was a fun novelty anymore. Today having a bad website can mean sinking your entire business.

Unfortunately, we find that many businesses underestimate how important a good website is. As a result, many business owners build their websites, falling into a common pitfall or fifty. Web design is an entire discipline, with decades of development behind it. Artists, musicians, mathematicians, marketers, and more have poured millions of man-hours into learning how to make a good website.

We’ve learned that a website has to provide both a good experience and a good impression. This is a lot harder than it sounds. There are unwritten rules that every good website follows. There are secret laws no good website will break. It can be a lot to unpack – But this article is here to help. We will dive into the three most common mistakes that you might be making right now.

1) The Website is Confusing

It’s common to have too much going on. A user should be able to figure out, at a glance, what your website is about within ten seconds. Too little information runs a similar problem. If your user isn’t positive they’re at the right spot, they’ll click away. So despite the minimalism craze, you need a clear website.

Confusion doesn’t drive sales, engagement, or good web design. We don’t just mean confusion for the user – We mean confusion for you, too. If your website has a variety of typefaces, art styles, color palettes, and branding decisions… You’re not portraying your business in a clear and useful manner.

2) Top Website Mistakes – Poor Ad Placement

Ads are one of the biggest revenue streams online. Many websites have ads – People have come to expect it. They deal with it, and many users engage with properly utilized ads. However, they don’t deal with ads that gum up the content or fight for real estate. If you have three different sections for ads on a given page and you’re still interrupting an article with ads, you are making a mistake.

You’re being paid to display those ads – Don’t make your visitors resent their presence! If you’re following recent trends, you might be helping bring back pop-up ads. If you are, make sure they’re easy to close, discreet, and never full-screen. Nothing makes users close a page faster than obnoxious pop-ups!

3) Not “Hitting the Target”

Every business and thus every website has a target demo, target audience, target group… Whatever you want to call it, you have a demographic of people you’re trying to sell your business to. It would help if you considered that target at all times. Every group will naturally gravitate towards websites with a certain look, a certain feel, or a certain tone. There is no one-size-fits-all approach here. Minimalism might work great for trendy coffee shops or apparel lines. It might not work so great for a warm mom-and-pop.

Older groups and academics appreciate informative, wordy, and detailed websites. Unfortunately, they are not often appreciated by young audiences. To go back to our first point, you should not be confused about what you’re trying to do. Your website shouldn’t throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Figure out exactly who your target is, and make sure you at least snag them even if everyone else gets away. Cater to the needs of your customers.

Emu Marketing Can Help

These are just the three most common places small businesses suffer. There are many more than three things you can do wrong with a website. It’s not a dig at you to fall into these traps, either – They’re easy mistakes to make. They’re understandable, too. You went into business in your field because that’s what you’re good at. Nobody expects you to be an industry-level web developer on top of everything else!

We build our websites at industry standards or above. We’ll never blast your customers with annoying content or leave them confused about where they are. A lack of navigation, invisible constant details, and more can hurt you and your customers. If they can’t reach you, they’ll go somewhere else if they don’t know what you’re about.

We won’t let that happen to you. Leave the essential task of designing a winning website to professionals you can trust. So take the edge off, kick your feet up, and let Emu Marketing handle the website angle.