Ready to take your business online?

The first thing you’re going to need is an attractive and reliable website to deliver your business strategy to your customers.

These days, practically every business – large and small already has a website. If you haven’t created one for your company yet, then you could be missing out on an unlimited amount of traffic, and potential sales. The trouble is, most people have no idea where to get started when it comes to building the perfect site. To help you avoid the standard pitfalls, here are some of the biggest mistakes that you can make when creating a website for your company.

1. Bad Navigation

When customers arrive on your website, they want to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly. This means that the last thing you should have on your site is complicated navigation. There are plenty of ways that you can simplify your customer’s experience, including:

• Using a theme: One of the easiest ways to create a quick and professional-looking website from scratch is to use a theme. With a theme and a reliable CMS, you can have the basics of a good website in no time. Just remember to customise your theme to suit your brand.
• Stick with the standards: Make sure that you remember the standard navigation format. This means placing a vertical navigation bar at the top of the page.
• Avoid overwhelm: Don’t include too much clutter on your pages. Your customers should be able to see navigation points easily.

2. Inconsistent Branding

From the moment your customers visit your website, they should know that it’s your business they’re interacting with. Keep that in mind when you’re designing and remember to show off the unique elements of your company whenever you can. This could mean that you add your logo to the top of each page or maintain your brand colours throughout the site.

The more consistent your branding is, the easier it will be for your customers to recognise you and build a relationship with your brand.

3. Not Making it Responsive

All websites today should be responsive. We’re living in a world where consumers spend more time browsing on their smartphones and tablets than they do on an actual computer. With that in mind, your site needs to be able to look and perform just as good on a small screen as it does on a large one.

There are plenty of things you can do to make your website responsive, but the easiest option is generally to work with a website designer who specialises in responsive sites. Using a designer will also help you to create a brand image for your site that’s unlike anything else in the market.

4. No Call to Action

Once a customer arrives on your website, it should be obvious what they need to do next. A classic mistake that companies make is failing to provide this information. Adding a simple call-to-action button telling someone to contact you if they want to find out about your services, or click through to your product page to see what you sell is a great way to drive conversions.

Make sure that your call to action buttons are in a contrasting colour to the rest of your website page, and that they’re surrounded by plenty of white space.

5. Forgetting Analytics

A website isn’t something that you should build once and simply forget about. The trends in web design and customer preference are constantly changing, and it’s important to stay up to date with what’s happening in your area. Fortunately, there are plenty of analytical tools, including Google Webmaster tools that can help you to keep track of your website’s performance.

The more you know about which pages are driving conversions, and which might be slowing down your sales, the faster your business can grow.

6. Ignoring SEO

Speaking of driving the best possible performance from your website, it’s crucial to make sure that as many people can find your site as possible. You can do this by promoting yourself through PPC ads and social media campaigns. However, SEO or search engine optimisation should also be a component of your online strategy.

Remember that the demands of the search engine algorithms are constantly changing, so it pays to fine-tune your SEO strategy regularly to stay ahead of the curve.

7. Letting your Site run slowly

Finally, today’s customers don’t have time to waste on a slow site. Most will only wait a few seconds before they hit the back button and go to your competitor’s website instead. With that in mind, make sure that you focus on making your site as lightweight and speedy as possible.