1. Not Updating Your Site Regularly and Not Having a Plan
Don't forget that the best feature of the web is the ability to make changes. Many businesses spend time and money building a website then forget about it for months or even years. In this time the information gets out of date and the website gets boring. Make sure your location, hours, and phone number are accurate so customers don't show up when your business is closed.
Updating content regularly will keep your customers interested and potentially improve your SEO results.
2. Using WordPress to Build Your Site
WordPress has been around a long time but now there are much better ways to build your site. WordPress is slow and clunky to work with and fewer developers are learning to build sites with WordPress. Also for most sites WordPress is overkill. Today there are much better solutions for business websites.
3. Waiting for Your Entire Site to Be Done Before Launch
Taking 6 - 12 months to launch your site is way too long. Especially if you don't have a site at all. Lauching with a few core pages first is much better. This way your site can build momentum with search engines and your can get valuable user feedback before adding more pages.
4. Doing Large Redesigns Every 5 or So Years
Many business do large redesigns all at once. This can be very jarring to you customers. Especially if your redesign includes a rebrand. It's better to do incremental design refreshes more often. Instead of changing the entire look and feel of your site all at once, change a few sections.
5. Using Facebook or Google Maps Instead of Your Own Site
Having a social media presence for your business is a great idea. But if you are depending on Facebook or Google for your entire web presence your're potentially making a costly mistake. Do you really want your entire business to depend on Facebook? A company that you have no control over.
6. Making It Hard for Customers to Find Your Phone Number
So many times I have to search and search for a phone number or a location for a business. Even for restaurants or stores that rely on customers calling or visiting a physical location. If you want customers to call, make your phone number easy to find.
7. No Clear Call to Action
Give your customers clear next steps for doing business with you. Each page or content section should have 1 clear call to action. Do you want your customers to call? Sign up? Make it clear and simple.
8. Not Considering User Experience
Your website is not for you it's for your customers. Are you putting their needs first when you plan your website? Your website should be easy to use and help your customers answer their questions.
9. Not Taking Accessibility Into Account
An accessible website is usable for everyone including those with disabilities. What Is Acceessibility?
Why is accessibility important to your business?
An accessible website will allow more customers to access your business. Most people will experience at least a temporay disability at some point in their lives. Can your business afford to miss out on such a large market share? I doubt it. Read more here
10. Not Answering Your Customer's Questions
People who search for your business need their questions answered. And they don't want to spend a lot of time looking for answers. Make sure the most important information is easy to find. List your services, phone number, location, hours in an easy to find place. Potential customers won't spend a lot of time searching your site. They'll move on to your competitors.
11. Confusing Site Navigation
If your site is difficult to navigate your customers will not be able to find the answers they need.
12. Your Site Is Too Slow
If your site it slow customers will be very frustrated.
13. Not Collecting Analytics
If you're not tracking analytics you will have no idea how your site is working. Or if it's working at all.
- Visitors to each page
- Conversions
14. Not Responding to Customer Inquiries
If you have a form that allows customers to ask questions do you have someone available to answer quickly? It's useless to allow customers to make inquiries through your website if no one responds.
15. Hiring the Wrong Person to Build Your Site
Many business owners just hire a tech savvy relative or friend to build their website. This may seem like a good way to save money or help out a friend but it can be a costly mistake. A professional web developer will know be able to avoid the pitfalls discussed above.
Choose a developer who has a lot of experience building sites for buisness clients. You will want your developer to have a good understanding of customer experience. Also make sure that your developer will be around to make regular updates to your site. If you choose a freelancer ask if they plan to continue doing freelance work for the foreseeable future. There are many part-time freelancers like myself who work with clients on a regular basis.