23 Oct Things you want to avoid having on your website
By now, all companies (big or small) should have their own website and if you don’t, you should probably get on board right away because you’re missing important business opportunities. It is important to make sure you include useful information to help you get found by your ideal customers. It is also important that you are aware of what to avoid having on your website as well as this will determine the website’s effectiveness as a sales engine for your business.
Choosing the information that will appear on your website can be tricky. There is so much you want to say about your company, and the things you do that you don’t even know where to start. The way you present this information, what you include, and just as importantly what you leave out, is very important. Here are some things we advise businesses to avoid having on their websites:
Social media icons in your header. Linking your social media accounts to your website is a must do. It facilitates users to follow you and stay updated with your business news or promotions. However we advise you not to put them right at the top of your website with bright, colourful icons. Those icons can lead people away from your site and onto your social media where they will get distracted and spend more time on their own social media rather than learning information about you.
Instead, try to put them in the footer. This way they can go check you out once they have had a chance to learn more from your website and hopefully had a chance to respond to any calls to action you have on your site.
Too many section headers. People can get distracted very easily and when you show them too many options, their level of attention just keep dropping. Having a high number of section headers can confuse the users and some of the vital information about your company could get lost.
What you can do is simply move some sections to show less in your home page. Think about: if I remove this header, would it be confusing? Less works best!
Long paragraphs. Remember when you were a kid and used to hate those extra long texts in your school books? Well, nothing has changed! People prefer to quickly ‘scan’ something before thinking about giving it a deeper read. Short paragraphs are the way to go!
Email links. In the contact section, do you have an email link or a contact form? If you are listing your email address rather than using a contact form it gives people more of a chance to take your email address and add it to spam lists. By using a contact form, you will still get the email, however it is a lot harder for someone to add you to a marketing list to be harrassed by others.
Dead website. Once a website is all setup and online many people never touch is again. When you update your website constantly, Google will reward it with better search engine rankings so the next time someone searches key words related to your business, you might appear as one of the first options. The higher up the ranking the more creditability your site and your brand are seen to have. If nothing else updating your website constantly gives you more things to post on social media which will help bring in more traffic.
These are just some tips we can give you about how to improve your website but a proper analysis could do wonders for your business. Let us help you achieve the best for your company by helping you design and develop and great website and online strategy.