10 Biggest Website Mistakes
Did you have your website set up a while ago and forgotten about it?
We look at potential client’s websites all the time and I have to admit that almost all of them either have out of date information or they don’t function correctly. I often meet people at networking events and when I get home I check out their websites. As a courtesy I often email them with a few things that no longer function.
I think the worst was that one site didn’t even show up, their hosting had run out and they didn’t even know. They were very grateful when I contacted them.
Is Your Website Up To Date
Have you gone over your website recently to see if it is up to date? You are not going to impress potential clients with out of date offers. Events that have long ago come and gone. Potential customers will start to think that you will look after them, like you look after your website and they will leave as fast as they find you.
My recommendation is not to even add dated information if you don’t have proper access to the back end of your website or the time to look after your site.
Missing Links and Missing Images
A Broken Or Dead Link
The other problem that we find when we are looking at websites is that links to other pages often don’t work and various images don’t show. The page may have been removed or renamed and the image may no longer be in the library section of your website.
The worst I have seen is the wrong phone number. There was a potential client that I met at a networking event and we agreed to get together to have a chat. I rang the number on her website and it went to an entirely different business. And it wasn’t even a friendly business, they were very rude. As it turned out, this was a reasonably new website, so even when you are building a new website you must check everything yourself.
So, when was the last time you checked all the links on your website. When did you last check that all your images were showing?
Luckily this doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. If you have a Website that is built on a Word Press Platform I recommend you install the “Broken Link Checker” Plug In. It will check your site regularly and notify you via email if you have an issue.
If your site is not a Word Press site just Google “broken link checker” and there are a number of options. If you don’t know what I am talking about, send an email to your Web Developer and ask them if they can add a “broken link checker” to your website.
This is a plug in that we add to all our client’s websites.
Once a month, you should have a look at your website, just to make sure. It is amazing that we can look at something over and over and not see an error.
Look For Pages That Are Outdated
For this reason I recommend you get someone who has not seen your site before to look at it with fresh eyes. You should also get someone else to follow your sales funnel, sign up for your compelling offer, buy a product or service. It can be very revealing.
I followed the sales funnel of a client and quickly found out that when I added a product to their shopping cart in one section of the website I couldn’t then find the shopping cart to process the order and my payment. I can’t image how many sales they had lost because people couldn’t check out.
So, no guessing on what your task for today is, go and check your website and see what you find. Also arrange to have a broken link checker installed on your website so you don’t have to worry.
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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
