17 Common Website Mistakes and How to Resolve Them

When was the last time you checked for any website mistakes?

Over the previous couples of months we’ve done website audits for over 50 businesses and that we saw lots of common issues.

Here are 17 possible issues along with your website you’ll solve pretty easily:

1. Doesn’t pass the 5 second test

When someone lands on your website you simply have some seconds to capture their attention.

Within the primary 5 seconds, can a visitor work out where they’re, what they will do on your site, and why they ought to do it?

It’s important that you simply communicate this stuff ‘above the fold’ or the realm of your website that users see without scrolling down the page. This is often typically your hero image and accompanying content.

I’ve been studying the Storybrand framework recently which helps you understand how storytelling can fit into your website. One in all the items that this framework promotes has a transparent tagline on your website that sets the scene and is so simple that anyone can understand.

We’re within the middle of fixing our tagline as a results of this!!

Your tagline should indicate what you you are doing and the way your customers’ lives are different after they buy from you.

Then you wish a really clear call to action.

Here’s an example:

The tagline within the example above addresses the company’s value proposition and is followed by one main action they require people to take.

This way, visitors to the website don’t should scroll all the way down to search for information on what the corporate offers and what they will do next.

2. Analytics and/or Google Search Console not setup

Without the analytics founded you’ll be able to get an honest idea of your performance by counting the cash you collect through your website.

But….

… most websites aren’t cash machines so whatever money you’re generating you’ll be able to improve.

Your analytics tells the story of how your website is performing and not having analytics founded is like not bothering to try to do accounts for your business!!

Everyone hates doing accounts but we all know it’s essential.

Similarly, without Google Search Console founded, you won’t be ready to track and measure your site’s search traffic and performance or uncover any issues along with your website pages.

Google Search Console could be a report that Google shares with you on how your website is doing.  Surely you would like to determine this?

So, ensure to try to the correct setup of your website analytics. This text can help:

3. Not enough focus on conversion optimisation

Conversion rate optimisation could be a practice of getting the best possible number of individuals visiting your site to require the action you wish them to require.

CRO could be a very complex field as there are many things that impact visitors’ deciding, from visual hierarchy and content layout, to repeat and therefore the way you utilize CTAs on your website.

Here we’re visiting shed light on a number of the foremost common issues with conversion optimisation.

Not making your primary call to action obvious

Your primary call to action is what you actually want people to try to to. as an example ‘Buy now,’ ‘Enquire now’ etc.

You want your primary CTA to obviously stand out and ideally it’ll be visible within the same place across your website pages. Normally this can be the highest right of a website:

https://canarylabs.com/

Not giving people a secondary call to action

Not most are able to buy now. within the example above the business wants everyone to ‘Try Canary’ but if they’re not able to join up yet they’ll download the pricing.

A secondary CTA gives you a chance to create the link with website visitors over email and nurture them until they’re able to buy.

Do you provide a primary and secondary call to action? And is there a transparent distinction between them?

Not analyzing your conversion statistics

It’s rare to search out a corporation which will tell you what the conversion rates are on their website.

And this can be one among the foremost important things to understand! If you run an internet shop you’re more likely to know these stats but it’s even as important for each other business.

So you wish to line up your goals and funnels to live your conversion rate and work out where people are dropping off on their path to conversion and why.

Here’s some useful links to assist you with goals and funnel setup:

How to Build a Google Analytics Funnel to trace your Sales

How to founded Google Analytics Goals and Score More Conversions!

4.  Website Mistake: SEO issues that are easily resolved

When was the last time you did a review of your SEO to identify some basic issues that need fixing? For example:

• Missing, duplicate or invalid SEO titles, meta descriptions, and alt tags.each page on your web site ought to have a singular and descriptive title and outline that Google will ‘read’ to assist it index your pages properly. Likewise, you wish to possess angular position tags for images describing what the photographs are regarding. Most SEO tools currently allow you to analyze your web site for problems with meta tags and these are straightforward fixes that may bring you tangible SEO gains.
• Broken links on your site. Broken links negatively impact user expertise on your web site however they conjointly harm your SEO rankings. In our expertise, a amazingly tiny range of web site house owners are willing to pay their time to try to to link analysis and fix or take away broken links. With tools like Ahrefs, you’ll be able to notice broken internal and external backlinks on your web site in a very matter of minutes.
• Pages missing on your site.This issue most ordinarily happens once a web site design after you don’t place correct redirects in situ. therefore if you’re deleting previous pages you wish to send them to applicable new pages that offer connected content. If you don’t try this, users can find yourself on 404 pages that could be a frustrating expertise for them. additionally, Google doesn’t index pages that come a 404 standing.

5. Inconsistent disapproval

Visual identity could be a massive a part of your overall whole and it includes a brand, color palettes, typefaces, icon’s, type of footage, etc. All of those parts ought to be used systematically throughout your web site since a powerful and consistent visual identity can go a protracted manner in act your whole to your audience.

So what are a number of the foremost common visual whole identity problems we discover on websites?

So what are some of the most common visual brand identity issues we find on websites?

• Different types of pictures used throughout the web site
• Inconsistent use of brand e.g. mistreatment 2 completely different versions of the emblem
• No consistency within the use of colours
• Different graphics designs from page to page, etc.
• These problems produce a sway that little or no attention was given to the event of the brand’s visual identity. to not mention the impact they need on the visual attractiveness of the web site. So, confirm the core parts of your site’s visual identity are used systematically and find facilitate from a designer to repair any problems that you simply establish.

 

6. No component pursuit setup

Tracking pixels are a very useful tool for building audiences that are more receptive to your marketing message. If you ever felt like a company is ‘following you’ around the Web with their ads, then this was a tracking pixel at work!

racking pixels are a awfully great tool for building audiences that are additional receptive to your selling message. If you ever felt sort of a company is ‘following you’ round the net with their ads, then this was a pursuit component at work!

A pursuit component is associate hypertext markup language code snip that is loaded once a user visits your web site or specific pages on your site. It allows you to make an audience that has already shown some interest in your company and your product so you’ll target them with relevant ads.

This is vital as a result of ad campaigns targeted towards these audiences generally have higher conversion rates than those targeting a innovative audience.

So, maybe, by inserting a Facebook component in your web site you’ll build a custom audience and use it to remarket to those who already took a selected action on your site.

Apart from advertising functions, pursuit pixels are used for analytics i.e. you’ll wish to own Google Analytics attach your web site to trace user behaviour. though this might appear too technical, putting in pursuit pixels with Google Tag Manager is truly quite simple to try to.

7.  Website not secure

Although Google has been penalizing unsecure websites for quite some time now, many businesses still don’t have an SSL Secure Website. It even shows all non-SSL websites as “Not Secure”.

Although Google has been penalizing unsecure websites for quite it slow currently, several businesses still don’t have associate SSL Secure web site. It even shows all non-SSL websites as “Not Secure”.

So, why is that this important? A HTTPS designation on the address shows guests that your web site has been verified as authentic. It additionally provides them assurance that you’re encrypting any knowledge they pass through your web site. And if you’re marketing something on your web site, you’re needed to own encryption!

8. Poor website copy

Good website copy helps your visitors make a decision to take an action on your site e.g. contact you, make a purchase, etc. It plays a huge role in driving conversion by speaking to the needs and interests of your target audience at different stages of their journey. Plus, great website copy also communicates your brand and its values.

Good website copy helps your guests create a choice to require associate action on your site e.g. contact you, create an acquisition, etc. It plays an enormous role in driving conversion by chatting with the wants and interests of your audience at completely different stages of their journey. Plus, nice web site copy additionally communicates your whole and its values.

It’s challenging to form compelling copy and that’s why skilled copywriters are used to try to to it. They knowledge to develop whole voice and tone and the way to use it consistently; they additionally grasp once and how to use completely different persuasive copywriting techniques to drive guests to get.

Unfortunately, several websites don’t have professionally written copy which impacts the results they get in terms of user engagement and conversion.

When was the last time you reviewed your web site copy? and the way does one grasp your copy solid, anyway? Here are some signs that you just do an honest job during this area:

• The tone and elegance of writing is consistent throughout your web site.
• You communicate your worth proposition clearly and it’s evident to guests from the instant they land on your web site.
• You’ve tested your headlines and CTAs and therefore the ones you’ve got currently resonate most together with your guests.
• The copy on every page of your web site is straightforward to scan – you’re victimization short paragraphs, bullets, and headings to extend readability.
• The copy is targeted on the advantages to your target customers and they’re the hero of the story. So, you’re victimization additional of ‘you’ and ‘your’ within the text that ‘we’ and ‘our,’ etc.
• You offer content for guests of various levels of data regarding your business and your product – you’ve got copy that engages individuals who’re visiting your web site for the primary time to find out additional, however you furthermore mght have copy targeted at those that are nearer to the choice to shop for from you.
• The copy is written with SEO in mind i.e. you’re victimisation keywords naturally within the text and linking internally to alternative relevant pages on your web site.

9. No clear blogging strategy

Running a blog and change it frequently with content around your target keywords and topics that are valuable to your potential customers can facilitate rank your pages and drive additional relevant traffic

With most refer the importance of content, you’d assume that in 2020 most businesses with a web presence would have a transparent blogging strategy. however sadly that’s not the case.

Typically, websites have problems with business enterprise frequency (quantity of content) or with writing regarding topics relevant to their audience (quality of content).

According to a pursuit from HubSpot, the additional typically you publish new diary posts the more leads you’ll get. However, however typically you must publish on your diary can rely on several factors, as well as your audience, your budget, competition for the keywords you’re targeting, and more.

Quality can perpetually beat amount, therefore it’s higher to concentrate on writing 2 long-form, quality diary posts per month than to publish caliber posts twice every week.

Another issue that we have a tendency to see plenty is inability to live results from blogging and responsive queries like:

Is our diary content driving guests any down the selling funnel?
How typically will the content we have a tendency to publish leads to conversion?
Which content format is most flourishing in terms of engagement, time spent, etc?

10. Poor website performance (speed)

The speed of your website is becoming more and more important, not simply because it impacts user experience but also because it’s one among Google’s ranking factors. If it takes over 3 seconds to load, your website is taken into account too slow.

Have you checked the speed of your website recently? this can be quite easy to try to to with a tool like GTMetrix. you only have to enter your website URL and also the tool will show you performance details like the time it takes for the page to completely load and also the average page speed score.

You’ll also get recommendations for improving your website speed. Here are a number of the foremost common issues that affect the speed of a website:

A large number of unoptimized, high-resolution images can significantly abate your website. Before you upload images to your website you wish to resize and compress them. When it involves image size, anything above 1MB is simply too big.
Not employing a CDN service can have a negative impact on site speed. A content distribution network ensures that your website is accessed from the closest hosting center to the visitor.
Choosing the proper web hosting service is essential to maintaining a high-performance website. It’s not the identical if you’re using shared or dedicated hosting. Shared hosting is that the cheapest option but since there are many websites using resources of one server, this often translates to slower load time. With dedicated hosting you’ll have control of your own dedicated server and resources.
Website errors that require to be resolve

11. No backups in place

Embedding Facebook and Twitter feeds on your website is simply bad.

If you’re a tourism brand you may make the argument of putting those beautiful pictures from Instagram on your website but it’s still visiting block your website.

Plus, this kind of content can distract your visitors from taking more important actions on your site or visiting your other pages.

14.  Complicated navigation

Website navigation is one in all the key elements of user experience design. If visitors can’t quickly and simply find what they’re searching for, they’ll abandon your site and appearance for solutions elsewhere. So how does one know if your website has issues with navigation?

Here are a number of the standard problems with website navigation:

• The navigation menu isn’t placed in a very familiar location
• Navigation options aren’t logical to users
• There are too many items in your menu
• It is difficult to search out the data that helps users make a call
• You’re relying an excessive amount of on drop menus
• You’re using hamburger as a secondary navigation menu

  Visitors should be ready to move around your site with ease, finding what they’re searching for without putting an excessive amount of thought into it. Review your website navigation to create sure you’re not making any of the above mistakes.

15. Poor content layout

The typical user scans through your website and stops at what draws their attention. They don’t read all of your content. Your job is to undertake to induce them to read what’s important and what helps them make a call.

Here are some content layout tips:

• Use shorter paragraphs with maximum four lines of text
• Use enticing headings to interrupt up the text
• Enrich the content with strong, relevant  imagery and/or video to capture visitor attention
• Avoid clutter – people love white-space because it helps them focus.

By following the above tips you’ll make content easier to read for visitors and obtain them to stop and pay attention to the important information and offers on your site.

16. Confusing visual hierarchy

Visual hierarchy entails arranging and organizing website elements in order that visitors naturally gravitate toward the foremost important elements first. It starts with placing key messages above the fold or the a part of your website users can see without scrolling.

Certain elements of your website are more important than others (e.g. forms, calls to action, value proposition, etc.), and you wish those to induce more attention than the shorter parts by using ‘tools’ like positioning, size, color, contrast and shape.

The issues we regularly encounter when reviewing websites in relevance visual hierarchy include:

• Not following typical page scanning patterns. Readers tend to scan pages supported particular patterns, like F shaped or Z shaped patterns. Designers tend to depend on these patterns if they need audiences to note elements on an online page in a very particular order.
• Not leveraging color to drive attention to calls to action. very often we see websites that use brand colors for his or her CTAs, making them blend in. this can be a foul practice as you wish to tug the visitors eye toward CTAs by using color and contrast.
• Not adjusting the dimensions of website elements to indicate their importance.
• Poor alignment of elements on the page. The alignment of website photos, texts, buttons, and graphics is extremely important if you wish to attain visual hierarchy that ‘flows’ naturally.

17. Not optimized for mobile

Mobile is becoming increasingly important and lots of web sites are already getting more mobile traffic than desktop traffic. So it’s important that you simply provide an excellent mobile experience.

Mobile optimisation takes into consideration not only design, but also site structure, page speed, and more to produce the most effective possible experience to mobile visitors. However, many websites aren’t doing a decent job at this.

Here are some typical issues with website mobile optimisation and the way to avoid them:

Slow load time on mobile. to assist get your mobile website load as fast or maybe faster than on desktop, ensure to optimize images, use mobile-optimised caching, and periodically sit down with Google if your website is mobile friendly.
Design not optimized for mobile user experience. Are buttons on your website optimised for mobile? This includes using click-to-call buttons, ensuring buttons are ‘finger friendly’ and placing your primary CTA above the mobile fold. and the way about navigation? Can mobile users easily find and use your navigation menu on mobile? And most significantly, are actions (e.g. login. form completion, payment, etc)  easy to finish on mobile?

Here’s a useful checklist for creating your website mobile friendly.

Summary

The points mentioned during this article are a number of the foremost common website mistakes that we see businesses make on their websites. the nice news is that every one of those issues are relatively easy to repair, but you would like to identify them first!

This means you would like to require time to periodically review your website for content, design, conversion, and value issues to confirm you’re getting maximum results.

REF:RazorSocial.