Five Website Mistakes You should Avoid

One major mistake people make is developing a strong internet marketing strategy and using a weak website. Since the main goal of any internet marketing strategy is to increase the number of leads, sales, and conversions, it’s vital to have a strong website where the targeted traffic will be send to.
Here are 5 common website mistakes to avoid:

1. Complex Navigation

One of the worst mistakes you can commit while developing a website is create a complex navigation. Don’t make it harder for the visitors to find what they are looking for.

This includes internal linking. You should link to related pages in order to “influence” the users to dive deeper and visit more pages in your website.
Having your navigation on top of the page makes it easier for the users to find where they’re going. Consider using breadcrumb navigation also. Breadcrumbs allow users to know where they are within a website and see a path to other sections of the site.

2. Excessive Content

High quality content is very important but it doesn’t mean you should add unnecessary information to the page. Too much content can hurt more rather than help.

Some people write very long pages with the intention to make the readers stay longer in the website. People need fast information, they don’t want to read a book, and they rather read a twitter message. You should understand your audience and deliver what works best for it. Don’t add content just to add content!

3. Misleading Landing Pages

A landing page is the webpage that a user lands on when the click on a link to your website from another site. It should always match the link or advertisement that led the user to the page. If you have a link for patio furniture, the user should be directed to a page about patio furniture, not the general furniture page, your homepage, or another unrelated page. The user was clearly interested in patio furniture and doesn’t want to spend the time browsing your site to find it. Bring them right to it!

If the visitor doesn’t find what they are looking for, they will bounce back to the place they came from and search elsewhere. Never mislead your visitor by presenting them the wrong landing page, especially if you are paying for traffic.

If you visitor is looking for “Invisalign” [http://cosmeticdentistryhoboken.com/services/invisalign-therapy/] you don’t want to send him to the “teeth whitening” page even though he might need to whiten his teeth. That’s not what he’s looking for at the moment. (Notice the example in this paragraph.)

Here are some questions you ask yourself to make sure your landing page is going in the right direction:

• What is the goal of this landing page?
• What can you do to make the landing page more appealing?
• Is the information easy to find and easy to read?
• What should visitors do on this page?
• • Reading my information
  • Click on links/ads
  • Sign up for my newsletter
  • Go to the contact page?

4. Hidden Call to Action

The call to action is one of the most important factors regarding the success of your website. An effective call to action will make your visitors snap out of their passivity. The result: Your copy doesn’t convert.

Many people wonder what they need do to do to generate more leads. One big problem is that when the visitor land on their website there is no call to action. You can’t expect a visitor to take action if you don’t encourage them to do it. If you want someone to buy a product, fill up a form or sign up for your email list, you can’t wait around and expect it will happen.

Also, you have to explain the benefit of taking action. You have to remember that the only thing visitors think about is “What’s in it for me?” Consequently, if you encourage the visitors to fill up a form, you need to explain the benefit of taking the action (e.g. “Get a 50% off Today.”). Benefits drive action.

5. Annoying Lead Forms

You have to admit that you hate when you need to contact someone but when you visit their contact page there is nothing but an email address, something like infoxyz@hotmail.com.

You should forget the email address and stick with a form. It’s crucial to have a form in order to help the customers to provide the specific information you’ll need from them to get the job done. It’s very important that you get at least the name, email and message from the person contacting you. In some cases you can add a field for the phone number and the subject as well.

If you really think it’s necessary to have your email address listed in your website. Add it along with the contact form, this way the visitor will have a chance to choose which way is better to contact you.

Even though the contact form is much better and looks more professional than the email address. Be careful for some common mistakes you might face:

• The contact form that never worked
• The contact form that used to work, but it doesn’t anymore
• The contact form that requires too much information
• The contact form that refuses to submit

You have to put time and effort to make sure you’re encouraging and receiving communications through your website. Careful not to sabotage your website and lose business because you never took the time to make sure your contact form is working.

Conclusion

Websites have become common place in business today but still many businesses fail to acknowledge, understand, and leverage their websites to grow their business. Many small businesses feel they can’t justify the cost of creating and maintaining a website, but that is a flawed way of thinking. Getting a website done on the cheap, or doing it yourself for free just means that you will waste your time and money on a website that under performs or even hurts your business. Hiring a professional web designer can help you avoid these common mistakes and many other mistakes that are prevalent on the Internet.