As a small business, your website is central to your branding and marketing efforts. Visitors from all over the internet arrive at your site every day with unfulfilled needs, looking to see whether you can help them. Thus, your website needs to be an effective portal, through which customers can access your products.
But great web design can often get lost in among all the other things going on. And, as a consequence, your business can suffer, leaving you thousands of pounds in the hole.
The following are the most common mistakes small businesses make when designing their sites. Avoid them at all costs!
Failing To Identify Target Market
A lot of small businesses just want to churn out their websites as quickly as possible so that they can get on with other things. But just having a website is no good unless you know something about your target audience.
First of all, you want to know, at the very least, who your target audience is. If you sell to the elderly, you might want to make the fonts on your site larger. If you sell to younger people, you’ll have to make your site mobile-friendly.
You’re also going to have to know where users will need to be directed once they get to your site. A landing page, catering to each demographic, is a quick way to make sure people find what they’re looking for straight away.
Taking The “Do-It-Yourself” Route
Your website is often the first experience a customer has of your brand. And, as such you want to make the most of that initial interaction. That means having a beautiful website, that looks professional and signifies the quality of your product.
But if you go down the do-it-yourself route, this won’t be the impression visitors get. Instead, they’ll be frustrated by bad menus, not find what they want and come away with the impression that you aren’t professional.
Don’t take the risk. Employ a web development agency to do the work for you in a cost-effective way. Ensure that your site creates the best first impression possible.
Trying To Target Everyone
No business can please everyone. And neither should they try. Instead, they should appeal to their target audience using methods that are suitable to them. Trying to please the masses is a recipe for disaster. You end up alienating your core audience without doing much to garner wider appeal.
Boring Content
Customers tend to gather a lot of information about stuff that they buy. They want to know where they can go to get the best value for their money. Often, small businesses will underestimate just how much customers know about their product. As a result, they don’t frequently update their websites with up-to-date, relevant content. And this can lead customers to assume that they don’t really know an awful lot about what they’re selling or that they’re not on the cutting edge.
The solution? Update your content regularly, demonstrating that you’re on top of the most recent trends.
