Don’t make these 6 mistakes on your website
As a small business owner, building your own website can be really stressful and as you are having to learn how to do it on the job, mistakes are made along the way.
I mean, you’re bound to make mistakes, right? Building websites is not what you’re trained to do but as we know all too well, running a small business means wearing a lot of hats and sometimes one of those hats is website designer (psst… that’s why I setup Studio Emm, to build kick-ass websites that small businesses can actually afford, check it out).
6 common mistakes on DIY websites
I’ve put together a list of 6 mistakes I see time and time again on DIY websites. Without the years of experience and knowledge, it easy to overlook things when you’re building your own. I hope this list helps you to refine and improve your small business website and increase your leads and sales (yay!).
1. Writing way too much text
It’s understandable to think that the more information you give people, the more likely they are to buy your product or service. But the reality is, too much information puts people off. If there is too much text on your home page, product pages or services page, readers will get bored and leave your website.
People want to find the information they need as quickly as possible. So when you are writing content for your website, keep it to the point. Only share the key information that people need. Keep paragraphs short and easy to digest.
For more reading around how to write good copy for your website, see 3 tips for writing great copy for your small business website.
2. Focusing only on your product or service’s features
When you’re writing website copy (words) about your products or services, a common mistake is focusing only on the features. For example, if you sell planners, you’ll naturally want to tell people about the gorgeous paper stock you’ve used or how many pages there are inside or about the beautiful gold foiling on the front cover.
Although this information is good to know, it’s not what’s going to sell your planners. People want to know how the planner is going to help solve their problems and how it’s going to benefit them. Thinking of it like this, you might say things like… ‘This planner will take the stress out of your daily life’ or ‘This planner will help you to get focused’ or ‘Finally, you will start each day with focus and clarity’.
Switching the messaging like this means that as a potential customer starts reading about your product or service, they start to feel that you really understand their problems. They can start to visualise exactly how your product or service can help them. This feeling is what is going to drive them to buy from you.
Have a think about the problems that your product or service is solving. Is your website showing your potential customers that you understand these problems? Are you showing them that your product or service is the perfect solution?
3. Not bothering to set up a mailing list
You might not feel ready to start sending a newsletter or you might think it’s not important or you don’t have anything to say, but this is a mistake. Not only is a mailing list the only place where you have control over your audience, but it’s also a really effective marketing tool.
The reality of social media is that your account could be hacked or closed without warning, because you don’t actually own your audience, the social platform does.
Your mailing list will always be there. You have control over it. It’s not going anywhere.
Setting up a mailing list doesn’t mean committing to an email newsletter every week either. Send something out once a month or even once a quarter if that feels more doable. Anything is better than nothing (just try to be consistent). The important thing is that you’re building an audience in a place that you have control over.
Other benefits of having a newsletter include -
Establishing and building relationships
Increasing leads and sales
Increasing brand awareness
Keeping you in the forefront of people’s minds
4. Ignoring the basic SEO foundations
I get it. Building a website is hard enough without having to learn all about search engine optimisation. But what’s the point in having a website if nobody can find it?
There are so many factors at play when it comes to ranking in search engines (and I will circle back to this in more detail in a later blog post), but there are some simple things you can do to give your website a fighting chance.
Write page titles that include relevant keywords
Write meta descriptions that include relevant keywords
Use H1 and H2 tags on every page and include keywords
Create a Google Search Console account and upload your sitemap
Add ALT tags to all your images
Keep the file size of your images as low as possible
I appreciate that some of these suggestions may seem beyond your knowledge limitations, but until I have chance to write a more detailed blog post, I would really recommend taking to Google and researching a little bit about each point. Once you know what you’re doing and how to do it, they are pretty straightforward (especially if you’ve already managed to actually build a website!).
I also have more reading you can do around search engine optimisation here: 6 easy things you can do today to get your small business website appearing in google search results.
5. Designing your website for desktop only
Please don’t ignore your mobile layout. I see so many websites that look great on a desktop computer but as soon as I move over to a mobile device, it’s hard to navigate and the content is all over the place.
Almost 80% of users are now visiting your website on a mobile device and if it’s not looking professional with an easy to use navigation, they are going to close it down as quickly as they arrived.
I use Squarespace for most of the websites I build and it’s so easy to get your website looking good on both desktop and mobile. You can switch between the two layouts and use the drag and drop builder to refine the layouts for each. Most good Wordpress templates also come layout options for mobile devices too.
6. Not having enough call to actions
Call to actions are so important yet always forgotten about on a DIY website. A call to action is quite simply an instruction to the reader, telling them what to do next. It can be in the form of a button or hyperlinked text. Common call to actions include ‘Order now’ or ‘Click here to work with me’ or ‘Contact me’.
You should be including call to actions like these across your website. Don’t assume that people will know what to do next. If you don’t tell them, they won’t do it. You want to do everything you can to keep them on your website and taking action, wether that’s contacting you, completing a form or buying a product. Sign post them to exactly where you want them to go.
If you’re a female led small business and you need help with your website, I’m here. Read more about my services or get in touch to work with me. Alternatively, drop me a DM on Instagram.