Are you looking to give your company a new website or revamp the existing one?
In this article, we’ll go over common website mistakes on corporate sites. We’ll also reveal how you can avoid these obstacles.
Common Website Mistakes
Overloaded and cluttered design.
In general, the following still applies: When in doubt, content quality takes priority over web design. But without well-thought-out website navigation and sensibly organized design elements, it will be difficult for your customers to actually consume the content offered. Therefore, web design should be based on content and functionality.
After all, who wants to click or scroll dozens of times to get to the information they want? In modern web design, you have numerous design options for a company website to create a clear design and still create a distinctive website. By the way, this not only pleases your customers, but also search engines like Google. Because structure and usability are important Google ranking factors.
To convince in terms of the optics of the website, the first impression is particularly important. In a few seconds we recommend whether a web presence basically attracts us. Too many disturbing elements? Can't find the information you're looking for right away? This can end fatally, because the competition is just another Google search query away.
Loading times too long
Are you looking for the ultimate to avoid frustration for your visitors? Then reduce the loading times of your website. It's no surprise that optimizing website performance has become particularly important in recent years.
There are many problematic factors and, consequently, possible starting points for a significant improvement in speed. Business websites are often equipped with unnecessary plugins or use uncompressed images and media files, greatly increasing loading time.
Texts that are too short or too long
No one wants to struggle through endless texts before the information you're really looking for finally appears. So avoid empty standard phrases and focus on the essentials: What does your company offer? What is your unique selling proposition? How and where can clients contact you?
One of the most important tips in terms of clarity is to place detailed information and descriptions on the appropriate subpages. The home page, on the other hand, should offer a concise overview of your offering and services.
Depending on the company and industry, the content can of course be more specific and detailed. As long as it's clear what your company stands for and what sets it apart, more detailed content pages aren't a problem.
In contrast, one of the common problems with company websites is that they contain little or no text. On the one hand, this often means that important information is missing from the company's website. On the other hand, such short texts also pose a problem if you want to improve your ranking on Google. In many cases, more detailed texts are essential for search engine optimization. As a general rule: there should be at least 250-300 words per relevant page; They tend to be more on the central subpages.
If you are interested in having your website appear on Google, you should leave the web copy to the professionals. This increases your chances of reaching the top.
No mobile optimization
The times when the Internet was only used through the computer are long gone. Nowadays, most people use their smartphones to access information on the web. On many company websites, the proportion of visitors on mobile devices now far exceeds 50 percent.
Many companies completely forget about mobile optimization because they work primarily on computers. If you want to know if your website is optimized for smartphones and tablets, you can use several online tools.
How does the lack of mobile optimization manifest itself on company websites? You should avoid this on your part:
- There is no mobile-friendly navigation variant (e.g. reduced, drop-down "Hamburger Menu").
- Items that are too close together on the phone and therefore difficult to click.
- Photos and videos are too small and are not shown in their actual proportions.
- The header area is not displayed reduced on the smartphone, it takes up too much space.
- Font sizes do not match: font is too small to read, larger titles may be cut off.
- The website does not recognize that it is a mobile device and incorrectly displays the version for larger screens.
A modern website should be designed to be mobile-friendly and use responsive design. This means that your site automatically recognizes which end device is currently being used. The content and structure of the website automatically adapts to the screen size of smartphones, tablets and the like.
Contact details are difficult to find
Do you want your website's target group to be able to contact you easily to do business quickly? Almost no small business will deny this, but failure to locate the most important contact details is one of the most common mistakes on company websites.
Place your contact information so that it is easily accessible and clearly visible. For example, in compact form directly in the header of the website. Each additional click makes it harder to keep potential customers interested. If the phone number, email address, and addresses can only be reached with several clicks, many visitors will never find them.
Privacy, encryption and security issues
When it comes to your own company website, it is understandable that most business owners first think about an attractive design and the right content. In addition to the quality of the text and content, it is also essential for a professional website to create the necessary framework in terms of security. Of course, this is often a technical question.
The General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) has been with us for many years. For your website, this not only means that certain elements must be designed in accordance with data protection regulations, but that you must also provide information on data processing with respect to personal data in a data protection declaration.
You should definitely follow these steps in this context to avoid common mistakes:
- Get an SSL certificate. Your website is then accessed via https:// and a secure connection is established between the browser and the web server. This not only protects sensitive data but also builds trust with the user.
- A current data protection declaration for your website should always be accessible with a single click, for example in the footer.
- When visiting your website, people should not only be informed about the use of cookies, but should also be able to actively decide whether (and what) usage data is saved and whether certain scripts can be loaded.
- In contact forms, newsletter subscriptions, etc., you should only request the personal data that is really necessary. In some cases, active consent to data processing in the form of a checkbox is recommended.
- In general, avoid loading code from external web platforms in the background where the user has no say in establishing a data connection. Plugins for social networks (e.g. Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) or YouTube video integration are often particularly problematic here.
Online store errors (e-commerce)
Online shopping is booming. And not just on Black Friday. This is also the reason why more and more companies dare to integrate a web store into the website. But there are some mistakes you should definitely avoid. Examples include these classic mistakes (figures from SEMrush):
- Duplicate content on websites (82.97%) and meta descriptions (89.73%).
- Pages accidentally blocked from Google bots or set to "Noindex" (79.70%).
- Too little text on product pages or product descriptions (73%).
- No sitemap configured (38.86%).
But these errors usually only affect the technical SEO foundation of the web store. There are also other problems that webmasters often ignore:
- Product images are too small.
- No detailed product information.
- (Incorrect) product information copied from other sites.
- Almost no different payment options.
- Illogical navigation and poor product search.
- Shipping costs are not shown transparently.
- Cumbersome ordering process.
- Inflexible shopping cart.
Lack of search engine optimization
You generally don't need to be a proven SEO expert to get your website listed on Google. However, higher rankings for general search queries are very competitive and therefore difficult to achieve without professional support. But with a little skill, you can optimize your website content for very specific keywords and make it attractive to search engines. The magic word here is local SEO, that is, local search engine optimization.
For entrepreneurs, SEO is one of the cheapest measures in online marketing. The higher a website ranks on Google, the more visitors it generates without incurring ongoing marketing costs other than hosting and web servers. So far, so clear. But why are the following aspects sometimes ignored in practice?
- Think about what terms or keywords you would like to be found for.
- Bring content to your website on exactly these topics. Relevant keywords should also be found in the titles.
- Make sure you name photos and files in the media library correctly (for example, PDF files), as this can also lead to better classification.
- Use meaningful internal links. Link subpages that are particularly important to you. This is how you tell Google that they are particularly relevant.
In principle, most typical mistakes on company websites can be avoided quite easily. However, this requires a bit of knowledge, which most companies understandably don't have. Without proper knowledge in online marketing and web design, these mishaps can happen quickly. This does not seem to be a mistake, but it costs numerous accesses and subsequently clients and sales.
However, there is also good news: most of the shortcomings described here can be remedied relatively quickly. Examine your company's current website and check for the errors just mentioned. You will definitely notice one or the other problem.
