5 Common Mistakes When Creating a Website for your Small Business
In this blog, we’ll cover off 5 common mistakes (if you’re interested in more 5 common mistakes series, click here!!) that small businesses make when they start building their own, or commissioning their own website.
If you’ve not got a website, you’re missing out on:
- Credibility that’s crucial to your success with new customers and clients.
- Free advertising that you can send people directly to you, easily (unlike social media).
- A space on the web that you own, no one can take their platform away and take it from you.
- More customers when built and managed properly.
In this day and age, there’s really no excuse not to have a website. They’ve been around forever at this point, they’re not all that expensive when compared to other business assets and are vital in creating and ensuring success for your business or brand.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though, here’s 5 common mistakes we see when people are either creating their own or commissioning the build of their website
Not knowing who they want to sell to, or who they’re trying to address.
The first thing you need to know when building or commissioning someone to build your small Fife business website is you need to know who you’re trying to sell to. Without understanding your customers problems deeply, and being able to solve that problem, you’re unlikely to find much success with your website.
As an example, we know our customers find it hard to keep a steady flow of quality customers. We solve that by building stunning websites that talk to their customers core problems and make them want to take action on it. We drive those customers to websites with a no bullshit marketing approach so everything is clear from the get go.
Figure out who you’re selling to, and what problems they have way before you start to think about your website.
Not understanding that you need to constantly update, polish and create content for your website in order for it to give you results.
This is a tricky one. Most people don’t really understand that building a website that no one comes to is basically the same as building a brick & mortar shop in the middle of nowhere, with no passing traffic. No one’s going to buy anything, not because your product isn’t good, but because they just don’t know about it.
To get around this, you (or if you’d rather someone else, we can help!) need to constantly be creating content. It’s not 2010 anymore so easy SEO doesn’t exist (and isn’t enough on it’s own) so you also need to be looking at both an organic and paid social media angle with a sprinkling of PPC on top until the SEO driven organic traffic starts to pick up, then throw email marketing and a few other tricks in the box just to make sure you’re getting as much value out of a customer as you can.
If you’re interested in avoiding 5 common mistakes we see for customers starting SEO, it’ll be available soon on our blog.
Not knowing the questions their customers are Googling for answers.
The first point in this blog was about not knowing exactly who you’re selling to. This one is more that combined with the content angle in the second point. How often do you Google strings of text like “best taxi company Dunfermline” or “fastest emergency locksmith Kirkcaldy”? Pretty much all the time that you’re looking for a service in a specific area.
This is no different to your business. Your customers (or future customers, really) will be Googling some version of “best (or other operable keyword) XYZ in ABC”. If you want to start being the solution to a problem rather than a nice to have (and by proxy, win WAY more business) you need to be targeting problem based questions rather than just saying “we’re a XYZ in ABC”, start creating content strictly around the problems you solve in the areas you solve them in to make sure you’re getting as much qualified buyers in front of you as you can.
Side note: this is a problem when building a website because literally no-one we’ve ever worked with has done this themselves when they’ve built a homegrown site beforehand. This is an absolute necessity to be thinking about at the point of build.
Not investing in decent photography/imagery to help convey their brand.
Ever heard or used the phrase window shopping? This is no different when it’s a website. It’ actually exactly the same. If your images are over-used, un-optimised or completely off topic you’re not putting the problem you’re solving in your customers mind. You’re relying on your words which never actually works when it comes to websites, not at a first glance anyway.
It takes about 50ms (yes, milliseconds) for users to judge the page you’ve presented them with. They cannot read many words in 50ms, but the images used can paint the perfect picture to get the user to continue their journey through the website and read all that juicy content you developed.
Good, accurate, high quality images are an absolute must for a performing website.
Not paying attention to the journey people are going on when using their website.
Ever waited ages on a website loading? Or tried to push a teeny-tiny button on a page on your mobile? Or EVEN WORSE, tried to use a desktop site on your mobile phone? It’s up there with having your nails pulled.
Providing a poor digital experience for your customers is a sure fire way to get them to leave and never come back. For an easier way to understand this, it’s like making your front door to a bricks & mortar shop only work 1 out of 10 times. How many times is a customer going to try the door? Realistically 2 or 3 before they give up. Your website is exactly the same.
The first few impressions any customer will get about you is from your website. Do not make it a shitty experience, because you’re not a shitty company. Unless you are… in which case, bash on.
Now you know how to avoid the 5 common mistakes businesses make when starting to build their own website.
By missing out on the 5 points above, small businesses in Fife are often being left in the dust of larger competitors who can afford to spend huge amounts on advertising, branding and customer delight. It’s not just about the product you sell, or the service you do for your customers. It’s how they engage with you at every level. By putting your website first and foremost (as the first point of contact for most customers) it means you’re starting that journey on the right foot rather than throwing a loosely connected photo up with no problem statement and expecting the customer to make the connection between their problem and your solution.
Ready to talk to a professional who will build your site for a really fair price and make sure all of the above (and more!) is ticked off the list? Contact Us and we’ll have one of our team get in touch!