Your website is your digital real estate. Just as the quality and experience of your store play a huge role in how successful your brick-and-mortar location is, so does the UX play a critical part in your digital presence.
There are many parallels between your store and your website. Those with a store on a prominent street are going to see more foot traffic. Those higher up in search rankings are going to get more site visitors. The only thing inherently different about these two key components of your business is how you design and build them up.
If you’re struggling to get site visitors, sales, and signups on your site, and especially if you have a high bounce rate, then there’s a good chance that you are making at least one of these top common website mistakes.
Slow site speed
People have very little patience when it comes to anything digital. You cannot physically bring them through the experience in the same way you do in a store. As a result, any delay in service can result in a website or cart being abandoned.
Slow site speed refers to two things:
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Physical speed
The first is actual site speed. Your server and plan will determine how responsive your website is (as well as how secure). If your site speed isn’t enough, you’ll want to switch website hosts. Does your website host impact search rankings? Absolutely, and site speed (and security) are two of the main reasons why. Swapping options can help you get the responsiveness you need at a price that works for you.
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Ease of use
The second speed boils down to user experience. How can you improve your site so customers can find what they’re looking for as fast as possible? How can they check out as quickly as they can? Cutting down every pain point and streamlining the experience so it’s easy and enjoyable to use is essential.
Questionable security
If you want new customers to trust you, you need to go above and beyond regarding security. Ramping up your security beyond the website security essentials also makes your business less of a target for cybercrime. You need to be protected against many of the most common attacks so that you can offer your customers a secure, trustworthy place to do business online with you.
It is important to remember that you do need to go all-out. Having your site use HTTPS protocol and other basic security features is the bare minimum.
If you don’t have those security features, web browsers will penalize you. Going above and beyond with additional security badges, two-factor authentication options, and by partnering with other trusted brands can help encourage new customers to buy faster.
Low-quality content
Content plays a crucial role in your website’s success for users and search engine algorithms. It’s also so easy to get wrong. Think again if you think you can spam your site’s blog with AI-generated content. You need to think about what type of content your customer base needs, and then go above and beyond to answer those needs with a well-written, well-researched, multimedia article or page. This high-quality article is more likely to be read, shared, and engaged with, making it a far better use of your investment than spamming generic content that adds minimal value for readers.
Outdated content
It is so important to go through old content and update it continually. This is key on landing pages so that all the information posted remains true. It’s also important for your blog. Your blog may have outdated stats and figures. Updating that article, rather than writing a new one, can actually help boost that page’s performance more. Updating outdated statistics is just one example. You will also want to go through and make sure you use the best and most inclusive language of today, which will mean making small tweaks to older content as preferences change.
Poor accessibility
Accessibility is big for the online world! If you go through just a few extra steps to make your site accessible, then more people of all ages and walks of life will be able to enjoy your site. As a bonus, search engine algorithms will also see your site more favorably. When you mark up your pages so that they are accessible, they can be adapted to suit the visual, auditory, and even mobility needs of potential customers.
