5 Reasons Why Your Website Is Failing
Websites can be a tricky thing. While most focus on a beautifully designed website, there are other important factors that come into the success of converting visitors into leads.
Your Website is Not Responsive
If you work in the digital industry, this shouldn’t be news to you. The number of mobile users continue to increase worldwide, and over half of internet traffic to popular US websites come from mobile devices.
Although website engagement time is longer on desktop and bounce rates are higher on mobile, it doesn’t mean we should discount mobile devices for user experience; we should pay more attention to it.
In fact, Google penalizes non-responsive websites and will show you results that are both relevant and optimal for user experience. Non-responsive websites cause frustration for users, and users are more likely to leave non-responsive websites in favour of a competitor’s.
Your Website Content is Too General
Your website content needs to connect with your audience.
Part of this comes from building personas, knowing the needs/pains/desires of your target audience, and tailoring content to them. For example, curated photographs that depict your target audience will resonate better than run-of-the-mill stock photography.
If your website is trying to appeal to the masses, chances are you’re not going to attract the right audience who will really drive the growth of your business.
Your Website is Too Slow
The longer it takes for a website to load, the more likely users will hit the “back” button and move on.
Waiting for slow pages to load is the top frustration for people in a Google survey.
Not sure if your website is fast or slow? Google has a tool called PageSpeed Insights that will test your website’s speed on both mobile and desktop, and offer suggestions on how to remedy any issues.
There are many factors that can cause your website to load slowly. Some may be out of your control, like unexpected hosting or network issues; barring those issues, optimizing your images and utilizing caching are two ways that will improve your website’s speed.
Your Website isn’t Optimized for Search Engines
So you’ve launched your new website, but can people find it?
Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the primary means for users to discover your website.
Search engines are smart, but they still need a bit of help to facilitate traffic to your website. Factors that influence your search ranking include things like: authority building, content quality/quantity/relevance, and mobile optimization.
If you’re not familiar with SEO, check out the beginner’s guide to SEO at Moz.com.
Your Website Contains Malware
Your website may be compromised, and you may not even know it.
Compromised websites are flagged by search engines and security platforms as potentially harmful, and will damage your web reputation if left unchecked.
The last thing you want is to tarnish the trust you’ve built with your audience through inconspicuous phishing scams and malware.
If you’re using an open-source CMS like WordPress or Drupal, be sure to keep your site installation up-to-date, install security plugins, and use strong passwords to minimize the risk of hackers compromising your website.
Want to learn more? We’d be happy to help!