10 Common Website Mistakes To Avoid

Creating an online directory is no easy task, but with sufficient aid, you’ll be able to avoid mistakes from time-to-time.  Mistakes can even be a good thing if we learn from them, but to save you the hassle, I’ve put together a list of some common website mistakes to avoid to help you.

1. Unresponsive Website (Not Mobile Friendly)

You are making a BIG website mistake if your site is not “mobile friendly”.  More and more people are connecting to the internet via their smart phones and tablets, which is why it is vital that your site is responsive across multiple devices.  If it is not, you are simply limiting the number of people that can visit your site.

There are plenty of WordPress themes that you can install that are ‘mobile responsive’.  Sites like StudioPress have a wide variety of responsive themes for all types of site that you can use.  There really isn’t any excuse for people not being able to access your site on their mobile devices, so make sure that yours is good to go.

2. Bad Website Navigation

You can spend all the time in the world creating fantastic content for your site, but if no one can find it once they get there, then what is the point!

Bad website navigation stops people from finding all the great content on your site.  Whether you have only a few pages or hundreds of posts, you want people (and search engines) to be able to find them easily.   Only then will you get visitors staying on your site for longer, which helps to increase your pageviews.

Think about the menus and links that you display on your site.  Are people able to find the different sections/categories of your site?  Do you display a search box?  Can people easily find your search box?  Which are your most important pages/posts?  These are the types of questions that you need to be asking yourself in order to improve your site navigation.

3. Not Building An Email List

An email list is a very powerful thing for a site to have, which is why you should be building one.  You see, the people that signup to your site (whether it’s to an eCourse, newsletter, to receive offers, etc.) are your best customers.  They are the ones who are interested in what you have to say on your site, allowing you to send them offers, promote products or just encourage them back to your site.

AWeber is the market leader for email marketing software where you can create and schedule a set of emails to be broadcast automatically once people subscribe.  You can create signup boxes, newsletters, broadcasts and much more by using them, helping you to grow and manage your email list.

4. Not Posting Enough

Every website needs regular content published as that helps to drive traffic.  People (and more importantly search engines) will see that the site is active, which will encourage them to come back again and read more.

If you don’t post enough, then your site can become stagnant.  A lot depends on what your site is about, but you wouldn’t keep coming back to a site if nothing changed.

Make a list of all the things that you can write about and keep adding to it when you get inspiration.  If you end up struggling for ideas, it may mean that your niche is too small, in which case you may need to broaden out a bit.  I think a lot though comes down to getting into a regular routine.  Try to update your site regularly (perhaps once or twice a week) and stick to it.

5. Posting Too Often

Some people go to the other extreme and post far too often.  Like we said, regular content is good, but too much can be overwhelming for your readers.  If you are publishing 4, 5 or even more posts a day, then you can’t expect visitors to keep up.  Sites that post this frequently tend to be massive news sites with lots of writers and millions of visitors.  That is certainly something to aim for, but you certainly can’t do that on your own.

You also have to consider the quality of what you are posting.  Publishing 1 high quality post is MUCH better than lots of little mediocre posts.  As the saying goes, “It’s quality not quantity!”

6. Doing Zero Social Media

Social media is a fantastic way to market your site, so it makes sense that you should be using it.  Make sure that you have an active presence on all the major social networks (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.), particularly the ones that relate to your site.

Just having a page setup on each of these networks will help people to find you, but by engaging with your audience, it is such a great way to build a following for your site that you shouldn’t overlook.

7. Doing Zero SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an often understood practice that seems to confuse and petrify people at the same time.  It may sound complicated and unfathomable, but it’s really not too difficult when you get to know it. But if you want to avoid the hassle of learning, you can always rely on SEO companies, like Indexsy, to handle all the SEO efforts.

SEO is simply a way of getting your website/content seen by search engines so that they can index it and present it to as many people as possible.  Search engines, like Google, are by far your best bet to get traffic to your site, so it’s best to work with them.

By using On-Page & Off-Page SEO techniques, your content can rank highly on search engine result pages (SERPs).  The higher you appear on the SERPs, the more traffic you will get.

Essentially, all it involves is making it clear what your posts are about.  This is done by including keywords in your post/page titles, meta descriptions, sub-headings, alt-tags, etc.  That way, when the search engines find your content, they have a better understanding of what it is about, allowing them to show it to people who are looking for that information.

If you are doing zero SEO for your site, you are essentially sticking your head in the sand.  Spend some time learning about SEO and actively doing some for your site.  It’s not as scary as you may think.

If you’re marketing to a local audience, there are more tools available than ever to help you. Naomi Marks finds out how you can use online services as well as traditional marketing techniques to attract local customers. Appealing to local customers is easier than ever. And it’s not just about flyers and local ads; technology can also be used to market at town or even postcode level. If you are attempting to get more locally based customers then you should use local seo agency in Melbourne.

8. Not Interacting With Your Readers

If people spend the time leaving comments on your site, sending you emails or asking questions via your social media channels, you should make sure to respond to them.  Not only is it good manners but it is also good for business.  If people see that you are happy to interact with them and help, they will be much more likely to keep coming back for more.  It also shows that your site is an active one, which again can encourage people to keep visiting your site.

Admittedly, this can become a problem if your site is very popular (can’t reply to everyone), but you should at least try to reply to as many as you can, we suggest to contact the team at https://webdesignottawa.com/digital-marketing/ for further information.

9. Not Testing Your Site On Multiple Browsers

Any changes that you make to your site, you should always check to see if everything is working OK on different web browsers.  Most people tend to use only one, but that doesn’t mean everything will display fine for all of them.

I have in the past made changes to my sites, only to find that they were not displaying correctly on another browser that I didn’t use regularly.  Once you know about the problem, it’s usually very easy to fix, but you need to test it to find out.

Get into the habit of testing your website on Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari (the 5 most popular web browsers) whenever you make any changes to your site.  That way, you can see whether there are any issues that need fixing. Take a look at the trusted testers Boston, they provide regular structured and dedicated testing for ongoing product and project requirements.

10. Thinking That Your Website Is Finished (Biggest Website Mistake!)

This is probably one of the BIGGEST website mistakes on the list that many people fall victim too.  The minute you think that your site is “finished”, you may as well pack up and do something else.

The internet is constantly evolving and there is always competition looking to overtake you.  You should always be looking to update, reinvent, add new features/products/content, etc. to your site to keep it fresh.  This is one of the things that I absolutely love about what I do, there is always something new to learn about and improve on your site that you should never find yourself standing still.  Keep pushing yourself and striving to create a better site for your visitors.  That is the best way to run your site.

What website mistakes have you made on your site and how did you go about fixing them?  What other common website mistakes would you add to this list?  Please let us know below by leaving a comment.