The importance of a great Phoenix web designer can't be overstated. Many small business owners believe that just any old web design will give them an online presence that will help them grow their business. This is probably the biggest mistake many small businesses make. The competition online is strong and only continues to get stronger. No longer are you only competing against companies in your geographical area however, you are competing against companies around the country and quite possibly around the world. This is why you can't have a web design company making mistakes that will cost you customers. So what are some web design mistakes that small businesses make when they hire a sub par web design company. Let's take a look at some of the mistakes our team of Phoenix web designers have noticed.
- Poor Layout and Design ? When a visitor goes to a website they expect it to be user friendly so that it will be easy it is easy to find exactly what it is they are looking for on your website. When a website has no call to action buttons, poor navigation tools, etc. the visitor is likely to leave your website and most likely to go to one of your competitors website. Many small business owners make the mistake of believing that because the website looks nice that it is a great website. This is simply not the case. Many times a web designer is so interested in designing a great looking website that they lose all user friendliness.
- Old Content ? This generally is the repsonsiblity of the website owner and is one that is a major issue among small business owners. Most small business owners don't have the time or the resources to be able to constantly be updating their website content. We understand this however, it is one of the most important things you will have to do as a website owner. Nobody wants to go to a website where the content is outdated. It is both frustrating for the visitor and makes your business look very unprofessional.
- Broken Links ? You need to constantly be spot checking your website for broken links. It looks really bad when you website visitors are clicking through your website and are constantly clicking on links that lead to 404 error pages. Just because you don't have any broken links on your page currently doesn't mean a month from now you won't especially if you link to web pages outside of your own. Webpage URL's get updated, pages get removed, etc. that is why it is important to spot check your website every couple of months.
- Annoying Features ? Don't ruin your website by placing annoying features on it. Have you ever been to a website where music was playing and there was no way to stop it? Just because you may be a fan of a certain type of music doesn't mean your visitors will have the same taste in music so avoid music. Even worse is the ad's where the person comes walking onto your screen and you can't locate the close button. My point it don't make somebody leave your website before they have had a chance to see what it is you have to offer.
- Slow Loading Content ? We are no longer living in the age of dial up and peoples patience have gone out the window like dial up. Make sure that your website is not full of images and videos that take a long time too load. The consequences are two fold. A slow loading website will both frustrate your website visitors and hurt any search engine optimization that you may be doing.
These are 5 very common mistakes that small online business owners are making and they are impacting their business in a negative way. That is why it is so important to hire a professional web design company that understands not only how to build great websites but how to help you grow your business.