Here's some truth that you might not want to hear...your website alone isn't going to bring you endless leads or sales and will more than likely fail to help you reach your business objectives without some extra work on these key points.
By failing to put in the time and effort to get your website found, and to ensure that users convert into customers, you're gonna end up feeling pretty crap, pretty soon...the good news is that there are some fairly simple steps you can take to give yourself a far greater chance at successfully growing your business online.
The action steps below will take time and effort, but what good things in life don't require a little hard work?
To fix this, you'll need to make sure that every page on your website includes both a meta title and a description tag. These tags tell search engines what your page is about, and help it to rank higher in relevant searches.
2. website isn't mobile friendly
If your website isn't mobile-friendly, you're missing out on a whole host of potential customers. In order to make your site search-engine friendly, it needs to also be mobile-friendly. You'll need to ensure that it's responsive and easy to use on smaller screens and this is one of the main points that causes Google to not rank your website well. By having a website that doesn't work well on mobile, you're running the risk of not being found online. Users should have a great experience visiting your website regardless of what device they are using. Make sure your website looks and works great on mobile and tablet, as well as on desktop.
3. website loads slowly
Slow-loading websites are a huge turn-off for users and will result in them leaving your site before they've even had a chance to see what you have to offer. Google penalises slow websites as it wants to ensure that it sends searchers to websites that not only answer their questions but work well in the process. To fix this, you'll need to work on reducing the size of your images and minifying your CSS and HTML. Ensuring your web hosting is optimised for speed is also important as is looking at putting your website through a Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as CloudFlare to boost your speed for visitors regardless of where they are in the world.
4. website isn't well designed
A poorly designed website will do nothing but reflect badly on your business, and it'll hurt getting you found in search and converting users into customers. Page experience is high up on the agenda for Google to rank you so your website must be laid out properly to allow the search engines to properly understand your website. Headings should be in sequential order, starting with your H1 heading at the top and moving down the page logically through H2-H6 heading tags. Unattractive and outdated website designs are a massive turn-off for visitors with many choosing to leave immediately if your website doesn't look great. If Google sees your visitors bounce from your site within seconds of reaching it, you're going to be harming your chances of being found in the search results.
5. website copy isn't optimised
Your website copy plays a big role in whether you get found online or not, as well as helping to convert users into customers once they're on your site. Your copy needs to be keyword rich, without sounding like keyword stuffing and should answer the questions that your target audience is searching for. Your website copy should also be easy to read and detail benefits and value to the user as opposed to simply talking about features. Talk to your user's emotions and explain what's in it for them rather than simply talking about what you offer, or blabbing away only about you and your business - in truth, nobody cares about your business: they want to know what benefits they will get from being a customer and whether your products or services solve their problems.
6. website isn't updated regularly
If you want to ensure that your website continues to rank well in search, and doesn't become stale, you need to make sure that it's updated regularly. This means publishing new blog posts, adding new pages, and keeping your website copy fresh. If you're showing testimonials from centuries ago or outdated information on your pages, your users are going to move to a different website real quick. Also, ensure that if you're using a CMS such as WordPress that you're keeping your website plugins and core updated regularly to ensure the site works well and is safer from attacks by hackers.
If you're not making it easy for visitors to share your content on social media, you're missing out on a big opportunity to increase your reach online. Adding social media buttons to your website will make it easy for visitors to share your content with their friends helping to build awareness for your business through social media channels.
8. website doesn't have an SSL certificate
If your website doesn't have an SSL certificate, you're going to be penalised by Google as it wants to send its searchers to websites that are secure. An SSL certificate encrypts the information that is sent between your website and the visitor's browser, ensuring that it can't be intercepted and used by anyone other than the intended recipient.
If your website is difficult to navigate, you're going to lose potential customers as they'll become frustrated and give up trying to find what they need. Your website navigation should be clear and easy to use, with menus that are easy to understand. If you have a lot of content on your website, consider using a search function to make it easy for visitors to find what they're looking for.
For a more in-depth analysis of your website, why not book in your free website and marketing review where we will take a look at your website and give you a checklist of actionable steps you can take to improve things. We'll take a proper look at what's working, and what's not, and give you some useful steps you can put into practice to improve your chances of being found, and to convert users into leads and sales that will help to grow your business online.