It happens every day. A regular customer, family member or friend refers a potential customer to your business. Statistics show us that 70-80% of people research a business online before visiting their business or buying from them. They want to know who you are and what you have to offer.
Then nothing.
No email, phone call, or visit. The crickets begin to chirp.
What happened? They visited your website.
What\’s wrong with your website? Well, one of two things happened.
They visited your website to learn more about you and to find out how you can help them. Your website, instead of instilling confidence, made them doubt you and your company\’s ability to provide the products or services they need.
Or, they arrived at your website and had to wait longer than 3 seconds for the site to load. 47% of internet users will leave a website that hasn\’t loaded by 3 seconds.
And where did they go? Since whatever they were seeking was on their mind and they\’d made the time, they likely went to the website of a competitor whose products or services may or may not be as good as yours. It doesn\’t matter if they have a better website.
With so many people making purchases from the internet today, there\’s no excuse for having a bad mobile website.
7 Mobile Website Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Business
1. You Don\’t Have a Mobile Website
Do you have a mobile website? If you don\’t know the answer to that, odds are that you don\’t.
Why is that important? Today more than half of all internet searches are conducted on a mobile device. That means when someone looks up your site, there\’s a good chance that they are doing so on a smartphone or tablet.
If you don\’t have a mobile website, the poor visitor is forced to try and navigate a website not formatted for the device they\’re using and it won\’t take long for them to get frustrated and leave. They either won\’t have the time, it\’s easier to move on to another site, or will feel that your customers don\’t matter enough to you to offer a mobile website.
2. Poor Loading Speed
The internet has given us all ADD. As we mentioned, if visitors have to wait a long time for your mobile website to load, they won\’t stick around. Most internet users expect a website to load in 2 seconds. When a given site hasn\’t loaded in 3 seconds, they move on to the next website. Speed is crucial.
3. Bad Image Choices
Once upon a time, it was okay to use stock images on a professional website. These days, not only do they look cheesy and fake, there\’s also the chance that another business is using that same image on their website. For best results, use original images of good size and quality. If the image can be modified to be exclusively yours, even better.
Ensure that the images are formatted for use on your website so they\’ll load fast and look great. Don\’t forget to use your alt text tags.
4. Poor Site Navigation
If your website visitors can\’t find what they are looking for in as few clicks as possible, don\’t expect them to stay. The easier it is to find what they want, the easier it will be for them to make a purchase. See how important that is?
It\’s important for your website to be well organized and simple and to have easy-to-understand navigation that works on a technical level. Your calls to action should be there, easy to find and strategically placed. All links should work properly.
5. Clutter and Chaos
Just like a messy room, a cluttered chaotic website is a turn off. Things that you shouldn\’t have on your website:
- Ad prompts
- Auto-play videos
- Auto-play background music
- Many overly bright clashing colors
- Too many graphics
- Too many animations
Remember that you want them to focus on your products and services, not interrupt them. Simplicity is best. By keeping your website simple, fresh, relevant and easy to navigate, you\’ll have the best chance of lowering your bounce rate and increasing conversions.
6. Missing Call-to-Action Buttons
When a potential customer lands on your website, they should know what your site is about, what you\’re offering, and what action to take next. Whether you want them to follow you on social media venues, subscribe to your newsletter, or engage them to purchase your product or service, prompt them to take the action. Help them do it. Otherwise, what was the point of them visiting your website? Craft a call-to-action button that\’s hard to miss and put in a place that\’s harder to miss. Guide your visitors. They will appreciate the effort.
7. Kills Your Search Engine Ranking
As if the 6 points we\’ve covered aren\’t bad enough, perhaps the worst damage a bad mobile website does to your business is to kill your ranking in the search engines. The search engines like speed, particularly Google, and rewards faster sites with better rankings. If your website takes a while to load, it will hurt your search engine optimization efforts if you have such in place.
If your website isn\’t properly optimized for mobile search, it will also hurt your rank in the search engines. Up until their July 2018 update, Google quietly rewarded websites who got on the mobile train with better rankings than their counterparts that weren\’t optimized. Since the July update, Google is now penalizing websites for not being mobile-friendly and that\’s bad. The search engines are how people will find your website. If you\’re not ranked well, you\’ll be lost in a sea of competition.
Summary
When you stop and think about it, the cost of having your website properly revamped and optimized for mobile is minuscule when you consider the business you\’re losing in not having such. Need help? Contact us today for a free website evaluation. Developing websites that get results and helping you market them is what we do best.
