Whether you are just starting your own small business for the first time or if you have been an entrepreneur for some time, you have likely already become wise to the fact that your business’s website is going to be one of your best friends. Not only is it a cost-effective way to build an audience for your brand and content, but your customers can also contact you and place orders via your website.
That being said, having a website that is benefitting your business as much as possible is more complicated than simply purchasing a domain, and throwing some information and images onto a few web pages. In fact, such an approach to building your website might actually be driving your potential customers away.
If you are experiencing a lower number of new customers and few who indicate that they heard about you via your website, here are a few things that you will want to investigate regarding your website.
Your Design Quality Is Poor
The first thing that anyone who visits your site will notice is the design of your pages. While it is true that aesthetics is not everything, the first impression that your website makes is incredibly essential. If your design is overly simple and not interesting, you should look into your website’s key components to see what can be updated and what generally is not working well from a design perspective.
Start by evaluating your images. Are they unclear or just not as sharp as they could be? This might indicate that they have not been appropriately sized for your pages. Find a tool to resize image online to make sure that yours fits your website perfectly and are of good quality. Ensure that your overall design is cohesive when it comes to color scheme and fonts used as well as all of your branding and graphics.
Your website should be just as interesting to look at as the content is informative. Such a goal might take some time and investment to achieve, but the business that a strong website will generate for you will be well worth it.
Your Pages Are Slow to Respond and Load
These days, online shoppers and those looking for information via a business’s website have a rather short attention span. The high rate at which most people’s brains are accustomed to receiving the information they are after is often attributed to the rapid speed of the internet and the devices that are used to access it. With that in mind, if your website is failing to bring in customers for your business, the next thing that you will want to evaluate is the speed at which your pages load.
For instance, if someone clicks on a product page with the intent of making a purchase, how quickly does that page load? If it takes longer than 8 seconds or so, you risk your potential customer losing interest and going elsewhere for their purchase.
There are several reasons why your pages might be taking too much time to load. You might need to run an update on your website. Failure to run updates on your site as and when they are issued by the designer can result in issues communicating with the server. This can cause your pages to be slow or unresponsive altogether.
Other things to consider are any links or content that you have put on your website. If a page is simply doing too much, then it will not be able to load quickly when it is accessed.
