Common Small Business Website Mistakes

Posted: Feb 6, 2014

Common Small Business Website Mistakes

John M. Haddad

Web Design MistakesYour website is a critical marketing tool for small businesses in reaching new customers, nurturing current customer relationships and building credibility in the market. However, today, almost 1/3 of small-business owners maintain websites themselves, neglecting key functions that consumers want, like mobile optimization, social networking integration and a user friendly design.

Here are some common mistakes we’ve seen when small business owners try to design and maintain their own websites:

1. Poor Design and Time-Consuming Updates

Bad Web DesignBy taking design into their own hands, small businesses cause themselves headaches and risk of having poorly designed sites. Even though there are many companies, like GoDaddy, that offer templates for designing sites, knowing how to best layout the design for optimal customer viewing is lacking.

In addition, you now have the task of maintaining the site yourself, running the risk of wasting time that you could be using to growing and running your business.

Many try to put all the information on one web page, which can make it difficult for anyone to find the information they need. Simple things like contact information, your email address and phone number, are typically hard to find. In fact, studies show that 93% of small business websites do not display any contact email addresses. And speaking of email addresses … many still use email addresses with Internet Providers, such as @aol.com, @comcast.net, etc. instead of using an email address with your company domain.

Social Media is key to integration into your site. Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social media site, it is critical to have the capability to integrate them into your site design.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Metrics

Search Engine OptimizationWhat good is designing a website if potential customers can’t find your company? Studies show that almost 30% of small business websites cannot be found in online searches because of poor keyword data, meta tag descriptions and strategically placed text throughout the site. Knowledge of SEO concepts is critical for getting your site found on major search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Also, there is a need for metrics for businesses to be able to track the impact of the site and know which web pages are getting more visibility and which are not. In order to successfully so this, analytics capabilities must be designed into the website.

3. Mobile Optimization

Responsive DesignDid you know that 56% of all people on earth have a mobile smart phone? And 50% of all mobile users use their phone as their primary internet browser? These days, every new web site designed should have a responsive design. What this means is that your web site will look just as good on a mobile phone as it does on a desktop.

However, must web sites today are designed for the desktop only. So when someone is browsing your site on a tablet or a smartphone, the text for your website is very small and the consumer has to “pinch and zoom” your web page to read it, then scroll right and left to see all content. This makes the consumer experience very frustrating. Make sure your web design looks great on any device that your customer uses to view your site and make the customer experience enjoyable.

Bisinet Technologies can help your small business with a professionally designed website that has a customer friendly design, is optimized for any device and provides search engine optimization techniques and metrics to help your business grow. Contact us today for more information.

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About the author

John M. Haddad
John Haddad is the Principal and Owner of Bisinet Technologies, LLC. He has been in the Information Technology (IT) field for over 40 years. Over his career, he has held positions in all aspects of technology … programming, systems analysis, project management, infrastructure support, systems architecture, IT Management and web development. He continues to work with many small businesses and non-profits in the local area to provide technology consultation, web design and cloud solutions.