Whether you are a blogger or you own a retailing store or any other type of small business, a functional website is essential for your company’s success.

As a professional webmaster who has built websites for different businesses, I know it can be challenging to get a business website up and running.

Your websites matter greatly to the health of your business. A good website will help you generate leads, drive conversions and build your brand. However, just like a first date, people screw this up.

If you are looking to build a new startup website or revamp an existing website, here are 5 website mistakes to avoid and you’ll be on your way to turning visitors into customers.

1) Failing to Create a Responsive Website

This is one of the biggest mistake beginners make. So what does a responsive website mean?

A responsive website is one that responds to its environment to give its users the best possible viewing experience. In order words, it is attractive and easy to read/navigate – no matter the device your visitor is using.

When selecting a website builder or platform to create your website, endeavor to choose the one that offers responsive designs. You wouldn’t want to mess around with a stagnant design that will drive away mobile visitors.

2) Slow Serve Times

Did you know that users will wait for only four seconds for a site to load before clicking out of a website, according to a study by Akamai Technologies?

Slow servers affect your business negatively. This means if you want to keep customers interested, you need to make sure your website loads fast.

3) Forgetting about Search Engine Optimization

Whilst SEO is an ongoing process, it is very essential when building a website. For your website to be ranked on google, yahoo, and other mainstream search engines, you need to ensure that it is well optimized.

You need to have metadata that uses your keywords, and this is based on how audiences search for your product/ services

4) Ignoring the Importance of a Contact Page

This is another big mistake many small business owners make when building their websites. Having a contact page is very important. A user will click out of your page if they can’t easily navigate or find your contact page.

Takeaway: Create a contact page, and have it on the menu bar at the top of your website, and always keep this information up-to-date.

5) No Call-To-Actions

This is another website mistakes to avoid when designing your next project.

Do you want more email subscribers, contest entries? Conversions? You won’t get them without integrating them into the build of your website. So, what’s is a call to action? It is a phrase that’s use to tell the user exactly what action to take and how to take it.

Call to actions can be written as two words, sentences or can be a simple text with a hyperlink or a clickable button.

When building a website, ensure to add your call-to-action buttons to your website plan so that these are a part of the design and not an afterthought.

Conclusion

With all the things to joggle as a business owner, consider hiring a professional website design agency.

They can ensure designing a highly functional website capable of gaining solid momentum. And more importantly, avoiding all website design mistakes.

Feghas is an IT company that specializes in brand strategy, website development, and digital marketing solutions. We can help you build a web presence for your business or upgrade an existing website. Contact us today for your next project.