Your Website Sucks
“Does my website suck?”
Sorry to be bearer of bad news but there is a high chance that Yes, your website sucks. For some this news may come as a shock, others may have had a clue but didn’t want to admit it.
Who am I to say that your website sucks though?
I’m not an expert on coding, I do well with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. PHP and MySQL is still challenging me but I will master them one day.
My focus is SEO and that is where I spend most of my time, learning, testing, reviewing and repeating. Some basic SEO fundamentals stay the same but there are a lot of things that have changed. If you don’t stay involved in the SEO community and read the articles and blogs from other SEO experts and information that Google puts out you will be left behind.
I audit and review websites all the time and I see a lot of not so good stuff. Occasionally you see some good things but they are few and far between. There is a reason people are coming to us for help.
Successful websites are successful for a reason.
Potential clients think that with the flick of a switch we can fix the problems on the website and it will magically start ranking better but SEO is a journey and depending with what we start with it can be a long one and in a lot of cases cost more then what the website cost.
Cheap websites are cheap for a reason.
Why did you build your website?
This is one of the first questions that we ask and generally grounds the client as they remember what they were thinking when they first wanted a website. In most cases the website they have now is a mashup of additions, ideas and changes and looks nothing like what they wanted at the start.
In most cases you probably built your website to generate leads. You got it built, you were not overly happy with it and it hasn’t brought you any leads. It now just sits there doing nothing for your business.
What are the most common website problems
Not Mobile Friendly
Currently this is one of the biggest issues facing website owners. Old outdated websites do not work on mobile phones. You may have spent a lot of money getting your site built a few years ago but today if it doesn’t work on a phone no one is going to stick around.
Your website must work on mobile devices, users today expect it. In the next few months Google is moving to a mobile index and that means if your site doesn’t work on a phone your rankings are going to be severely hurt.
Call to Actions
Another big mistake I see is a lack of Call to Actions (CTA’s). You want a user to sign up to your newsletter or fill out a form, you need to literally ask them to do it. “Sign Up” “Contact Us”. If you don’t ask you don’t get. Put your CTA’s at the top of the page, most users won’t scroll to the bottom of a page so it’s pointless putting it down there.
Website Speed
Website speed comes down to 2 main factors, Hosting and On Page optimization. Hosting is often overlooked and in a lot of cases the cheapest possible option is the first choice. $1 a month hosting based in the USA on overloaded servers will give you exactly what you are paying for.
On Page optimization is hugely important. Making sure your images are optimized will give you the biggest impact. Large images at full resolution are commonly used and resized with code. We once looked at a website that had an image on it that was over 4mb in size.
Website speed will make or break your website.
Lack of Testing
Websites are launched every day without even a second thought about testing them. User testing is very important, making sure people can find the information they are looking for and are easily able to contact you. Font choice and size, a menu that is easy to navigate, and colour contrasting are believe it or not easily overlooked.
I once worked on a website that had the wrong phone number on it for 12 months. No wonder the client wasn’t getting any calls.
The biggest problem – poor SEO knowledge
I put part of this problem down to the institutions that teach web design and development. I was already honing my SEO skills long before I started my Tafe course and was excited when the SEO section came up. I was quickly disappointed with the stuff we were being taught.
The study plan hadn’t been updated for years and everything we were being taught was out of date. I only knew this as I was already interested in SEO and had been researching it. Everyone else that did the subject who passed would have assumed that they were being taught up to date information.
As a web developer, you want to build the best possible website you can for the client and their budget but when you don’t get taught the right stuff at the start it puts you and your client behind the eight ball. Unless I went out and broadened my SEO knowledge I would be in that same boat. Not everyone is like me though.
I hate to see business owners invest in a website that doesn’t work for them. Things can be fixed and improved, you just have to be ready for the journey.
Our goal at DNA Web Development is to make you and your business successful online.
Written by Dave Stansfield - 28 Sep 2017