Whether your website is relatively new or its a 90’s throwback, it’s good to review it periodically and check that you’re not missing out on any low hanging fruit. Here are 6 things you can check to see if your website mistakes are costing your business.
Problems problems..
Website Problem 1 | What’s your name?
Your domain name (the address for your website, e.g. www.getwiththebrand.co), should be memorable, on point and easy to spell. Don’t try to be clever here. Make sure it’s simple and easy to type. Include your business keywords if you can do so without making it too long, and avoid numbers and hyphens. Make it totally intuitive.
Website Problem 2 | Is your weekly coffee spend more than your website hosting?
Do the math. Your hosting is the foundation of your website, and just like the foundations of your house, if you don’t get that part right, the rest will come crashing down sooner or later. Promise. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. How much will it cost your business if your site is offline for a few hours? Or a day? Or a week? What about your business reputation? You may never get another chance with those customers/potential customers who visited whilst you were offline, and on top of that, if you’re running any PPC advertising during that period it’s literally money down the drain. Think about it.
Then invest in quality hosting, with a reputable company who are there to support you 24/7.
Website Problem 3 | Always be a digital hare, never a tortoise.
Nobody enjoys waiting for a website to load. The back-button is one of your biggest threats. Not only is a slow loading website a total pain for your site visitors, it’s also something Google will strike you down for. (Read what Google said about the speed of your site and where it ranks). There are many things that can be done to improve the speed of your website.
To start with, refer to Problem 2 above. If you have poor hosting your site speed will suffer. In addition to getting quality web hosting, you need a web designer/web developer who knows what they’re doing. Anyone can build a website, your 3 year old niece can probably do it. But not anyone can build one with conversion optimised design, lean code and speed optimised images (amongst other things). Make it snappy.
Website Problem 4 | That little green padlock.
Not just for ecommerce sites anymore. Best practice (and Google of course) dictates that every site should have a valid SSL certificate and sites should be using https (as opposed to http). This is an easy fix. Google will warn people off your site if you don’t have a valid SSL certificate.
Website Problem 5 | You’re out of date.
If you want to wear orange flares in 2018 I’m down with that. Be free! If you want a website that will generate an income for your business, you got to stay with the trends (man). And I don’t just mean a sexy website design (although that will surely help). Having a website with out of date software is like leaving your kitchen window open while you’re out to lunch. Much like burglars, hackers will take the easy pickings first, and to them, a website ripe with out of date plug-ins is a joy to behold.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to keep on top it, you can pay someone else to take care of your website maintenance & security. If you’re still not sure why you need to take this seriously, read more about website maintenance here >
Website Problem 6 | Your email address
For $5 a month, Google will supply you with a you@yourdomain email address and mailbox. This is a total no-brainer. As part of this deal you can also access a heap of other goodies to help you manage your files, contacts and calendars, but more about GSuite here >
It’s easy, it’s inexpensive and looks a million times more professional than your [email protected] email address.
Well there you have it. 6 website problems that you could totally fix. Most of them quite easily. Pick your battles, and tick as many boxes as your can. Your website if working hard for you 24/7, it deserves a little T&C every now and then. As do you. Time for tea…