You may have heard business owners talking about a website’s design and functionality, “Well, that’s good enough!” It seems to work! Why redesign it?”
Settling for your company’s website, however, is a dangerous mindset. In today’s competitive marketing environment, you only have one chance to make an excellent first impression on your potential customers.
That first impression is usually made in the digital space. Your business needs to invest in building and maintaining a professional business website. If you create your website without the best design practices, it could turn off potential customers – and even cause existing ones to consider working with your competitors.
Objectives of A Professional Business Website
Before we get started, let’s remember something basic!
The primary purpose of creating a website is to generate web traffic. And the secondary goal is to ensure that visitors stay on the site, browse it, and eventually buy or sign up for a service.
The main goal of creating a website is to attract visitors and run a more successful business. However, if your website keeps customers away, you need to understand why and solve the problem accordingly.
We’ve seen numerous websites that are well SEO optimised and attract a lot of visitors but fail to retain the customers and make them take the necessary actions. Many reasons can cause your customers – current or potential – to churn. Let’s go through them one by one:
#1 Outdated Website Design
In addition to effective website design, you should also keep your website content up to date to project a professional image of your brand. If visitors come to your site and your pages contain blog posts from years ago or information that’s no longer relevant, they’ll likely move on to a competitor.
First impressions matter most. If your website gives the impression that it hasn’t been updated since the dawn of the Internet, they won’t trust you. Always hire a professional team to help you design your website according to best practices for attracting customers.
#2 Not Delivering Value to Visitors
To make a professional business website successful, you need to provide value to visitors. If your content doesn’t provide answers to their questions and doesn’t clearly express your company’s expertise, the website isn’t living up to its full potential.
If you’re thinking about redesigning your website, consider using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. Content management solutions allow business teams to edit and update content intuitively and easily without worrying about complicated codes.
With WordPress and similar platforms, businesses can manage their blogs, online stores, video or photo galleries, landing pages, and more in a single solution.
#3 The Design Isn’t Responsive
You’re missing a large audience if your website only works on desktop and laptop devices. Most Internet users browse the web on tablets and smartphones. That’s why business websites need to be mobile-friendly and responsive.
Responsive websites are created to adapt to the screen size of each visitor. For example, a multi-column layout on a desktop computer won’t display in a single vertical column on a mobile device. Responsive websites also work well on mobile devices in landscape mode.
With a responsive, professional business website, users have a high-quality experience whether they’re using a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Plus, responsive websites can save you development and maintenance costs incurred while maintaining a separate mobile version of your website.
#4 Poor User Experience
Uncluttered look
Many businesses today embrace minimalist and simple layouts that give them more control over the user experience. Less clutter means you won’t overwhelm visitors as easily.
Effective use of colour
For websites that provide a positive experience, you need to use a limited colour scheme. According to the 60-30-10 rule, web designers should combine three basic colours in a 60%-30%-10% ratio. The largest proportion should be the dominant colour, 30% is for secondary colour, and 10% should be used for accents.
Intuitive UX
In addition to the look of your website, it’s also essential to invest in a practical user experience (UX). Visitors who don’t find your site user-friendly will likely leave immediately, which increases bounce rate and affects overall site performance.
Searchable
You also need an integrated website search so that users can find and retrieve the information they need immediately.
Background Colour
Although the dark mode is the preferred option for many night readers, we don’t recommend standard web page backgrounds in a black or grey hue, as they can make reading the text more difficult and damage the viewer’s eyes. Choose background colours that are gentle on the eyes and make the content readable – opt for a good contrast.
Sign-up Process
Believe it or not, people usually don’t like
- Log into your website to make a purchase or transaction.
- Lengthy sign-up process to make a purchase.
- Answering numerous questions and entering endless information.
Keep your sign-up process short and simple. Get your customers to the final purchase page as quickly as possible without wasting a lot of time.
#5 Misaligned With Your Marketing Goals or Brand
To succeed in crowded markets, you should constantly review the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and adjust based on the data. Integrating content marketing into your website can improve your search engine rankings, provide value to customers and prospects, and increase sales.
Although content marketing is a broad topic that can seem intimidating, 70% of marketers invest in content. When redesigning your professional business website, your web development agency should help you understand how to use content marketing to achieve your goals.
In addition to content, your company’s brand also plays an essential role in how customers and prospects perceive your business. You may appear disorganised if you don’t have a consistent colour scheme, appropriate fonts, or images that match your offering.
While making your digital presence consistent may seem daunting, working with a web design company can make this process much more manageable. Professional teams track industry trends and dynamics to provide clear direction for a website redesign incorporating website best practices.
When planning a website, you need to determine what links need to be displayed on the home page and what can be advertised on the inside pages. Don’t use too many options to click on because it makes the site look sloppy.
The navigation should be designed so that customers can quickly see where to click to find what they want. Use simple terms in the menu bar that everyone can understand. Use headings that are easy to recognise, such as “Shop,” “Cart,” “Shopping Cart,” and “Sale.”
#7 Slow Loading Times
Internet browsers are used to browsing fast-loading websites. When visiting sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., you don’t even have to wait a few seconds for the page to load.
High-speed Internet is the norm in many countries around the world, and Internet users’ attention spans are decreasing due to the amount of information they consume.
Page speed is a factor that Google takes into account when determining search results. Simply put, a slow-loading website can prevent you from appearing higher in Google search results.
#8 Not Using Tech Innovations
A critical best practice for managing websites is the use of caching technologies. Caching involves storing copies of files in a temporary location – visitors to a website with caching benefit from shorter loading times.
Their browser doesn’t have to repeatedly download the same content from different pages. If your professional business website has excessively long loading times, it’s time to talk to a professional web designer.
#9 Lack of Quality Content
Consumers tend to search online to find answers to their questions and make a purchasing decision. If your website does not include a blog, content offers, product demos, and client testimonials, you can kiss good customers goodbye. Transparency and helpfulness are critical to gaining customer trust and generating more leads.
#10 No Social Media Links
If your customers see that you aren’t active on social media and your website isn’t linked to these platforms, they’ll assume that you aren’t up to date. Social media channels are essential for modern businesses.
Contact Information:
Contact information is an essential part of any successful professional business website. Displaying accurate contact information builds trust with visitors. Contact information should be added in a visible location. Display all company information, such as phone number, email address, location address, and social media links.
#11 Crazy Pop-up & Scrolling Ads
If so many pop-ups appear on your website that your customers cannot read your text, it’s a big obstacle for modern Internet users. Your website visitors should not be distracted by unnecessary pop-ups. After all, these are the last thing your visitors want.
#12 Autoplaying Music or Video Ads
People don’t like opening windows and being bombarded with an interrupting video ad. Not only is it uncomfortable, but it can make for an awkward situation in an open-plan office.
#13 Unclear Call-To-Actions
Your audience may not land on your page because they are specifically looking for a call to action (CTA) and do not know marketing jargon, but they will be looking for the next step. Your visitors are unlikely to browse your pages thoroughly if there is no clear CTA.
A visitor who is directed to your website needs certain information. Call-to-actions help them find the content they want. If they come up empty-handed and cannot find what they are looking for, they’ll leave the page and move on to the next website.
#14 Unstructured Pages & Unclear Homepage
We all have experienced landing on a website and wondering, “What is this actually about?” If your home page does not captivate potential customers or show them that you can help them, they will navigate to another site that can answer their questions.
Remember that most people who come across your website are in the awareness phase of the buying process, so you should place the best parts of your copy higher up in the sales funnel.
Taking Your Website Design to the Next Level
Now that you better understand the root causes of customer churn, it may be time to redesign your website. Our team at BroadWeb can help you take your business to the next level.
Our experienced web developers, designers, and marketing strategists will work to understand your goals and develop an actionable strategy to create the most professional business website possible. Contact us to start growing your business today.
