Building a new website takes a lot of time and resources. If you are putting together a new site, it’s important to do it right the first time. You don’t want to rush through your current build, only to have the new website confuse buyers. The wrong design can cause more problems than it solves.
Here are seven common mistakes companies make when building a new site.
1. Lack of Strategy
The first steps in building your new website should include establishing your brand voice, buyer personas and website goals. If you jump into your project without a clear vision, you are bound to struggle with consistent messaging and imagery. Plus, a lack of strategy makes it impossible to direct the buyer’s journey in a consistent way.
You might be itching to jump in and just get your site underway. However, starting at the very beginning with strategy planning can help you avoid extra steps down the road. Ask your team questions like:
- What kind of voice does our brand have?
- How is our company different from others?
- What are the top 3-5 personality traits of our company?
- What confuses people the most about what we do?
- What are we trying to accomplish with our website?
Take time to lay out your vision and consider your goals. Define what kind of voice your company will use, pain points you want to address, color scheme you will follow and specific buyer personas you will target.
2. Difficult Navigation
Have you ever visited a site and had trouble finding what you were looking for? Most people won’t put time into navigating a confusing site. Difficult navigation may occur for many reasons:
- Too many tabs on the main bar and no subtabs
- No search tool to help find things faster
- Poor naming conventions that are confusing
- Hidden menus that appear with certain actions
- Too many ads, causing distraction
- Page elements shift as they load, causing misclicks
- Site not properly formatted for mobile
These are examples of navigation issues that can deter visitors. There are many ways a site can create a poor user experience, hurting your business and site ranking.
3. Too Much Clutter
If you have a clear purpose, then your site should offer clear CTAs and navigation. However, many companies get caught up in trying to push multiple ideas at the same time. When there are a lot of elements fighting for attention on the same page, the end result is just a loud mess that shows little authority or control.
You can establish landing pages to handle the various conversion points, offerings or angles you want to cover. However, your main pages should be clear and concise. Avoid long text blocks, breaking information up with headers and visuals. Choose a limited number of CTAs to push on each page.
4. Vague Messaging
How often are buyers confused about what you do or start the call thinking you offer something totally different? Without clear messaging, your contacts may not fully grasp what you offer or why they should care. When you do get leads, you might find that many of them are actually after a completely different service. And many qualified visitors may not become leads because they don’t realize how much they would benefit from what you offer.
From your headers to your text, use your website to be clear about what you do, why you do it and how your customers benefit. As you examine messaging, ask yourself:
- What is the first thing a visitor will see on my site?
- What pain points are we touching on?
- How does the buyer benefit?
- What next steps are we suggesting? (And is the buyer ready for that?)
5. Company-centric Goals
Along with vague messaging, leading with company-centric language can create a poor buyer experience. If your site talks about who you are and what you do, then it may become overly focused on your company’s goals instead of your buyer’s goals.
While you need to be clear about who you are and what you do, you should always lead with the benefit for the buyer. Getting this right typically means walking a fine line. Keep asking, “Why does the buyer care?” And then, don’t waste the buyer’s time with anything that isn’t centered around helping them understand the offering or promising them value.
Thinking about the buyer can also help with search engine optimization (SEO) since your language will be more likely to fit their search terms.
6. Inconsistent Aesthetics
Some companies are using stock images and working with different contractors to get illustrations or graphics to go with their content. While visual images are extremely important for communicating quickly and breaking up the text, they also play a part in setting the tone. If your use of color and style isn’t consistent, then your brand aesthetic will look messy.
Part of your strategy planning should include a focus on your brand voice and style. You need to decide what kind of energy you are trying to convey. Are you youthful? Reliable? Innovative? Agile? No-nonsense?
Selecting your top brand characteristics helps you identify the kind of aesthetic you want. Then, be picky and stick with a look that helps you define your brand and communicate those key characteristics to your buyers.
7. Poor Site Functionality
Finally, thinking about the backend is often the last thing you want to do when building a site—but it’s crucial to your success. If your site loads slowly, people are bound to bounce or feel frustrated by the experience. The wrong setup can hurt your SEO as well, making it harder for you to rank well in the results.
- You need a design that fits the strategy and goals set for your website.
- It’s important to conduct regular updates so your site is meeting current expectations.
- Include a site map to help search engines navigate your site and index your pages.
- Keep images compressed (without sacrificing quality) to help pages load faster.
- Work with an expert developer who can help prioritize user experience (UX) and SEO.
Need help creating a better website? Contact Jonathan Ebenstein at jebenstein@strategicseven.com to get started!