10 common website mistakes

In small businesses, each person typically has multiple roles, and as the owner, you'll typically have to cover a wide range of roles, such as CEO, salesperson, warehouse worker, customer service, finance manager and marketing manager. Marketing can easily divide the self-employed, as some people think it's the simplest part of running a business, while others find it tedious, cumbersome and time-consuming. Whatever your background and ambition, we at Qred would love to share our experience on topics such as building a website.

There are many pitfalls when building a website or redesigning your current one. In this post, we'll guide you through the common mistakes with the technical and tactical solutions you can use to your advantage. 

1. broken links (404 pages) 

One thing is that Google will "penalize" your website for having 404 pages, i.e. landing pages or blog posts where the link is no longer correct, and your visitors will also be annoyed. In the worst case scenario, it could mean that visitors go to your competitor. Make sure you create a redirect (301 page) that takes the visitor to a relevant page or back to the front page. 

2. Spelling and grammar errors 

Take the time to read through what you've written. It's also a good idea to have someone else read through your work to reduce the risk of strange phrases or typos. 

3. Images and videos

Don't get us wrong, we love images and videos! But you should avoid blurry images, images that can be misunderstood or images that can blur your message. When looking for images, take your time and find good stock images or invest in taking your own photos. Photos you take yourself are typically more appreciated as they are seen as more open, honest and transparent. When posting images on your site, keep in mind that they should not be too large. If the images are too large, it will slow down the loading speed of your site. 

The same goes for video. 

4. Duplicate (stolen) content 

If you think you're saving time by running copy+paste on large parts of your site, it will end up hurting you in your company's search results on Google, for example. We would also like to point out that you need to remember to comply with laws and copyrights. 

5. You haven't updated the content since the movie Titanic premiered...

... the year 1997! While this may be an exaggeration, it's a good idea to go through the content you have on your site. When you look through it, you may find that some of it needs updating, some needs removing and some needs rewriting. If you work with repeat customers, they will also expect your site to be vibrant and up to date! Always make sure your prices, contact information and opening hours are up to date 

6. Your most important keywords do not appear in your text. 

Both your users and Google's search engines scan your text for keywords that contain what they are looking for. For example, if you are a bicycle dealer but don't have the word bicycle anywhere in your text, Google will have no idea what your site is about. Your users will be helped by, for example, images on your page. 

Think about including your most important keywords in the headline, under the heading or at the beginning of your body text. You should always include your keywords when you create a new landing page. 

Tips! Read more about SEO here!

7. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to contact you 

Make it a habit to have your contact details such as phone, email, address and opening hours clearly visible on all your pages so your users don't have to search for them. A good idea is to have them permanently in the footer of your page. You can also make it even clearer by having a page called "Contact us", if it's important to be able to find a specific employee, consider an "About us" page. 

8. The site is not mobile-friendly 

In 2017, the distribution of which device consumers typically use to browse the web changed. Here, the mobile phone came up to 50%. This means it's now more important than ever that your site adapts to mobile viewing. 

9. no call-to-action (CTA)

A call-to-action is often a button, wording or a sentence to encourage you to take an action. A CTA should be short and clear to support the decision for a user. 

Examples of CTAs

• Read more
• Click here for more information 
• Apply 
• Book 

10. Long paragraphs without subheadings or lists

Think about yourself - what do you prefer? Reading a text on a page the same way you read a book rarely works on a regular screen. Therefore, it is important for readability to divide the text into different sections with headings, images, lists and links to other pages. With the help of subheadings, readers can easily skim through the pages to find what they are looking for. Therefore, there is no problem with creating long texts as long as you use the right techniques to make it easier to read. 

How can you improve your website? 

Go through the 10 points above and select the ones you think are most important for your website and start with them. Then ask friends and family for their views and feedback so you have something to go on when improving your website.

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