8 Reasons Why Businesses Hate Their Website & How To Avoid It

Your website is the digital storefront of your business. It's your opportunity to make a good first impression and get to know potential customers – but 1 in 4 small business websites are not optimized for success and user experience.

To make sure your website is living up to its potential, it should be easy to navigate, visually appealing, and optimized for mobile.

Your website should also be optimized for search engine results. This means that it should rank higher in search engine results for your business. To ensure this, use relevant keywords and phrases throughout the content on your site, use relevant metadata and page titles, and create a sitemap.

Let's jump into the 8 reasons why businesses hate their website and what you can do to avoid it.

8 Reasons Why Businesses Hate Their Website

Lack of Business Alignment

Your website should be in sync with your ambitions and plans for your business & brand. However, without understanding how to incorporate them into an effective alignment, you'll be tight that you didn't get the results you desired. Consider bringing on a skilled web designer or developer to bring cohesion and structure to your online presence.

No Established Brand Rules

To ensure that your brand identity is clearly represented, and your core values are clearly understood, you need to set strict rules for how your site and business should be used. Inconsistent standards will lead to a disjointed and chaotic experience for users; thus, establishing & preserving order is vital in creating an effective online presence.
By creating clear branding rules for your site, you will foster consistency across all aspects of the experience. This will give potential clients and visitors a better understanding of who you are.

Non-Existent Strategy

Without a strategic site plan, your site is like a ship without a destination. This leads to another reason why businesses hate their website. To reach the goals of your business and brand, it's important to create & express clear goals for how you will use the site; starting with defining who you're talking to and developing a user experience that is optimized. This not only helps you but those you bring into your organization to support you and your goals.

Treating Site Like A Last Resort

Your site should take precedence, not be an afterthought or last ditch effort. Don't wait until a crisis happens, or you want to host an event or have a sale before you update it. Regularly adding new features and content will make it more interesting. This keeps your site “alive” to your visitors and search engines. Attempting to cheat the system on this won't last long or benefit anyone. Treat your site like the superstar it is.

Skipping Maintenance – Content & Tech

Your website needs regular maintenance to stay secure and up-to-date and most of all, relevant. Ignoring updates can lead to security vulnerabilities and poor performance. Make sure to keep your website software, plugins, and themes up-to-date.
Now, beyond the tech, your content needs to be updated as well. Be it new, revamped, or deleting content; all of these play a role in showing the needs of your clients and your sense of connection to them. Showing that you have your pulse on what's going on shows that you are an authority in your field. You know what's going on and you have an opinion.

Don't Know Your Site Stats

If you lack knowledge of your starting points, it is impossible to gauge advancement. Investigate & stay on track with your website analytics and dependably use them for guidance in forming strategies or assessments; this will help you make decisions based on facts instead of speculation. Also use systems and services to know the health of your site: is it online, are there broken links, how's your SEO health, are you gaining or losing backlinks, etc. These will help you know if your site is rising in credibility & visibility.

Assumptions on Search Engines

Search engines don't randomly promote your site. You need a well-planned SEO strategy to improve your search engine rankings. To optimize your search engine rankings, an effective SEO strategy must be carefully crafted. It's critical to implement strategic use of keyword research; optimization of the on-page content; and construction of relevant links.

Relying on O.P.S.

The final reason why businesses hate their website is that they are relying on O.P.S. (Other People's Solutions). O.P.S. may not work for your business. Relying solely on what has worked for others is a mistake. Instead, carefully craft an individually tailored plan that adheres to your business' specific goals, needs, and expectations.

The Rundown

In conclusion, after going through the reasons why businesses hate their website you now see why it is important to set up your website in the right way. Establishing a clear goal and target audience, treating your website as a priority, staying on top of maintenance, understanding your analytics, developing a comprehensive SEO strategy, and crafting an individualized plan are all critical steps to ensure your website is a powerful asset for your business. With the right approach, your website can be an incredible asset to your business, helping you reach goals and fulfill ambitions.

To have some hands-on support to get your website on track, snag a spot in our Empower+Scale™ Evergreen Intensive. It provides clarity so that you can take action on your website & build the visibility you deserve for evergreen success.