A website is just a website, right? Wrong! Actually, a website is a crucial part of any business these days. Now that the majority of your customers and clients are online, it is more important than ever to have a top-quality website that is always functioning and easy for everyone to use. Otherwise, you could find that your business really struggles.

Even though websites are now ubiquitous in the world of business, there are still some business owners that are making some big mistakes with their site. Some of these are so big that they could even end up killing your business.

Here are the ones to watch out for.

No Contact Information

One of the main reasons why businesses need a website these days is that they are perfect for providing customers and clients with a lot of information at once. You will find that a lot of people head straight to your website if they need to find your company’s address or telephone number. So, not having these clearly displayed is a big mistake. One that could prevent potential new customers being able to get in touch with you.

You need to ensure you are employing local SEO to ensure that your website is easily found online and then that they can easily find either your phone number. For more info on local SEO read my post on the whole subject by clicking here.

Copied Content

We all know that plagiarism is wrong, but did you know that it’s not just text and written content that can be plagiarised? It’s possible that aspects of design and branding can also be copied. Does your branding and website design look similar to another company’s? If so, you should change it as soon as possible or else you could be contacted by the likes of www.weisblattlaw.com about an intellectual property dispute.

Make sure that everything that goes up on your website is 100% unique. Now I have a brilliant tool within Wealthy Affiliate, where I host my websites that ensures that this cannot happen. Site content is where I write my content and before I can hit publish it goes through a process of checking for duplicate content. Google hates duplicate content and will punish you by not indexing it. So it’s not just the legal aspect that is important.

Images need to be royalty free and you cannot just use any image. Site content helps with this too with its image tool. Choosing from these and there’s tens of thousands of them shows me they are free to use. If you take a read of my post on the Best Stock Photo sites then you will find some great free resources for you to use too.

Ignoring Mobile Optimization

The use of mobile internet use overtook internet use on laptops and desktop computers not so long ago, so that means that most people who view your website are doing so on a mobile phone or tablet device. That means you need to make sure your website is mobile optimized. If it isn’t, it will be incredibly difficult for them to view it and navigate around the different pages. Optimizing a site for use on a mobile isn’t too difficult to do.

Google introduced their AMP project a few years ago and you can add it to your website as a plugin. AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages and having it on your site means it will load faster and act appropriately for mobile devices. Obviously Google will reward websites by giving them rankings in search if it is employed.

Search for the AMP for WP in your WordPress back office and the process of activating it is very straightforward. If I can do it, so can you.

These are the three most common mistakes website owners make when building their sites and they are so simple to put right. Now I am a huge fan of building websites for your self as then you can have more control over the content and it’s function, however if you have no time and no interest in doing so then maybe getting a web developer to do it for you may be a better option.

I have put this as a common mistake website owners can make too.

Trying To Do It Yourself

Sure, it is easy to do so and there are now lots of great tools and CMS like www.wordpress.com that make it all so effortless. However, getting great training and support through platforms like Wealthy Affiliate is essential otherwise you will make lots of mistakes. Take a read of my review of Wealthy Affiliate if you have the time and passion to build your own site.

If you have no time or passion and as your website is for professional use, you do need to ensure it looks professional. The only way you are going to achieve that is by hiring a web developer to take care of the site for you. They can make your website look faultless and can design it so that no web users are put off from using it.

This being said, you need to ensure you hire the right website developer. Not all are the same and you don’t want to waste time and money by employing someone who doesn’t know what they are doing or cannot give you what you want. Remember it is still your website.

Take a read of my post Do you Need a Web Developer? to find out the questions you need to ask before employing one. Or you can watch the video below. It is important that you are informed otherwise you could be taken for a ride by an unscrupulous or self indulgent web developer.

I hope this post has helped you to make some decisions about your business website and whether it is fit for use by your customers and potential customers. If you have, then please give it a share on your favourite social media platform.

As ever if you have any questions or need some help, leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

With Grace and Gratitude

Karen