Business Website Mistakes that could Be Harming your Brand

Your website really is the face of your online presence. For this reason, you need to keep it well-maintained, and you also need to make it professional too. If you don’t, then you may run into a ton of problems later down the line, and this is the last thing that you need.

Not Spending enough on Hosting

It’s so important that you choose a great website host. When planning out your expenses, look at how much you spend on business cards. If this is more than you spend on your site host, then changes need to be made. A sub-par hosting company can cause serious damage to your site, and you may even find that they impact your bottom line too.

If you want to avoid this, do your research and make sure that you choose someone in line with your own business practices. The additional expense is always worth it when it comes to website hosting, and you would be surprised at how much of an impact it could have on your brand identity.

Domain Name

Sure, most people are going to be discovering your brand through search or even through links. That being said, you still have to make sure that your domain name is not confusing or hard to read. If it is, or if it contains unnecessary hyphens and punctuation, this will lower your site traffic, and it will also make it much harder for you to connect with your customers.

Impersonal Email Addresses

If you invest in a great website design, then don’t use a generic email address. This will make your brand seem unprofessional, and you may even find that your conversion rate lowers too.

A lot of website hosts will give you a free business address when you go through their service, and this is a great way for you to get the email you want without breaking the bank.

Redirects

If you have a separate mobile site, then this can be good for your SEO. You’ll rank higher than those who do not have a mobile version, and your customers will be able to see your pages much clearer when coming from any tablet or phone. If you want to boost your site, even more, it helps to have a responsive site rather than a redirect.

When you have a responsive site, your customers will not see the URL change, but they will be taken to a version of the site that is most suited to their needs.

Slow Website

It’s not really acceptable for any page on your site to take longer than 5 seconds to load. Even 3 seconds is far too long, so you need to make sure that you put in the work to speed things up a bit. This could include having fewer images on your site, or you may even find that you need to sign up with a new hosting provider. You have to remember at the end of the day that Google will punish you if you provide your users with a slow site experience, and you may even find that your site gets a lower ranking as a result too.

If you want to find out if your site is slow or not, you need to use a speed checker. This will tell you everything you need to know about your site, which pages are loading the fastest, and which pages need some work.

Site not Found Errors

Do you have a process in place which helps you to check your site at least once per day? Is it working? Is your site free from malware? It is your job to make sure that your site is constantly monitored.

Sometimes you can find a host who can do this for you, so this is a great way to get the job done without taking valuable time away from your business operation. It is possible for you to check for website errors yourself, but if you have a large site then professional help may be the best option.

HTTP

If your site is still being listed as HTTP instead of HTTPS, then this can cause major issues for your customers. They may not feel as safe when they visit your site, and you may even find your site is penalised as a result by Google. If you want to stop this, consider going through your site settings and thenenablinge the option.

Outdated Software

If you have any kind of outdated software on your site, this can make you a straightforward target for hackers. So think about it, when was the last time you updated your site design? Probably not for quite some time.

If you want to get around this, then choose a high-quality theme. You also need to make sure that you have all of the right updates and security settings implemented. This will help your brand flourish, and you may even find that your site is more trustworthy as a result.

Hosting Punishments

Some hosts will punish your success. For example, you may get a high amount of traffic to your site, only to have your hosting company tell you that this is not allowed. Your site may even be shut down as a result, which is the last thing you need. It’s so important that you read the fine print of your hosting contract.

If you are only allowed a certain number of visitors, this could limit your success in the future. You may even find that you lose out because your site goes down, and in some instances, this can cause customers to never return. If you want to stop this from happening, choose a host that does not punish you for success. This is the only way for you to make the most out of your success, and it also stops you from having to worry too.