Three Most Common Website Mistakes

website successYour website is the digital “face” of your company. As such, it is put under a huge amount of scrutiny by users every day, whether they’re returning customers or are visiting for the first time. Professionalism and creating a credible persona for the digital aspect of your business is incredibly important. Even the tiniest error can put a damper on a potential customer or client’s opinion of your business.  And it’s very easy to make those mistakes, due to the sheer number of components that go into creating a finished, working website. Here, I compile the three most common mistakes I’ve seen on websites across the board.

Typos & Incorrect Grammar

As a writer, this is probably the one thing that “grinds my gears” the most if I find it on a website. It can immediately negatively color the viewer’s perception of the company or individual behind the page. Almost all digital communication between businesses and the public is written, and calling your product a “porduct” or using the wrong “their” or “there” can make you sound anywhere from apathetic to sloppy or even unintelligent. These types of errors lower credibility from the point of view of the website consumer, so it’s incredibly important to check, recheck, and check yet again to make sure everything is correct.

Lack of Conciseness

When someone visits your website, the last thing they want to do is read a ten-line long paragraph describing your business. You’ve got a precious few seconds to catch a reader’s interest, so the name of the Internet game is short, sweet and to the point. If you can say what you need to say in one sentence instead of three, choose the former. That way, your call-to-action (the end goal that you want the viewers of your website to accomplish such as contacting you or signing up for a service) will be easily recognized.

Cluttered/”Messy” Website

Just as those who view your website don’t want to wade through unnecessary text, they don’t want to wade through a surplus of other website elements as well. Content overload can cause difficulty in finding specifics and prevent absorption of the important aspects you want them to retain, putting off users from returning to your website. Make sure that your visual aids are clean and properly aligned, that your links work correctly and you don’t have too many duplicates that lead to the same place, and include only the most relevant and eye-catching photos and videos.

While it is very easy to slip up when creating and editing the contents of a website, it’s also very easy to avoid and fix them. The most important thing you can do when putting content on the Internet is to check and recheck the information yourself; the second most important is to have others check; and the third is to listen to the feedback of users. You’ll not only prevent some mistakes in the first place, you’ll be able to correct others much more quickly.

Written By Blog Contributor: Bree Mason (GBS Marketing & Communications Intern)

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