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Looking at websites and interacting with business owners all day, I have developed a few pet peeves. Some of these pet peeves may be based in my knowledge of search engine best practices, but I think many of them stem from how certain things look to website visitors and existing and potential clients.
Here they are, my top peeves, which all have very easy solutions!
1. The non-branded email address:
In order to show you are legitimately associated with a business, you should have an email address that proves it. When you look at the two email addresses below, which one are you more likely to trust to do business with or get information from:
- thepainter@hotmail.com
- info@thepainter.com
The first email address says, “I am a painter and I want to paint your house”. The second address says, “I paint and have a professional painting company”. Take the time to get your business email set up – if you have a website domain you can very easily get a professional e mail address.
2. The out-of-date copyright date:
If you have a copyright date of 2010 lingering on the bottom of your site, this tells me you haven’t updated it in FIVE years. This shows prospective clients that you don’t update your website, so what does this say about how you treat your clients and your attention to detail? How do I know if the information reflected is accurate? If you have operating hours which say you’re open from 9-6 but it this information has not been updated since 2010, I am not necessarily going to risk driving out to see you.
3. Phone numbers:
Make your business phone number visible and prominent on your website. This makes it easy for potential clients to contact you. Often website visitors are on their cellphone; if they are looking to contact someone quickly don’t hide your phone number or make them click on 3 links to get to the contact page. Also, make sure your phone number is “clickable”, making it an easy one step process to reach you on a mobile device. And just one more thing – the unnecessary phone number brackets. The brackets on the first 3 digits of a 10 digit number implies if you are local to that area you don’t need to dial it? In areas with 10-digit calling, lose the brackets and keep it simple!
4: No music needed:
More often than not, the music automatically playing on your website annoys and distracts potential customers. Even if you are selling your music service or band, you don’t know if the website visitor is somewhere they want to hear the music. Let the viewer choose to listen! Use this opportunity to track who wants to listen and what they want to hear (using Google Analytics event tracking).
As I said, these are some of my pet peeves. I haven’t even touched on the frustrations of unresponsive sites, the challenges of submitting a web-form, or the frustrations of cumbersome shopping carts.
To make you site more user friendly, visit your site and go though it like a potential client might: test the buttons, try to purchase something, test it on your computer, your phone, your iPad. Better yet, contact us and we can review your site and let you know what you can do not only to get more visitors, but how you can turn them into clients!
