Is Your Website Ruining your Chances of SEO Success?
Reaching the heady heights at the top of Google might be the ultimate goal for an SEO campaign, but if you are working with a website which is inefficient, badly designed or simply does not work, then good rankings are unlikely to convert into new business opportunities, sales or enquiries. In the SEO department at Creare, we work on a wide range of websites built in a variety of exotic Content Management Systems, and it can be a challenge to get these websites to effectively support an SEO campaign. Read on for a few of the mistakes that your website might be making, and which might be causing you to lose potential conversions.
Your Website is One Ugly Duckling
Poor design is one of the biggest turn-offs for visitors to your website, and whether your website design has an ugly colour scheme, low-quality graphics or features too much (or too little) detail, it could soon drive potential customers away from your website and over to your competitors.
You might be sitting pretty at the top of Google, but visitors to your site will decide within as little as one-twentieth of a second whether they are interested in what you have to offer. This is why it might pay to invest in a new web design before you consider investing in an SEO campaign – and why SEOs might want to consider advising a redesign for customers who are struggling with a high bounce rate.
Your Website is Slow
Slow loading time will cause impatient visitors to leave your site before they even have chance to take a good look around. Whether entire pages are on the go-slow, or certain elements of your site simply take an age to load, this is something which needs to be fixed if you want to encourage people to stick with your website.
Broken links are another big problem if you are striving for SEO success. We all know how frustrating it can be to click on a link which goes nowhere or simply doesn’t work, so give your website a thorough once-over to ensure that it is all working efficiently.
Your Website is So Last Year
Google loves fresh content, and so do internet users. If a potential customer visits your site on a few separate occasions before deciding whether your company are right for them, and always sees the same content, news stories and a feed of “Latest Tweets” which hasn’t been updated, then they are unlikely to be impressed. Keep your website updated with fresh news and content, and you will be able to maintain the interest of visitors whilst also helping the professional, customer-friendly image of your business.
Your Website Doesn’t Say “Call Me!”
Visitors are landing on your website left, right and centre, but if they aren’t being encouraged to make a move by getting in touch or placing an order, then the only move they will make is away from your site. Calls to action have an important role to play in a successful partnership between web design and SEO, and should be incorporated into each page to give visitors every opportunity to contact you. From a quick contact form to a simple telephone number, there are a number of ways to ensure that visits convert into enquiries.
Make sure that you fix any of these problems if you want to enjoy a successful SEO campaign, and if you do think that a new website is the way forward, make sure that you understand the importance of choosing a web designer that understands SEO.
August 23rd, 2012
Website is most important for your business. SO keep it updating with user friendly navigation for your users. Google Gives more value to fresh content.
August 28th, 2012
Fantastic post! A very interesting subject that captures my interest. I am absolutely awaiting new information like this in the near future! (: