Is your website working for or against you? Here are five telltale signs that your website may be killing your brand instead of building it.
A Starving Newsfeed.
No news is not good news…at least on your website. If you have an “In the News” tab with no recent posts, it’s actually doing the opposite of what you think. It’s telling people that you’ve been out of the spotlight for some time – that you haven’t done anything newsworthy. There are two fixes. Use the “News” tab to share your own news about products, people, etc. Or simply drop the tab from your site.
A Bare Blog
Everyone begins with great intentions about blogging. And a blog is good for SEO. But without committed, consistent content generation, it can be months or more between posts. That makes site visitors think you’re not very relevant – and undermines claims of expertise or thought leadership. Make the hard call. Use it or lose it.
Broken Links
Nothing screams “apathy” like website links that don’t work, or images that are missing. And if those links are supposed to go to the pages most site visitors come to see, the damage is far worse. So practice preventative maintenance. Once a week, go through your site from top to bottom, and click every link to make sure things still work.
Flash? Seriously?
Back in the day, websites that used Flash were all the rage. Back in the day. Now, Flash is gone, and most devices no longer support sites that use it. So all visitors see is that something’s missing. Time to refresh the design without Flash, and give visitors an experience consistent with your brand.
Dated Design
Your website is like your closet. Every so often, you need to say goodbye to what’s gone out of style and freshen up your look. Websites with a dark background and white type are the worst offenders. What else should go? Stock photos that now look dated. Buttons that look like gel caps. Clutter. And every variety of cheese.
First Things First
Is your website responsive (the content rearranges itself based on the size of the viewer’s browser window)? Is it mobile (looks great on a smartphone, rather than just looking like a tiny version of itself)? Since most sites, and especially consumer sites, are viewed on mobile devices, this needs to be fixed first. For first time visitors, your website is you. So bring it up to date, and make the impression you want. (Need a fresh pair of eyes on your site? Reply to this email to ask about our website audit. You’ll get a thorough to-do list of everything your site needs to be on-brand and up to speed.)