In 2020, having an effective digital strategy can be the difference between your best year yet and total failure. If you want to dominate this market, Web Design at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri is a task that cannot be taken lightly.
Making a website requires creativity and can be loads of fun! It can also be very complicated and easily messed up.
Having a website and having a website that gets real targeted visitors that turn into customers are not the same thing. Successful modern websites have thousands of technical specifications that need to be done correctly.
A great website can make or break your branding at Lake of the Ozarks.
In order to help our community members improve their business websites, our team of website experts made this list of important web design mistakes to avoid.
1. Not SEO Optimized (The #1 problem in Web Design, Lake of the Ozarks)
SEO optimization will help you get more traffic and better performance from your website.There is something Ad agencies at Lake of the Ozarks don’t want you to know. SEO traffic is the most valuable website traffic on the internet. This is because people searching through search engines have “live intent.”
I know this should be obvious, but this means they are SEARCHING for something specific (as opposed to browsing and being served an ad.)
Every second, 63,000 searches happen on Google. That is a lot of opportunities for your website to be found by your potential customers.
Your target market IS searching on Google, the only question is whether or not your website is findable. SEO is about a lot more than just optimization. Google SEO specific web design now plays a huge role in the success of a website in 2020.
SEO encompasses over 200 Google algorithm ranking factors that are constantly being updated. These “ranking factors” correlate to metrics that essentially represent the overall health of your website.
Getting these metrics right can be a point of frustration for business owners since most valuable leads online come from Google.
Over the past 20 years, the field of SEO has become immensely complicated. In 2020, “do-it-yourself” SEO is no longer practical for companies without a large in-house marketing team.
SEO at Lake of the Ozarks is very competitive in many of our popular niches, but still doable with the right approach. Contact us today to learn more about how we can rank your website #1 on Google.
2. No SSL Certificate
Do you know what an SSL certificate is? Look up in the navigation bar of the browser you’re using. To the left of the website address, there should either be a lock icon or it will say something like “NOT SECURE.”
If there is a lock icon, then the website you are visiting has an SSL certificate. If it says something like “NOT SECURE,” then the website does not have an SSL certificate.
A website that doesn’t have an SSL certificate is, in the most basic sense, may be unsafe for your visitors.
Sites with no SSL certificates are easier to hack and therefore can’t keep customer information like credit cards or contact info safe.
What’s more is that many consumers actually know this now and if they see that “NOT SECURE” indicator in red in their browser’s navigation bar, there is a good chance they will be leaving your website.
Any serious website in 2020 should be hosted with an SSL certificate.
3. Slow Page Loading Time
Did you know that for every second that it takes for your page to load, visitors leave? People just simply can’t stand slow loading websites.
In fact, big internet companies like Amazon can lose millions of dollars every time their website slows down. What a huge factor website speed is to the success of your business!
There are literally hundreds of things that can slow down a website.
In order to avoid this, basic things you can do to have a fast loading website are to use a sophisticated Content Management System like WordPress and to also use VPS hosting instead of shared hosting.
4. No Video On The Website
Video is quickly becoming a top digital marketing tool.Video is officially everyone’s favorite way to consume content. Why shouldn’t it be? All you have to do is stare, there is only minimal reading and brain activity involved.
What’s more, video increases the average amount of time a user spends on a page which has become a big deal for SEO. To put the cherry on top, Google now owns YouTube.
This means websites with YouTube videos on them likely get preferential treatment from Google in 2020.
That being said, your website needs to have plenty of high-quality videos on it in order to be competitive nowadays.
5. Large Sized Images
One of the most basic mistakes that can make a website fail is having images with large file sizes on it.
Not only do these take forever to load, but they slow down the website. Large-sized photos can also distort the way a page displays, especially on mobile devices.
This is why it is essential that you optimize all the images on your website with a tool like Adobe Photoshop.
6. Not Mobile Friendly
In 2018, Google announced that they would consider the mobile versions of websites to be the primary version of a site. This went into effect on January 1, 2019.
This was in response to widespread mobile internet adoption. People just started using their phones more.
The original way to solve this was to create a mobile site in addition to your desktop site. Nowadays, websites need to follow a type of design called “responsive design.”
Responsive design is when all of the site elements are coded in such a way that when the web page is displayed on different screen sizes it adjusts accordingly.
Lack of mobile functionality is a major problem we still see often in local Web design at Lake of the Ozarks.
7. Inadequate or No Contact Info
Yes, I am dead serious. You don’t know how many clients have come to us who have the same problem. They have a website, they have some traffic, but they don’t get any leads through it.
You would be surprised at the number of times I have checked such a site and found they have little to no contact information. No phone number, no email, no contact form.
This is so basic, but sometimes people get all caught up in the process of making a website but forget the fundamentals of why they are actually making the website. So here’s a reminder…It’s to get customers! Why else would you be doing digital marketing at Lake of the Ozarks?
Remember, always have a way for your website visitors to turn into your customers!
8. Too Many Ads
Do you have ads on your website? Are they blocking the content? Should you even have any ads on your website in the first place?
If advertising is not one of the primary revenues of your business, then I would recommend that you remove the ads from your website.
This is because you have a website for a specific goal. Usually, that’s to get customers. It is very hard to optimize for that specific goal if you also have multiple small goals in addition to the main goal. For example, getting site visitors to click on ads rather than filling out your contact form is a diversion away from your goal.
9. Dead or Broken Links
Do all of the links on your site work? Do they all go somewhere? To the right place? Have you tested them all?
Dead links on your website can really confuse your customers. In addition, Google considers dead links as part of bad user experience and will, in turn, devalue your site.
This is why it is important to do constant maintenance on your website.
Web Design Company Near Me?
We understand that building websites can be confusing. We also understand the frustrations behind actually achieving growth with SEO. At our Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri web design company, these are challenges we embrace. We work on the tedious code and implement the newest website and SEO trends for you.
This way, you don’t need to spend your time trying to learn and fiddle with website code and templates. You can do what you do best, run your business.
If you are ready to take your business’s Lake of the Ozarks marketing to the next level with a new or revamped modern SEO website, contact us today.
Web Designers Near Me: How to Avoid Getting Scammed
Scams are everywhere. Just today, I received a message from someone overseas claiming to be a roofer in Springfield, MO, asking me to build him an expensive website. He assured me that he would gladly pay with his credit card.
Web Designers Near Me: Reasons to Hire Locally
Thinking of getting a website, or even moving your services online for your customers to access them more easily? Well, that’s a solid business step that you should take. The proliferation of mobile devices and the continual move to integrating
7 Tips to Find the Best Web Design Company for Your Needs
A great looking website can help your business. But a great performing website can make a world of a difference to your business. Whether you sell products online or provide services, your company’s online presence is often your client’s first