by Mark Still
Ignoring a website isn’t like ignoring a dirty bike. If you want to ride around on a dirty bike, it only affects you and only when you’re riding. Your website is different. People see it even if you don’t know they see it. When it sucks, it sucks even when you’re busy doing something else. The good news is that when your website is awesome, it’s awesome all the time, too. Want more good news? Many of the things that hurt your website are super easy to fix.
Here are 4 things killing your website, and how to fix them:
Doing Nothing
Perhaps the simplest thing you can do to improve the ROI from your website is to update it often. You straighten the shelves in the store and make sure price tags are correct, don’t you? The same process applies to the website. Update the home page, keep your hours of operation current, maintain your rides and events page, and ensure your inventory is as accurate as possible. None of these things take a lot time, but they ensure your customers find current information and search engines index your site often.
Static Images
All a search engine can see of an image is its name, and it’s safe to say IMG_0088.jpg isn’t going to attract much attention. For human site visitors, static images only ensure a frustrating experience of clicking and clicking on that image with nothing to show for the effort. All images should have alternate-text and be hyperlinked to content relevant to the image. Images aren’t just a pretty face; they are conversion tools. Good imagery prompts action, so make sure you provide good content.
Rambling Text
Concise, well-written text is great for search engine optimization and telling your story. However, too many words all but ensures a high bounce rate on your home page and any other text-heavy page. Be economical with your words, get to the point, and replace wordy sections with powerful images to maximize conversion.
Poor Navigation
Top line navigation matters to search engines as it’s some of the first information seen as a site is crawled. Navigation matters to human visitors because we have short attention spans. In both cases, relevance matters. When deciding on names for navigation tabs, think about how people search for what you sell. Bike Accessories is better than Gear. Bicycle Parts is better than Parts. Having the word Home in your top line navigation probably only helps if you sell Homes. Above all, concise and tidy navigation should be your goal.
We won’t wash your dirty bike, but we can help with your website. Visit www.smartetailing.com to find out how.
