When we prepare for an important date, we take the time to ensure that everything is just right. That might mean a trip to a salon or a house cleaning. It means ensuring the car’s tank is full of gas, reservations are made, and all event tickets are in hand.
So…
Why don’t we give our website just as much attention? After all, your next visitor might be the five-figure client you’ve been waiting for! So, doesn’t it make sense to take some time to spruce up your website?
After all, your website provides potential customers with their first impression of your business. Imagine a potential customer landing on your site, only to be met with obstacles that silently sabotage your efforts. These hidden pitfalls can turn away visitors before they even know your brand.
My last post discussed 4 Ways Your Website Could Be Costing You Customers. Unfortunately, there are more. Let’s uncover four more critical issues holding your business back and learn how to tackle them head-on:
1. Visibility Issues (SEO Failures)
It’s simple. If your website is not optimized for the search engines – that is to say, if it doesn’t tell the search engines what they need to know to rank your site properly – you will miss organic traffic. This is not traffic you want to lose. First, because it costs you nothing once your site is optimized correctly. Secondly, because that traffic is now going to your competitor’s site!
Quick Fix: Optimize meta tags, create keyword-rich content, and submit your site map to search engines like Google.
2. Risk of Google Penalties
Outdated or questionable practices like keyword stuffing, duplicate content, or bad backlinks can result in search engine penalties that hurt your rankings. This is a problem that keeps coming around. The easiest way to avoid the first two is to write your own materials and write them naturally using your expertise to build your business. Can you use AI to do some of the writing? As of this writing, the jury is still out, but it clearly runs the duplicate content risk as it would kick out the same content for your competitor using the same prompt as it would you.
Quick Fix: Regularly audit your SEO strategy and eliminate practices that don’t align with current guidelines.
3. Accessibility Challenges
Often overlooked, this is not only a legal requirement within the U.S. but also smart. After all, one key to successful marketing is reaching everyone within that target market. And now, with an aging population (who has most of the world’s spending power), making sure that people with disabilities can access your website is even more critical.
Quick Fix: Add alt text to images, ensure keyboard navigability, and use proper color contrasts so people with vision issues can easily read your content.
4. Not Being Ready for AI
AI is here. We can complain and argue, but the reality is that it is here. Searches are increasingly dominated by AI, so it is wise to ensure that your website is set up so that AI can determine its value as accurately as search engines. Otherwise, you risk falling behind.
Quick Fix: Incorporate schema markup, optimize for voice search, and structure content to answer common customer questions. Your backend specialist can help you with the first two. The third falls into the domain of your copywriter – if you don’t have a copywriter who understands how to do this, get one. The expense is worth it.
Take Action Today
Don’t let hidden issues limit your website’s potential. Schedule your free consultation to uncover and resolve these problems. A professional audit will check these and numerous other hidden issues that might undermine your website’s ability to turn visitors into clients.
Have you already tackled these challenges? Stay ahead by exploring more ways to optimize. Check out the first part of this guide to see if you’re missing anything critical.