Common Website Problems and How to Solve Them
Many companies and brands are often baffled by their poor website performance. A company might have great products, competitive pricing, and an attractive website yet still have disappointing performance metrics. That’s because there’s much more to creating a successful website than ensuring it looks nice. As the digital market space grows ever more competitive, being aware of common website problems and how to fix them is vital.
Sometimes website issues are relatively easy to spot. Other times, website problems could be caused by a small but hard-to-detect issue. Before creating a new website or attempting to fix an existing one, companies should consider these common website problems and take steps to avoid them.
Poor Search Engine Ranking
Low searchability is one of the most common website problems and perhaps one of the easiest to fix. A low ranking on major search engines in response to organic search queries is typically due to poor search engine optimization (SEO). Having a website that is optimized for SEO means having specific keywords and key phrases related to your business, products, and services on your web pages. Say your company is a bank. Your website should have keywords like “bank, bank services, bank services in Colorado, savings account,” and more related to your company and what a potential customer would search for online.
Without SEO, it doesn’t matter how good your products and prices are or how nice your website looks since it might never be found on the first page of search results — a place of critical importance for companies that wish to remain competitive.
Consider that nearly 70% of all online activities start with a search engine. Even more compelling is the fact that 75% of searchers never search beyond the first page of results, making SEO a high priority.
Lack of Mobile Friendliness
Mobile device use has been steadily on the rise over recent years. Over 55% of website traffic is via mobile devices. That number is expected to rise rapidly. That means a website that is not mobile-friendly has the unfortunate potential to cause searchers to leave the site and go to a competitor’s mobile-friendly site.
With such a significant amount of website traffic coming from mobile users, companies need to fix this common website problem immediately by making sure their website works on both a mobile and desktop platform.
Poor Website Design
Many managers and business owners often design a website based on their own particular wants, not necessarily from the eyes of the customer they are trying to attract. Designing a website without catering to your customer will result in a poor website design that isn’t aesthetically appealing, too cluttered, or doesn’t offer a good user experience (UX). Nearly 90% of customers won’t return to a website at which they’ve had poor UX. Fixing these issues is imperative to maintaining and growing website traffic and a loyal customer base.
To do so, companies must first think about what it is their customers really want to see on the website. The website should offer good UX via easy-to-find information, a clean, uncluttered look, valuable information, and responsive web design (ensuring the website looks and runs properly on any browser on any device).
Lack of Information
Another one of the most common website problems is a simple need for more information. Today’s consumers want to find what they are looking for quickly. They don’t want to waste time clicking through multiple pages to find the answers to their questions. They grow even more frustrated when key information about a product or service is hard to find.
Fixing this website issue is as easy as making sure all the information about a product or service is readily available and easy to find, not hidden within multiple pages.
Tip: This also includes company contact information, business hours, and other basic company information consumers might be searching for.
Broken Links and Missing Pages
Over time and during website updates, broken links, and 404 error pages can be a common website problem. If these website issues persist for too long, it can lead to Google penalizing search engine page results (SERPs). It’s also frustrating for the customer and poor UX.
Regular website review and maintenance are essential to ensure that these website problems are not periodic.
Website Security Problems
Information on a website needs to be secure from hackers and cybercriminals. This is especially true for e-commerce sites or websites that store private customer information and data. Cybercriminals seek to use websites with poor security to gain illegal access to data, customer information, and even the company network.
Businesses must always use the most up-to-date software and firmware to protect their website from cyber criminals. It is also important to obtain an SSL certificate to authorize a website’s identity and provide encryption for all connections. Using network and website monitoring software is also recommended to detect and prevent cyber threats.
Final Thoughts
Creating a website takes planning, experience, and knowledge of how search engines read and evaluate the content on a site. Understanding your ideal customer is also necessary to design and develop a website that attracts and appeals to the consumer and results in strong sales conversions.
