10 “Quick Fix” Wins to GUARANTEE Better Website Performance

Action:

Make sure you add a phone number and business email to every page, in addition, adding other ways to contact you shows you mean business so contact us forms, SMS chat bots and live chat all work very well and set you aside from many of your competitors.

Make it easy for your visitors to contact you and they will!

2. No Metrics

Without performance metrics, small businesses cannot track their progress, organic or paid reach, or customer habits and needs.

Action

Many website analytics resources are free to use and install, and they are not limited to Google or Bing Analytics.

Free Tools such GTMetrix can provide detailed feedback regarding your website visitors.

 This data includes how long your website took to load, the device and browser used to visit your site, and their overall satisfaction level.

This insight can pinpoint bottlenecks on small business websites and recommend ways to correct them.

There is no reason now, any small business owner would not use free tools to help

3. Poor SEO

Small business marketing is becoming more competitive, and owners need every advantage. Online discoverability is essential for helping potential customers find your company or business.

Action

Apply the following On Page SEO basics to each page or blog post in your site

• Title Tag:
  • Include the primary keyword.
  • Keep it under 60 characters.
  • Make it compelling to encourage clicks.
• Meta Description:
  • Summarize the page’s content in 150-160 characters.
  • Include the primary keyword and a clear call to action.
• Headings (H1, H2, H3):
  • Use one H1 tag for the title (include the primary keyword).
  • Use H2 and H3 tags for subheadings, incorporating secondary keywords where relevant.

If you need more help with SEO, we have post here to help

If your website is built using WordPress, you can also find free plugins that automate a lot of the requirements and if you want to take it up a notch, upgrade to a paid plugin service

4. No Credibility

You can say great things about yourself or your product, but they are worth nothing to your website visitors if you are the only one saying them.

They have just met you and don’t trust you yet, so they won’t take your word for it.

To build trust quickly, you need credibility enhancers: Case studies or testimonials, logos of your clients, “as featured in…” section, awards, certifications, etc.

If you have nothing to back up your claims, your credibility suffers.

Action

Contact your best customers and ask them to provide a quick testimonial, build a follow up process for new customers to provide feedback and a testimonial and display these in a prominent position on your website

If you are starting out, you can get a couple of testimonials from friends in exchange for some free advice and build on this because this is vitally important

5. Confusing Navigation

If your website were a city and visitors were tourists, navigation would be the direction signs. If direction signs in a town are confusing, the tourists won’t visit many places and will leave soon for another city where the mayor cares more about his guests.

All navigation labels must be descriptive and intuitive. But when you use ten navigation labels or labels that are too wordy or unclear, you have a problem.

Here is how to make your navigation more concise:

Action

Make it no longer than eight items (the maximum amount of elements our short-term memory can hold).

The fewer navigation links you have, the higher is the probability that your visitors will click on something.

 If your page is just one paragraph, it does not deserve to be a separate page in the first place. It shouldn’t occupy a valuable slot in your navigation.

Apart from not providing enough value for your visitors (how much can you learn from a paragraph out of context?), Google considers it low-value content, and it won’t rank.

 Make it clear where each navigation item leads. For example, visitors may not guess that “How can I help you?” leads to your “Services” page.

Also, navigation is the last place you should try to be clever. If your visitors don’t understand the label of that navigation menu item, they won’t click on it. Would you?

6. No Social Proof

Social sharing is vital to any digital marketing and lead-generation strategy.

According to Sprout Social, there are estimated to be 5.17 billion social media users worldwide in 2024.

The average person uses 6.7 different social networks per month. Internet users’ time on social media declined slightly to 143 minutes daily.

Some social media platforms have become less effective over the past few years. X (formerly Twitter) has undergone significant changes under the ownership of Elon Musk and, as a result, has been dropped by both brands and advertisers.

Since July 2022, Google My Business has been unavailable for download, replaced by Google Business Profile (GBP) and two apps: one for Google Search and one for Google Maps.

In 2024, Google My Business remains an indispensable tool for local businesses aiming to thrive in the digital landscape.

By maximizing your GMB presence, you enhance your visibility and build trust, connect with your local audience, and stay ahead of the competition.

Action

If you have social media accounts, make sure to add social media icons to your site and connect to your pages

If you don’t have any social media business pages, create a Google my Business Profile, Facebook and Instagram page as a minimum, all 3 of which are free

7. Hard-to-Read Text

Before your visitors can appreciate the value of your content, they need to be able to read it.

One of the big problems with small business websites is content that is difficult or even impossible to read.

The first problem is the text is often too small to read. Not everyone has a 20/20 vision, and if you make visitors squint, they will not stay around.

If you want to keep your target audience reading, I suggest using a font size of at least 14px; 16px is even better for mobile and 20px or 22px for desktop (This content is 22px for desktop)

Action

If you have access to your website admin area, its easy to increase the font size and make any background colour changes

Be sure to keep sufficient contrast between your text and your background.

 Avoid using similar colours that can blend into each other. And be careful when placing text on top of background images. Select images carefully, or add a darker overlay to keep your text legible.

Light backgrounds and dark text make it easier to read than white text on a dark background. And here is a little-known fact: dark grey text is easier to read than black.

8. Outdated Content

Small business websites that get frequently updated rank higher on search engines and are more engaging for visitors.

However, curating appropriate content and updating a simple website can be time-consuming and frustrating for many small-business owners.

64% of small-business owners find updating their website a major challenge, and 24% say the cost of maintaining their site is a big hurdle.

Action

WordPress is the biggest content management system in the world with millions of users

If your current website is not built in WordPress or another modern CMS, it is possible to create a new WordPress Install if your current host supports WordPress and move your content and images to the new platform but a word of warning...

Unless you know your way around web design, its recommended to let the professionals complete the work because what seems like a few days work can run into weeks and months!

9. No Footer

The footer often seems the most underestimated part of a business website, which is ironic because it’s an area visitors see on every page!

The footer is ideal for drawing attention to important information, pages, or products, keeping visitors on your website longer, and helping them navigate through it.

Here are the things you can include in your footer:

    Copyright

    Navigation to the main pages

    Privacy policy

    Terms of use

    Contact

    Postal address/link to a map

    Phone

    Social icons

    Email Signup

    Search box

    Your mission statement

    Blog

 Action

Of course, not all of these points have to be in your footer.

Just select the most relevant to you and your business. Whatever you do, don’t leave your footer empty. Instead, make that valuable space at the end of every page work for you.

You can see an example of our footer below

10.Choose the right hosting

The last thing you need is for your website to go offline due to technical issues.

Action

Check your hosting service to make sure your general website updates are included and if not, look for a new service ASAP.  We provide a range of hosting services at the lowest prices around, click here to get more details