4 Ways Your Website Is Actually Harming Your Startup

In a fast moving and extraordinarily competitive market, entrepreneurs need every tool at their disposal to gain an edge over their competitors. After all, your business is more than just your job, it’s your reputation and your livelihood. You know that unless you can meet the needs of your existing client base while also attracting a steady influx of new business, your days in this cutthroat climate are numbered. Your website is one of the greatest tools in your arsenal. It gives a flavor for your business, and helps users to get a feel for your brand before they start a business relationship with you. But while few SMEs truly harness the potential of their websites, unbeknownst to them, a few businesses are actually allowing their websites to damage their reputation and their delicate profit margins.  

Here we’ll look at some ways in which your online presence can outright impede your success rather than facilitating it, as well as going over some strategies to help you remedy these issues…

Poor mobile optimization

As we propel ourselves towards the 2020s more and more people are navigating the internet through mobile devices and apps rather than through desktop and laptop browsers. Thus, a website that isn’t responsive (the trendy new term for poor mobile optimization) is likely to turn 40% of users away from your online presence instantly. If your website is poorly hosted this may lead to delays making it unresponsive for users who won’t stick around to give it the benefit of the doubt. In fact a delay of just 1 second can reduce your conversion rate by 7%.

Poor user experience

Even if you have a wonderful product sold at a price that borders on theft, a user isn’t going to bother with it if the only way they can access it is through a website that’s impossible to navigate. User experience (or UX) is an increasingly important aspect of web design, especially since many mobile users are on the go, meaning that their time and attention are limited. Click here for some tips on how to improve your user experience.

Lack of SEO enhancement

Even a truly great website amounts to little if the people who need it most can’t see it. When was the last time you carried out an SEO audit on your website? Boosting your SEO needn’t cost a fortune nor involve a top down reorganisation of your entire site. Simply use some of PosiRank’s favorite tools for SEO to help boost your search engine visibility organically. Even posting content regularly and using Yoast to ensure that the content is SEO friendly can be a colossal boon. Speaking of which…

Low quality content

Lots of businesses outsource white label content to give themselves the SEO benefits of regular content without having to dedicate their own time to creating it or needing to keep a writer on payroll. Cutting costs by outsourcing to a low cost, low quality provider, however, can only harm your website and your reputation. Use a reliable provider with a pool of talented and knowledgeable writers to ensure that your content is well researched, well written and relevant.