5 frightening website flaws that could be scaring your customers away!
Is there anything scarier than the idea that your website could be losing out on traffic and sales? (Apart from maybe a bull in the Pyrenees, that is.) Over the years here at 21Digital, we’ve exorcised our fair share of digital demons from client digital marketing strategies, ultimately helping to ensure that they’re delivering maximum return on investment. This Halloween, we thought we’d take a moment to talk about some of the most common gremlins we often deal with, and the horrors they could be causing for your website!
1. Petrifying PPC campaigns bleeding budgets
Are your PPC campaigns bleeding money? It’s one of the most widespread and persistent worries that many people have about their Google Ads campaigns. Maybe your Google spend is generating a poor return on Ad Spend, and you’re struggling to work out why?
According to our Managing Director and Google Ads expert Sam Fletcher: “Whenever I sit down for an initial PPC consultation with new clients, I start by establishing what their expectations and goals are for their Google Advertising budget. In most cases I find there’s a lack of transparency somewhere down the line – the client doesn’t always know exactly where their money is being spent, how it’s bringing them closer to achieving their commercial goals, and how any progress is being measured.
What’s more, when we deep dive into the account we find time and time again that a proportion of the budget is being wasted on irrelevant searches that aren’t in line with their commercial goals.”
2. (Un)dead links
Ashley, our SEO Manager, says: “Everyone knows what a 404 page looks like – we see them all the time. Most websites are constantly changing, and refreshing their products and services, so you’re bound to have a couple of dead links here and there. But it’s really something you need to avoid when launching a new website. We see quite a lot of sites that have been migrated without 301 redirection plans – that creates a lot of 404s, which can have a serious impact on the site’s SEO.”
3. Terrifying themes
Michael Cain, our Technical Director, says “When you first start out with your website, one of the first decisions you’ve normally got to make is whether you’re going for a custom or off the shelf theme. We always build WordPress websites with custom themes here at 21Digital, and there’s a good reason for that – the off-the-shelf themes might be cheaper, but they can create a lot of technical and security problems, and new clients often turn to us for fixes.”
4. Monster images
Our web developer and Magento expert Andrew highlights another scary problem so many of our clients face with their websites: monster images. “I find that oversized images are one of the single most common reasons that some clients’ websites can be so slow to load,” he says. “On average, the imagery on a page makes up about 20% of its total size, so images that are too large can easily end up taking a toll on its loading times and overall site speed.”
5. Frightful user experience (UX)
According to our Creative Director Steven Taylor: “It might sound weirdly counter-intuitive at first, but the best web designs aren’t necessarily the ones that look prettiest on screen. I’ve seen quite a few sites that look amazing, but they’re so difficult to use – and all those beautiful aesthetics won’t help convert visitors into loyal retained customers.”
So, if you think your digital presence might be being haunted by one or more of these unholy horrors, who you gonna call?
Easy – that’s us, right here at 21Digital. With more than 17 years of experience behind us, we like to keep all our skills in-house. This means that there are no gaps in our expertise, so you can count on us to work out any kinks in your digital presence, and help your business grow. Our award-winning services encompass web design, web development, SEO, Google Ads, digital consultancy, social media marketing, and email marketing services.
Want to find out how we can help you? Give us a call on 01254 660 560, or email us on hello@21digital.agency and let’s talk!
