By |Published On: September 23, 2013|

In a recent study, SMB DigitalScape and BIA Kelsey analyzed more than 1 million SMB websites and found that most are not succeeding with their current site. Here are five reasons why yours might be failing.

1. Your Contact Information is Missing

According to the study, 60 percent of sites studied lacked either a toll-free or local telephone number on the home page.

It’s important to have your phone number on the home page, preferably on the header or above the fold where it can be easily seen. If you’re a business that serves customers at your location, then hours of operation and an address are also a must.

Phone Number on Home Page

2. You’ve Made it Impossible for Customers to Email You

The study also revealed that 74.7 percent were missing an email contact link on the home page; and 65.7 percent had no form-fill option to allow consumers to request information.

In the early 1900’s, shopkeepers were skeptical about installing one of those new-fangled telephones in their store. (After all, they’d have to stop what they were doing to answer it.) Eventually, the telephone became mainstream and customers expected businesses to have one.

Email was developed in the mid-60s and has been widely-used since the late 1990’s. Isn’t it time you joined the 21st century? Your website visitors expect it.

3. Search Engines Have No Clue What Your Website is About

The study found that 56 percent of sites have no on-page keyword information.

What’s on-page keyword information? Well, if your site is about sedation dentistry, that’s keyword information. So you ought to make sure you say it in enough places on the page—as well as the appropriate places.

Two places the search engines notice most often is the title and the headline of your page. It’s also important to use variations of that keyword throughout the content of your page (without being annoying, that is). A good rule-of-thumb is, if it’s written naturally as if for a human being, the search engines will love it.

Page Title, Headline, Content

Oh, and your city is a keyword as well—because that’s how consumers search for local businesses, like sedation dentistry newark nj.

4. You’re Not Nice to Mobile Visitors

The study found that 93.3 percent of websites are not optimized for mobile—meaning, it will not display properly on a mobile device or smartphone.

Mobile vs. Non-Mobile

Why should you care? Because 61 percent of mobile users will leave your non-mobile site and head over to one that is—like your competitor’s. (Just because you provided a poor mobile experience doesn’t mean they stopped searching.)

I could go on and on about how mission-critical mobile has become. Oh, wait—I already did.

Suffice it to say, mobile searchers have a higher purchase intent and take action sooner (70 percent within one hour). Can you afford to ignore that? Can you afford to ignore any of this?

5. You Think Social Media is a Passing Fad

The study also found that less than 20 percent of small business websites link to their social media profiles.

Did you know that 69 percent of consumers are more likely to use a local business if it has information available on a social media site*? The average age of the typical Facebook and Twitter user are 38.4 and 39.1, respectively. Which means they’re most likely married with 2.5 kids, two cars in the garage, and a mortgage—otherwise known as your target market.

Suppose you caught one of your employees refusing to answer a customer’s question or behaving in a manner that drove them away. Would you allow it? Of course you wouldn’t. So why would you allow your website to do so?

Want to take your website from failure to fantastic? Contact us today.


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