10 Reasons Why Websites Fail (and how we can help)April 3rd, 2023

BLOG POST 10 Reasons Why Websites Fail web There are many reasons why websites fail. Today we will discuss the top 10 reasons and also indicate how we can help.

  1. Poor User Experience: Websites that are difficult to navigate, slow to load, or confusing can quickly turn users away.
    How we can help: We will design a site that has clear navigation, loads quickly and has clearly laid out content.
  2. Lack of Quality Content: Content is king on the web. Websites that don’t have compelling and valuable content can struggle to attract and retain visitors.
    How we can help: We will work with you to create a content strategy tailor-made for your business. Different businesses benefit from different content. For some that may be video posts, for others that might be how to articles, and for others it might be just something as simple as photos of your work.
  3. Not Mobile-Friendly: With so many people accessing the web from their mobile devices, it’s crucial for websites to be optimized for mobile use. Failing to do so can lead to a significant loss of traffic.
    How we can help: All our sites are 100% responsively designed and look great everywhere!  And, if you have a website that isn’t mobile friendly, we can rebuild your site to render properly on smaller devices and pads.
  4. No Clear Call-to-Action: Websites that don’t have a clear call-to-action can leave visitors unsure of what to do next, leading to frustration and disengagement.
    How we can help: we make sure every site we build has a call to action. Now again, this might be different for different types of websites. For an e-commerce site as an example your call to action would be to try to get someone to purchase your products. For another company it might be something like getting people to fill out a contact form. Read our post: Clear Call To Action: Keep your eye on the prize.
  5. Poor Search Engine Optimization: If a website isn’t optimized for search engines, it can be difficult for potential visitors to find it. This can lead to a lack of traffic and ultimately, failure.
    How we can help:  all of our management plans include search engine optimization (SEO). Lack of optimization is one of the main reasons why websites fail. This is an area where we can help you, increase your rankings and improve your ROI.
  6. Lack of Social Proof: Social proof, such as reviews and testimonials, can go a long way in building trust and credibility with visitors. Websites that don’t have social proof may struggle to gain the trust of potential customers.
    How we can help: we will assist you with getting testimonials on your site. Real testimonials are a great tool and shows potential customers/clients the benefits of using your services. We will also help you by setting up your Google Business listing which is a great place for your customers/clients to give you a review.
  7. Outdated Design: An outdated design can make a website look unprofessional and untrustworthy. This can cause visitors to leave the site and seek out a more modern alternative.
    How we can help: RooSites has a finger on the pulse of the industry and will design and build you a site that is modern, and which fulfills the goals of your company.
  8. Security Issues: Websites that are not secure can lead to data breaches and other security issues. This can damage the reputation of the website and lead to a loss of trust among users.
    How we help:  we use the most secure hosting available. All of our sites are backed up daily and screen for potential security issues.
  9. Lack of Integration: Websites that don’t integrate with other platforms, such as social media or email marketing tools, can miss out on valuable traffic and opportunities.
    How we help:  as we said above, we help you with your content marketing strategy, part of that is integrating with your social media, allowing your visitors to share your posts and hopefully grow your following. For our clients utilizing email marketing, we make sure that your sign-up form is visible, where it can’t be missed.
  10. Poor Marketing Strategy: Even the best website will struggle to succeed without a solid marketing strategy. Websites that don’t have a plan for driving traffic and generating leads may struggle to succeed.
    How we help:  as we are planning your website, we will also be thinking ahead to your marketing strategy, coming up with a plan to help you succeed and grow your business. Many times we take over an existing site. In that case, we will meet and discuss what you’re trying to achieve, and then help you formulate a plan to help you grow and meet your goals.

Bottom Line: hopefully this post helps you to understand why websites fail. Luckily as we’ve indicated above, we can help you if your site is suffering from any of these 10 issues. Contact us today for an initial consultation.

Lessons Learned From March MadnessMarch 20th, 2023

BLOG POST Lessons Learned From March Madness March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year. The competition is so fierce, and every year we have amazing surprises and upsets. While watching the games, I realized there are some similarities between the tournament and small businesses and lessons to be learned. Today we examine those lessons and how they apply to small businesses.

Here are four lessons to be learned:

  1. Just because you are an underdog doesn’t mean you can’t succeed.

    If I told you that Fairleigh Dickinson University would beat Purdue, you would’ve looked at me like I have two heads. And quite frankly you would not have been so far off in your assessment. This truly is one of the great parts of March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament, anyone can pull the upset.


    How It Applies:
    I meet with companies all the time who feel that they can’t compete with larger entities.  However, I point out that the web is the great equalizer and smaller companies can compete with larger rivals.  We do this by optimizing their site for search engines, and focus on their core locations.  For instance, unit may not be able to compete with a nationwide company, but within your city or town you can rank very highly if not number one.  By having a professional looking website, people don’t have to know that you are a small one man shop or mom and pop business.

  2. The experts don’t know everything.

    I was just watching a video by Jay Bilas, considered one of the experts on college basketball. He had picked Arizona to win it all. Arizona got beat by major underdog Princeton. Watch Video ».

    How It Applies: Business consultants and others who are supposedly experts would look down on a small business and try to tell them they don’t have the capitalization to succeed. However if this was true, you would’ve had companies like Amazon starting in their basement. So many of the successful companies in the US started as very small businesses. So keep doing what you do well, and don’t listen to anyone who tries to negatively portray your businesses chances for success.

    Suggested Reading: Businesses That Started In Basements »

  3. Attitude and desire can beat greater talent.

    March Madness is one of the most exciting times in these young players lives. Most of the smaller schools aren’t going to produce a lot of NBA level talent. So this is the biggest sporting event of their lives. This is why you have 16 seeds winning, the players have such desire and will to win that it overcomes the much higher seated rivals.

    How It Applies: as we mentioned in the point above, a lot of businesses started in people’s garages, and turn out to be some of the biggest companies the world has ever known. So while you’re working on your own small business, keep that desire, that will to succeed and you open up a world of possibilities.  Roosites knows this firsthand, as we started at the very beginning of the Internet age.  If you told us that we’d be in business over 25 years and manage hundreds of websites, I would’ve laughed at you back in the 90s. But we always had that will to achieve and push forward and it has paid off remarkably.

  4. Fresh ideas can overcome antiquated thinking.

    When you watch NCAA basketball they always build up some of these coaches who have been around for decades. But what we are seeing is that many of these coaches ideas are not translating into modern day success. NCAA basketball has changed so much over the last few years with the transfer portal, the NIL money and other changes.  Now you are seeing some of these younger coaches with fresh ideas beating up on some of the dinosaurs.

    How It Applies:  as a small business, you always have to be open to new, fresh ideas. Just because something used to work, doesn’t mean it’s going to work now or in the future. So keep an eye on current trends, and changes within your business. Take my business, RooSites as an example, years ago we didn’t have such a thing as responsive design, and we would build separate mobile websites. Fortunately in my business we have embraced responsive design so that our websites look good on all devices. But, there were a lot of late adapters who lost a lot of business having sites that look terrible on mobile devices. While we have development practices we follow, whenever I build a site I always look to see if there is a better way to achieve what my client needs for their business to do well.

“I am not pleading with you to make changes, I am telling you you have got to make them – not because I say so, but because old Father Time will take care of you if you don’t change. Consequently, you need a procurement department for new ideas.” ~Charles Kettering

Bottom Line

As Purdue, Kansas, Arizona and other major programs found out this year, there are a lot of surprises in March Madness!  Schools like Princeton come in as major underdogs yet go on to victory versus so-called Blue Bloods like Arizona who many picked to win the whole thing. They do this by working harder and having amazing fundamental skills. They make fewer mistakes and overcome lesser skills and size.  Ivy league schools have been doing this since the days of the legendary Pete Carril at Princeton. As such they tend to pull the major upsets and I can tell you no one wants to play them in March! As we show above, small businesses can also thrive by learning lessons from the NCAA Tournament and taking advantage of what they have learned.


If you need help with your website, we are here to help, Whether you have an existing website, or if you are in need of a new one, RooSites has been helping small businesses like yours since 1996. Please feel free to contact us anytime.


 

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