Swift Six: Basic website mistakes and how to fix them

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Hello! Welcome to another 123-reg Swift 6! Today I am going to be talking about simple website mistakes that can really hurt your business.

So first off, we’ve got spelling and grammar. This is a really big mistake and it’s a really easy one to correct on your website. So get the text from your website, copy it into Word. Anything that’s underlined in red is a spelling error, anything that’s underlined in green is a grammar error. Address the problem and then correct it on your website. It’s a really easy thing to get right.

The second thing is poor readability. So you need to be thinking about how easy it is for your users to actually read the copy on your site. So the first issue is – is it the right size? Make sure that they can read it whether they are using a desktop PC, a tablet or a mobile. And you need to consider that, you know, there is a lot of traffic on your website that is probably mobile these days. So certainly don’t let that be an afterthought. The second area there to think about is – what are the colours, what are the images around the text? Sometimes, you need to be very sure that users can read your text and that the background colours aren’t too bright. Also, if you’ve got a lot going on on your page, then it’s a bit of a challenge for them to often read the text. So make sure it’s nice and clean, that there’s a lot of space and that it’s really easy to read. And the third thing is actually just in terms of how the text flows. So what I suggest is you print out that text, hold it up and then read it out to someone else. And if you stumble or if you can’t read it or if they can’t get a sense of it or if the text doesn’t seem to flow, you need to address that and re-write it. And believe me, it makes a big difference reading something out compared to just reading it on the page. You’ll discover things that you’ve literally not seen before.

OK, the third thing is missing or hard to find calls to action. If someone looks at your webpage and get to the bottom of that webpage, what do you want them to do next? Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to go to another page? You need to direct your users to the next thing that you want them to be doing. They expect it and you should be doing it because you want to know, you want to get the most out of them visiting your website.

The fourth thing is missing trust signals. So I’ve covered this in another Swift 6, but trust signals are a really simple addition to any website and it’s an easy mistake to correct. By trust signals I mean something like affiliations or accreditations or organisations that you are a member of. Make sure their logo is on your website. It might be something like a customer testimonial. It’s a great and easy thing to add your site and it really helps users trust you. Or it might be something simple like a map showing where your office is. It’s an easy trust signal to add, it’s an easy mistake to address.

The fifth things is poor or broken links or poor navigation on your site. So make sure, when you put your site together, that you click every single link and that every link works. There’s nothing that turns website visitors off more than a broken link. They would just leave straight away. So not only check for broken links, but make sure that the links are logical. Does the user end up on the page that they would expect to end up having clicked on that link?

And the sixth thing is missing lead capture forms or contact details. Users are almost certainly – if they like what they see on your website – going to want to get in touch. So make that easy for them and give them as many ways as you can to get in touch. So make sure your phone number is there, make sure your e-mail address is there, make sure your physical address is there and don’t forget that plenty of people like using Facebook and Twitter as well. So make sure that those details are there as well.

Ok, that was 123-reg Swift 6. I’ll see you next time.