10 Common Website Issues

At Crisp Apple, our team has worked on many websites throughout the years and we see these website issues time and time again. Not only are these things impacting your visitor experience, but they could be directly impacting your inquiries and revenue. When people land on your website, these are the things that make people frustrated and they navigate away, to go somewhere else.

The worst part is that many of these are easy things to fix.

So we thought we would share them with you.

Top 10 website issues

1. Bad Navigation
2. Slow loading pages
3. Big, unoptimised images
4. The website isn’t responsive for small screens
5. Broken or low-value backlinks
6. Insufficient site security
7. Outdated design
8. Broken contact forms
9. Broken social media links
10. Poor user experience.

Bad Navigation

Bad navigation has too many options and too much to read, leaving the visitor feeling overwhelmed and unsure of where to go. Good website navigation has an uncluttered menu bar with only the most important links that are optimised to stack responsively on small screens. 

 

Slow Loading Pages

Pages typically load slowly from big bloated elements on the page like images that are not optimised for web, poorly optimised scripts and code, too many plugins and insufficient resources on the server. Improving the page speed can in many cases be a quick, inexpensive fix. Speak to your web developer about reviewing your page speed or add a regular audit to your Care Plan to keep things in tip-top shape.

 

Big, Unoptimised Images

Images that are too big and not optimised for websites can appear blurry on the front end (the part of the website that the user sees) or lost on mobile devices with images too big to display properly on smaller screens. 

 

Having the correctly sized images optimised specifically for your website will go a long way in improving your user experience and page speed. Your web developer or designer can review your current images on your site and make recommendations for improvements. 

 

The Website Isn’t Responsive For Small Screens

 

Having a mobile responsive website is no longer an option, it is a must. Website users have high standards and expectations and won’t hang around if they land on a website that doesn’t immediately meet their needs. 

 

Test your website on multiple devices and speak to your web development team to update any issues. Responsive design and navigation, along with optimised images that are the correct size, are an absolute must.

 

Broken Or Low-Value Backlinks

Backlinks are hyperlinks between different websites. Links that link from other websites back to your site can drive traffic and add credibility to your brand. Think about linking from a supplier website to your site. Keeping these links up to date and ensuring they still link out to live pages is important for SEO. Speak to your web developer about adding backlink checks to your monthly care plan.

 

Insufficient Site Security

 

Website security is a multi-faceted approach that can protect your information and safeguard any information collected from your website users or store customers. Having an SSL/TLS certificate that shows up as “https” rather than “http” in the URL is key. Ensuring your passwords are strong and that regular maintenance updates are being done, will also go a long way to keeping your website secure. 

 

A website with insufficient site security is vulnerable to hackers, data theft, malware and cyber-attacks.

 

Outdated Design

 

The design of your website is one of the first things visitors will experience when they land your site. Outdated design can slow down your website as it needs regular updates to remain light and agile to adapt to different screen sizes. Updating the design also keeps user experience elements like the navigation streamlined and clutter-free.

 

Broken Contact Forms

 

How often have you completed a contact form only to never hear back from the person you thought you sent it to? It’s frustrating and most of the time you won’t go back to find alternative contact details, you just go somewhere else. Making sure your contact form is working properly and that emails are being sent and received is an absolute must. 

 

Broken Social Media Links

 

Clicking on a social media link on a website only to arrive at a blank page is one of the fastest ways to get website users to click away. Broken links cause frustration and most people won’t bother navigating away and searching for you on social media, they will just go elsewhere. Check-in on these links regularly takes a few minutes.

 

Poor User Experience

 

Navigating a website that has a heap of pop-ups, review tabs popping out on the sides, too many words to read and an overwhelming amount of options to choose from will quickly see website users clicking away. A good user experience means that your visitors can find the information they are looking for quickly and easily without too many steps to get there and too many things to deal with along the way.

 

What Your Website Visitors Really Want

 

Think about the things that frustrate you as a website user and the things you like as a website user. These are the same frustrations that your website visitors have.

 

When last did you look at your website? Most people don’t have much to do with their websites once they are launched unless they need to update something or there has been a complaint about something working.

 

This is not a bad thing if you have a team and a robust care plan that takes care of all the website updates and keeps the website engine humming. If you don’t have a care plan or a team, we highly recommend investing in both. 

 

Care plans are typically available for a wide range of budgets to suit your needs and can save you a heap of money in the long run. 

 

Regular monthly maintenance makes sure your tech updates are taken care of and having a dedicated team means that they can pick up on any issues before they arise and cost you money. 

 

Quick Website Wins

 

Checking and fixing some of the items on this list will give you some quick wins and a better user experience right away. If things like the design and navigation need to be overhauled, it could take longer to update and if it has been left for a long time, it could also be expensive. 

 

But don’t leave it in the too-hard basket, fixing small things like broken page links or a contact form, can make a big difference, but you won’t know until you find out what the whole picture is.

 

Website Audits

 

Get your website reviewed or audited annually at the very least. Get a professional team to comb through everything from page speed to user experience, SEO, copywriting and more. They will be able to identify opportunities and challenges and make any recommendations that you can use, some of which you may be able to implement yourself.

 

Find out what’s happening under the hood of your website. Even if you have a great team like Crisp Apple handling the heaving lifting with a brilliant care plan, an annual review will ensure that your website looks sharp year after year and that your visitors are always getting the best experience.