A strong online presence is crucial for any small business. A good website is a powerful tool. It attracts new customers. It builds credibility and fosters client relationships.
However, many small business websites have various issues and errors. These problems hinder their effectiveness and potential for success.
A recent survey found that 29% of small businesses still do not have a website. This is a major missed opportunity in the digital world.
Also, almost a third of small business owners keep their websites. They often neglect vital site functions that consumers expect. These include easy-to-use design. It also includes engaging content and social media integration. Let’s discuss about 25 big problems & solutions with small business websites.
Here are 25 common problems that small business websites often face:
- Outdated or unattractive design
- Poor navigation and confusing site structure
- Lack of mobile responsiveness
- Slow page loading speeds
- Security vulnerabilities (lack of SSL, outdated software/plugins)
- Broken links and 404 errors
- Lack of search engine optimization (SEO)
- Insufficient or outdated content
- No clear calls-to-action (CTAs)
- Lack of contact information or contact forms
- Absence of social media integration
- Poor image optimization (large file sizes)
- Lack of analytics tracking
- Accessibility issues for users with disabilities
- No defined brand identity or messaging
- Cluttered or busy layouts
- Lack of customer testimonials or reviews
- Inconsistent branding across pages
- Poorly written or error-filled content
- Lack of e-commerce or online payment functionality
- No clear value proposition or unique selling point
- Lack of responsive design for different screen sizes
- The absence of a blog or news section
- Insufficient product or service information
- No clear privacy policy or terms of service
1. Outdated or unattractive design
An outdated or unattractive website design looks visually dated. It lacks modern design elements and has an unpleasing aesthetic. This could include older sites. They have cluttered layouts and low-quality images. They have styles and designs that don’t fit current web design trends and best practices.
How it is Affecting Websites
An old or ugly design can hurt a small business website. It can hurt it in many ways:
A website is often a potential customer’s first interaction with a business. An old design makes a bad first impression. It makes the company look unprofessional, out-of-touch, or unable to adapt to trends.
Credibility: Modern design conveys trustworthiness and competence. An unappealing website design undermines a business’s credibility and authority in its industry.
Outdated designs often have usability issues. These include complex navigation. The text is hard to read. The layouts don’t work on mobile devices. This leads to a frustrating user experience, turning visitors away.
Companies aim to build a modern brand—an old website conflicts with this goal. The user may perceive a misalignment between the brand and its digital presence.
Did you know?
“38% of visitors will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive (Adobe).”
How to Solve This Issue
Get a new website: Hire pros to remake your website with modern looks and easy viewing on all devices.
Figure out your brand style: Decide how your brand looks and sounds. Then, make sure your new site matches.
Keep updating: Plan to refresh your site every few years with new designs and features.
Test it out: Try the new site with your customers to ensure it’s easy to use.
Keep it simple: Make the design clean and clear by removing extra stuff.
Use good pictures: Get nice photos or images that fit your brand.
Your website is important: Make it look great to show off your business.
2. Poor navigation and confusing site structure
Navigation refers to a website’s menu and links.
Active sentence: Users find them organized or hard to use.
This makes it tough for visitors to find the information they need. A confusing site structure lacks an intuitive flow or hierarchy. It happens when the organization and layout of pages/content are unclear.
How it is Affecting Websites
Confusing the user: When visitors can’t navigate a site, it frustrates them. They’ll likely leave to find a better-organized competitor’s site.
Poor navigation causes high bounce rates. Bounce rates are when visitors leave after viewing just one page. It also causes high exit rates across the site. Users can’t find what they want, so they exit prematurely.
You waste marketing efforts if users come to your site from marketing but leave due to navigation issues. There’s little chance of converting leads.
SEO impacts: Confusing site architecture with orphan pages can hurt search engine crawlability. This reduces your ability to get found online.
Did you know?
“94% of website feedback is related to navigation and functionality issues (source: KoMarketing).”
How to Solve This Issue
Conduct User Testing: Get feedback from your target users on your site’s layout and flow. Identify sticking points through user testing.
Simplify Navigation Menus: Use clear, concise label names in menus. Avoid burying items too deep in complex menu structures. Aim for simple, top-level categories.
Implement Breadcrumb Trails: They show users their place in the site’s hierarchy. They provide orientation.
Design simple taxonomies: Group related content together in well-organized taxonomies. Use labels that match user expectations.
Add search functionality: Put a big search box on your site. It will let users find content easily.
Analyze user paths: Look at data on popular entry and exit paths. Then, improve navigation for those user flows.
A site needs a good structure and easy navigation. These are key to a positive user experience. They also ensure visitors can find the info they need about your products and services.
3. Lack of mobile responsiveness
Mobile responsiveness refers to a website’s ability to adapt. It provides an optimal experience on different devices and screen sizes. The website lacks mobile responsiveness. It is not designed to respond well on smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices.
How it is Affecting Websites
Poor User Experience on Mobile: Non-responsive sites render poorly on mobile. They have tiny text and images that don’t fit the screen. Their layouts require excessive pinching and zooming. This frustrates mobile users.
Higher Bounce Rates: Studies show mobile users abandon non-mobile-friendly sites much quicker than responsive ones, leading to high bounce rates.
They lose traffic and sales. Over half of web traffic is now from mobile. Businesses without mobile-friendly sites miss out.
Negative SEO Impact: Google and other search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their ranking algorithms, penalizing non-responsive sites.
Did you know?
“85% of adults think a mobile website should be as good or better than the desktop version. (Source: Skilled.com)”
How to Solve This Issue
Use Responsive Web Design: Rebuild your website to fluidly adapt layout and features based on screen size.
Consider a mobile-first approach: Design for mobile first. Then, scale up to ensure a great small-screen experience.
Prioritize content for mobile: On smaller screens, focus on and condense critical content. Cut non-essential elements.
Optimize Media for Mobile: Resize images and videos. Use compressed formats to ensure fast page load times on mobile connections.
Use mobile-friendly menus: They include hamburger icons and accordions. They improve usability.
Test on Real Devices: Don’t just resize your browser window. Test your design on real mobile devices.
Mobile internet usage continues to skyrocket. Ensuring your small business website provides a great mobile experience is critical. It is needed to stay competitive.
4. Slow page loading speeds
Page loading speed refers to the amount of time it takes for a website’s content to fully load and render on a user’s browser. Slow page loading speeds force visitors to wait too long. They wait for the website’s elements, like text, images, and other media, to appear on their screens.
How it is Affecting Websites
Slow-loading pages lead to a frustrating user experience. Visitors have to wait a long time to access the website’s content. This can lead them to abandon the site.
Higher Bounce Rates: Studies have shown that a one-second delay in page loading can increase bounce rates by up to 32%. Bounce rates are the percentage of visitors. They leave after viewing just one page.
Slow-loading pages can hurt conversion rates. Impatient visitors are less likely to buy, fill out a form, or take any desired action on a slow website.
Negative SEO Impact: Google and other search engines rank faster-loading websites higher. Slower sites may struggle to rank well in search results.
Did you know?
“47% of people expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. (Source: Skilled.com).”
How to Solve Slow Loading
First, Optimize Images: Compress and resize them to cut file sizes.
Next, minimize code. Remove extra code, comments, and formatting from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This reduces page weight.
Lastly, Leverage Browser Caching: Set up your site to cache images, CSS, and JavaScript. This way, browsers don’t need to redownload these on future visits.
Consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN). It stores a cached version of your website’s static content. It stores it on servers worldwide. This allows visitors to access the content from the nearest server for faster delivery.
5. Security Vulnerabilities (Lack of SSL, Outdated Software/Plugins)
Websites face constant threats from hackers and cybercriminals looking to exploit any security holes. Two major vulnerabilities are a lack of SSL encryption and outdated software versions.
How It Affects Websites
Lack of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption means any data transmitted between a user’s browser and your website is not encrypted and can potentially be intercepted by hackers. This includes sensitive information like passwords, credit cards, etc.
Outdated software like your content management system (e.g. WordPress), plugins, and extensions often have known security flaws that hackers can use to break into your site.
Did You Know?
- Around 30,000 new websites are hacked daily due to security vulnerabilities.
- 86% of websites globally have outdated software installed with security vulnerabilities.
- Google flags non-HTTPS sites as “Not secure,” which impacts trust and rankings.
How to Solve This Issue
Install SSL Certificate: An SSL certificate enables HTTPS protocol on your site, encrypting all data transmission between browsers and servers. This protects any sensitive information.
Always Update Software: Set software updates to automatic wherever possible. For CMSs and plugins, enable auto-updates or set reminders to install updates as soon as they are released.
Use Security Plugins: Popular CMS platforms like WordPress have security plugins that can harden security, block attacks, enforce strong passwords, and more.
Web Application Firewall: A web application firewall monitors and filters out malicious traffic before it reaches your website, providing an extra layer of protection.
Secure Hosting: Choose a reputable web hosting provider that takes security seriously with measures like network firewalls, malware scanning, and regular security audits.
Remove Outdated Software: Audit your website and server regularly to find any outdated, unsupported, or deprecated software/plugins and remove them.
Maintaining website security is an ongoing process, but taking proactive measures like the ones above can significantly reduce vulnerabilities and threats. A secured site protects your data and gives users peace of mind.
6. Broken Links and 404 Errors
Links break when a link on your website points to a missing page or resource. The missing page shows a 404 error. This can stem from deleting or moving content without updating links, mistyping URLs, etc.
How It Affects Websites
Broken links frustrate visitors. They end up on a dead-end or error page instead of the intended content. This can increase bounce rates and hurt conversions as people leave due to the poor user experience.
Also, too many broken links hurt search engine rankings. Search bots see them as a sign of poor quality when crawling the site.
Did You Know?
- The average website has over 60% of its links broken or inaccurate
- Roughly 1 in 200 links on websites are broken at any given time
- 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience, like broken links
How to Solve This Issue
Use Crawling Tools: Crawlers like Screaming Frog can scan your site. They can find any broken links, both internal and external. Then, you can fix them.
Setup 404 Monitoring: Google Search Console and other tools can alert you when a visitor lands on a 404 page. Then, you can investigate and fix the broken link.
Redirect Properly: When removing content, use 301 redirects. They send visitors and search bots to the new page URL instead of a 404.
Create a Custom 404 Page: Don’t use a generic error page. Make a user-friendly 404. It should have suggestions to help visitors find what they need on your site.
Internal Link Checker: Many content management systems have plugins or built-in tools. They use them to scan and report broken internal links.
Manual Checking: This is especially true on smaller sites. Manually reviewing pages and clicking all links can help find any broken ones during routine maintenance.
Broken links are not always avoidable. But, regularly fixing them is crucial. It provides a smooth user experience and keeps a high-quality website that search engines prefer.
7. Lack of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO refers to techniques that help your website rank higher. They do so in search results on Google, Bing, and other search engines. Without proper SEO, your site may get lost in the vast ocean of online content.
How It Affects Websites
Your pages don’t rank well in search. So, you’re missing out on a huge amount of potential traffic and visibility. The top results get the majority of clicks, so ranking low severely limits your ability to get found by new audiences.
Poor SEO also impacts user experience. Search engines favor fast-loading, mobile-friendly sites. So, slow speeds and non-responsiveness frustrate visitors and hurt SEO.
Did You Know?
- Over 90% of online experiences start with a search engine
- The first result on Google gets around 28% of clicks
- Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on something from the second page of the results
How to Solve This Issue
Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords your target audience is searching for and optimize pages with those terms.
On-Page SEO: Update title tags, meta descriptions, and headers. Also, update image alt text and page content. Include keywords naturally.
Technical SEO: Speed up the site. Make it work on mobile. Fix broken links. Use SEO-friendly URLs and more.
Link Building: Acquire high-quality inbound links from reputable external sites, an important Google ranking factor.
Local SEO: For local businesses, improve directory listings. Also, do the same for Google Business Profile and location pages.
Use SEO Tools: Platforms like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console provide data. They help find and fix SEO issues.
Create Quality Content: Regularly publishing relevant, valuable content helps your site get crawled and indexed more frequently.
Neglecting SEO is one of the biggest missed opportunities online. Consistent SEO maintenance helps your website get found. It also builds brand awareness and brings more qualified traffic from search engines.
8. Insufficient or Outdated Content
Having a lack of fresh, relevant content on your website can be detrimental to its success. Outdated or thin content provides little value to visitors and search engines alike.
How It Affects Websites
Search engines rank pages by how much content sites have and how often they update it. They favor sites with a lot of good content. Outdated or sparse content gets poor rankings, limiting your visibility.
For human visitors, content is a major factor for trust and authority. It also affects whether they remain engaged with your site. Stale, unhelpful content leads to high bounce rates as users quickly leave.
Did You Know?
- Websites with more than 50 pages get 48% more traffic than smaller sites
- Regularly updating content can double website leads
- 61% of online buyers are more likely to buy from companies with updated content
How to Solve This Issue
Content Calendar: Create an editorial calendar. Use it to plan a steady stream of new blogs, articles, listings, and multimedia.
Update Existing Content: Review the existing outdated pages. Add more value, update facts, and optimize for search.
Repurpose Content: Turn one piece of content into multiple formats like videos, infographics, podcasts etc. to appeal to different audiences.
Incorporate Keywords: Research relevant keywords. Weave them into titles, headings, and body content naturally. This will boost visibility.
Guest Contributors: Invite industry experts, influencers or employees to contribute unique content to your site.
Hire Content Creators: Brands have limited resources. They can save money by hiring freelance writers/creators for content.
Interactive Content: Quizzes, surveys, calculators and other interactive content keep users engaged while providing value.
High-quality, consistently published content is one of the best ways to improve SEO, user experience and your website’s goals, whether that’s lead generation, sales, or building an audience.
9. No Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
A call-to-action (CTA) is a prompt on a website. It tells visitors what action you want them to take next. That could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading something. Having no clear CTAs can greatly limit conversions.
How It Affects Websites
Without clear CTAs, visitors may be unsure of what to do on your site. They may see the site as just for consuming content. This causes confusion. It also leads to missed chances to guide users to your business goals. These goals include capturing leads and driving sales.
Even if someone is interested in your products/services, the lack of a clear next step makes it unlikely they’ll convert. They’re essentially left to fend for themselves without an obvious path forward.
Did You Know?
- 70% of small business websites lack a call-to-action on their homepage
- Having multiple CTAs can increase conversions by 1617%
- CTAs that match the information being consumed increase conversions by 285%
How to Solve This Issue
Add CTAs Sitewide: Identify places to naturally incorporate CTAs throughout key website pages – don’t just limit them to the homepage.
Use Action Language: CTAs should use actionable language with strong verbs like “Buy Now”, “Sign Up Today”, “Get Your Free Quote”, etc.
Make Them Visible: Make sure CTAs are easy to see. They should stand out due to different colors, whitespace, directional cues, and smart placement.
Reduce Distractions: When presenting an important action, limit navigation links and other elements. They could distract from the focused CTA.
Use Urgency: Adding urgency tactics like countdown timers or phrases like “Limited Time Only” can boost CTA conversions.
Test Different CTAs: Try variations of colors, text, sizes, and placement to see which CTAs resonate best with your audience.
Guide the Next Step: After someone clicks a CTA, guide them with a thank you page and clear directions on what happens next.
Clear, prominent calls to action provide essential cues. They help guide visitors to your business goals, like data capture, purchases, or other key conversions.
10. Lack of Contact Information or Contact Forms
Having easily accessible contact details and forms is crucial for any business website. Without clear ways for visitors to get in touch, you could be missing out on valuable leads and customers.
How It Affects Websites
When people can’t find basic contact information like an email, phone number, or physical address, it raises doubts about the legitimacy and trustworthiness of the business behind the website. Visitors may simply look elsewhere.
Even if someone is interested in your products or services, lacking a clear way to inquire or reach out means losing potential sales opportunities. Customers expect convenient contact options.
Did You Know?
- 64% of website visitors want to see a company’s contact information on the homepage
- Including a contact form can increase conversions by up to 50%
- 88% of customers expect businesses to have a clickable phone number on their mobile site
How to Solve This Issue
Prominent Contact Page: Create a dedicated, easy-to-find Contact page that contains all relevant contact channels like email, phone, physical address, hours, etc.
Include Contact Forms: Embed simple contact forms on key pages to allow visitors to easily submit inquiries without an email client.
Click-to-Call Buttons: Especially for mobile sites, clickable phone numbers that initiate calls with one tap provide a seamless contact experience.
Live Chat: Adding live chat lets you help website visitors in real-time. It also lets you capture lead info.
Social Media Links: Clearly display links to official social media profiles. Customers can message you there as another support channel.
Multiple Locations: For businesses with multiple locations, list complete contact details separated by geographical areas.
Clear pathways for visitors to get in touch build trust. They also improve user experience. They can boost sales by letting interested prospects to easily connect with your business.
11. Absence of Social Media Integration
Social media plays a vital role in how businesses connect with their audiences. Having no integration or links to your social channels on your website is a missed opportunity.
How It Affects Websites
Social media accounts provide valuable touchpoints. They are for marketing and customer service. Without integration, you can’t direct website visitors to follow you on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This limits brand and audience growth.
Additionally, embedding social media feeds on your site adds dynamic, user-generated content that keeps pages feeling fresh and interactive. An absence of this leaves websites looking static.
Did You Know?
- 73% of customers expect companies to have a presence on social media
- Websites integrated with social media channels drive up to 200% more visitors
- People spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes per day on social apps
How to Solve This Issue
Add Social Icons: Include clickable icons in the header/footer that link directly to your official social profiles so visitors can easily connect.
Embedded Feeds: Use API integrations or social media widgets to embed your latest posts, product mentions, reviews, etc. directly on relevant website pages.
Social Sharing: Add share buttons on blogs, product pages, etc. to make it easy for visitors to share your content across their networks.
Social Logins: Allowing visitors to register or login to your site using existing social media credentials provides a smoother user experience.
Shoppable Posts: For e-commerce stores, make posts from platforms like Instagram and TikTok directly shoppable from your website.
Influencer Features: Show content created about your brand by influencers or customers. Embed their posts on your site.
Social media is a powerful marketing and engagement channel. Integrating it into your website properly helps expand visibility. It provides social proof. It makes the site more interactive and community-driven.
12. Poor Image Optimization (Large File Sizes)
Images are crucial for enhancing the look and engagement of websites. However, using images with excessively large file sizes that haven’t been properly optimized can severely impact site performance.
How It Affects Websites
Websites with unoptimized, oversized images take much longer to load, leading to poor user experiences. Slow load times drastically increase bounce rates as impatient visitors hit the back button before the page even renders.
Additionally, since site speed is a major ranking factor for search engines like Google, having bloated images can negatively impact your search visibility and rankings over time.
Did You Know?
The average website weighs over 3 MB, largely due to unoptimized images.
47% of people expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less.
For every 1 second delay in load time, conversions can drop by up to 7%.
How to Solve This Issue
Resize Images: Resize larger images to the maximum display dimensions actually required on your webpages before uploading.
Compress Files: Use image editing tools or online compressors to reduce the overall file size of images without sacrificing visible quality.
Choose Optimal Formats: Save images in the most optimized file format based on usage – JPEGs for photographs, PNGs for graphics with transparent backgrounds, etc.
Enable Compression: Many servers and content delivery networks offer built-in compression and optimization for image libraries.
Utilize Lazy Loading: Lazy loading defers loading offscreen images until users scroll to them, improving perceived performance.
Implement Caching: Browser caching allows previously downloaded resources like images to be temporarily stored for faster reloading.
Reduce Usage: Only use images when visually necessary – remove unnecessary decorative images that don’t enhance user experience.
With few exceptions, websites should make image optimization a standard practice. Properly optimized images load faster, improve Core Web Vitals scores, and deliver a snappier, more satisfying experience for users across all devices and connection speeds.
13. Lack of Analytics Tracking
Analytics software provides invaluable insights into how visitors are interacting with and navigating your website. Not having any analytics tracking set up means operating blindly without data to guide your decisions.
How It Affects Websites
Without analytics, you have no visibility into crucial metrics like:
- Where your traffic is coming from (search, social, referrals etc.)
- Which pages/content are most popular
- How visitors flow through your site
- Demographic details about your audience
- Conversion rates for leads and sales
- Overall site performance and user experience signals
This lack of data makes it impossible to identify areas of strength or opportunities for improvement. You’re shooting in the dark rather than using real user behavior to optimize your website.
Did You Know?
Companies that use web analytics outperform competitors by 35% in sales.
Around 30% of small business websites lack any analytics tracking.
Businesses that prioritize data-driven marketing are 6x more profitable year-over-year.
How to Solve This Issue
Implement Analytics Platform: Set up a reputable web analytics tool like Google Analytics by adding a tracking code to your website. This collects user data.
Enable Event Tracking: In addition to pageview data, set up event tracking for things like video plays, file downloads, affiliate link clicks, etc.
Link Google Analytics to Marketing Platforms: Connect Analytics with platforms you use for search, social, email marketing etc. to centralize all user data.
Set Up Conversion Goals: Clearly define conversions you want to track like purchases, lead form submissions, email signups, etc.
Analyze and Optimize: Regularly review your analytics reports and real user data to identify areas for improvement through design, UX or content changes.
Leverage Additional Tools: Use heatmapping, session recording and other supplementary analytics tools for deeper user behavior insights.
The insights provided by web analytics are invaluable for making data-backed decisions to improve user experience, strengthen marketing strategies, boost conversions and drive overall business growth.
14. Accessibility Issues for Users with Disabilities
Website accessibility refers to designing and developing sites in a way that allows people with disabilities to effectively use and navigate them. Common accessibility issues create barriers that exclude users with visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairments.
How It Affects Websites
When websites lack proper accessibility, they essentially discriminate against a significant portion of the population with disabilities. These users face challenges like:
Being unable to navigate sites without a mouse due to lack of keyboard accessibility
Having content that is incompatible with screen readers for the visually impaired
Videos/audio not having captions or transcripts for the deaf/hard-of-hearing
Text and interactive elements are difficult to use for those with limited dexterity
Beyond being unethical to exclude users, inaccessible websites also have legal ramifications and can face compliance penalties in many countries and jurisdictions.
Did You Know?
Around 15% of the global population has some form of disability
In the U.S. alone, the disposable income for people with disabilities is around $490 billion
Lawsuits related to inaccessible websites and mobile apps have increased over 300% in recent years
How to Solve This Issue
Web Accessibility Evaluation: Audit your website against established accessibility standards and guidelines, like WCAG 2.1, to identify barriers.
Optimize Content: Ensure all text content has appropriate heading structures, color contrasts, and descriptions for images/multimedia.
Keyboard Navigation: All functionality should be accessible for keyboard-only users through a logical tab order without mouse dependency.
Transcripts/Captions: Provide synchronized text alternatives like transcripts and closed captions for video/audio content.
Adjustable Styles: Allow users to customize sizing and spacing of content based on their needs through adjustable text/UI components.
ARIA Roles: Incorporate ARIA roles, states, and properties to express user interface semantics and behavior in assistive technologies.
Accessibility Plugins/Tools: Leverage automated and manual testing tools along with developer plugins to identify and resolve accessibility issues.
Ongoing Audits: Accessibility isn’t a one-time checklist – routinely monitor and remediate issues as part of website maintenance.
Building websites that are inclusive and accessible to everyone isn’t just ethical, it’s also good business that expands your potential audience and avoids legal risks. Prioritizing accessibility benefits all users.
15. No Defined Brand Identity or Messaging
A strong brand identity establishes who you are as a business and what you represent. Without a clear brand voice and visuals consistently carried through your website, it becomes difficult for visitors to understand and connect with your company.
How It Affects Websites
When brand identity elements like logos, colors, fonts, tone, and messaging are inconsistent or missing entirely across webpages, it creates an unprofessional, untrustworthy perception. Visitors may struggle to differentiate you from competitors.
Lack of cohesive branding also leads to subpar user experiences. Design inconsistencies make websites feel disjointed and confusing to navigate, rather than an intuitive, seamless journey.
From a marketing perspective, undefined brand identity makes it challenging to establish brand recognition, loyalty, and resonance with your target audiences.
Did You Know?
Consistent brand presentation can increase revenue by up to 23%
90% of consumers expect a consistent experience across all brand channels
Color alone increases brand recognition by up to 80%
How to Solve This Issue
Define Brand Guidelines: Establish clear guidelines that dictate your brand’s mission, voice, visual elements like logos and colors, and overall personality.
Conduct a Brand Audit: Review all website content, design, and assets to identify areas lacking brand consistency and in need of updates.
Update Key Pages: Ensure core pages like the homepage, about us, and product/service descriptions effectively convey your unique brand identity through text and visuals.
Consistent Design System: Implement a cohesive design system of typography, colors, buttons, iconography and other UI elements across the site.
Develop Branded Content: Create content like blogs, videos, and social media that reinforces brand voice and connects with your audiences.
Train Stakeholders: Make sure all internal teams like marketing, sales, and customer service, are aligned on accurately representing the brand through their interactions.
A website that reflects a coherent brand identity makes your business appear more credible, trustworthy and memorable. Consistent branding also streamlines the user experience and helps foster brand loyalty over time.
16. Cluttered or Busy Layouts
A cluttered website layout refers to pages that are overcrowded with too many elements like text, images, ads, buttons, and navigation links. This creates a busy, disorganized look that overwhelms visitors.
How It Affects Websites
Cluttered designs make it difficult for users to focus on or find the content/information they’re looking for. With so much going on, they can easily feel lost, confused, and unsure of where to navigate next.
Busy pages also come across as unprofessional and untrustworthy. If a website looks like a mess, visitors may doubt the credibility of the business behind it.
Additionally, cluttered layouts often lead to poor accessibility for users with disabilities who rely on screen readers or other assistive technologies to navigate websites.
Did You Know?
websites with clean, simple designs are rated 94% more credible
Removing clutter can increase a website’s active viewing time by 600%
The average user spends just 10–20 seconds on a website before leaving if the layout is unappealing
How to Solve This Issue
Prioritize Content: Critically evaluate every element on a page and only keep what’s absolutely essential. Remove distracting ads, animations, widgets, etc.
Use Whitespace: Incorporate plenty of blank space between sections and elements to separate content into easily digestible chunks.
Establish Visual Hierarchy: Use contrasting colors, typography sizes, spacing, etc. to create a clear sense of which information is most important.
Declutter Navigation: Minimize clutter in headers/footers by consolidating links under dropdowns or removing redundant navigation elements.
Streamline CTAs: Too many calls-to-action create confusion. Guide users through purposeful CTAs and remove competing, distracting buttons.
Responsive Design: Ensure layouts adapt smoothly to smaller screen sizes, rather than elements overlapping or becoming cramped on mobile.
Conduct User Testing: Analyze heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys to identify confusing page layouts from the user perspective.
A clean, minimalist page design allows the core content and purpose to stand out clearly. This improves user engagement, accessibility, and projects a polished, professional brand image.
17. Lack of Customer Testimonials or Reviews
Customer testimonials and reviews provide social proof and validation from real users about your products, services, or business. Not displaying this valuable feedback on your website is a missed opportunity.
How It Affects Websites
In the absence of authentic customer voices, new visitors have no way to gauge the quality or reputation of what you offer beyond just your own marketing claims. This lack of third-party endorsement can breed skepticism and distrust.
Additionally, reviews and testimonials create engagement opportunities where prospective customers can relate to the experiences of others. Without this connection point, it’s more difficult to convince someone to make a purchase decision.
From an SEO perspective, having little to no review content means you’re missing out on fresh user-generated material that search engines value for relevance and ranking signals.
Did You Know?
93% of consumers say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions
Displaying reviews can increase conversion rates by 270%
Having at least 50 reviews leads to a 4.6% increase in revenue
How to Solve This Issue
Collect Customer Feedback: Proactively reach out to customers and make it easy for them to provide open-ended testimonials or star ratings after a purchase/service.
Leverage Review Platforms: Claim your business listings on sites like Google, Facebook, TrustPilot, etc. to accumulate customer reviews in a central place.
Add Testimonial Sections: Dedicate website page sections or sliders to prominently display text, video or pictorial customer testimonials.
Integrate Review Widgets: Use plugins or APIs to embed review feeds and ratings directly into relevant product, service or company pages.
Respond to Reviews: Engage authentically with customer reviews by thanking positive ones and addressing any issues or concerns raised.
Highlight Expertise: In addition to client reviews, display any industry accreditations, awards or media mentions that bolster credibility.
Reviews foster trust, transparency and confidence with prospective customers by showing them the real experiences of others. This social proof is a powerful tool for boosting conversions and sales.
18. Inconsistent Branding Across Pages
Brand consistency refers to having uniform visual elements like logos, colors, fonts, and an aligned voice/tone present throughout all pages of a website. When this consistency is lacking, it creates an incoherent, unprofessional brand experience.
How It Affects Websites
With inconsistent branding, visitors may feel confused about whether different sections belong to the same website or company. This fragmented experience makes it difficult for users to understand and recognize your brand’s identity quickly.
Additionally, drastic visual or messaging shifts from page to page can seem amateurish and call into question the credibility of the business. Strong, cohesive branding helps build trust.
From an operational standpoint, brand inconsistencies require more effort to manage multiple visual assets and voices than to maintain a streamlined, easily replicated brand system.
Did You Know?
Brand consistency can increase revenue by up to 33%
60% of millennials expect brand consistency across all channels and platforms
Consistent presentation of just color improves brand recognition by 80%
How to Solve This Issue
Develop Brand Guidelines: Create comprehensive guidelines that dictate approved logo versions, color palettes, typography, image styles, tone of voice, etc.
Implement a Design System: Using reusable UI components and templates based on brand guidelines ensures a unified look across pages and platforms.
Centralize Asset Library: Build and maintain a single source of truth for all approved brand logos, fonts, imagery, illustrations, and other assets.
Conduct Brand Audits: Routinely evaluate all website pages and marketing channels to identify inconsistencies that need correction.
Train Stakeholders: Make brand guidelines easily accessible to any teams or individuals producing branded content, marketing, etc.
Use Modular Content: Build flexible landing pages/microsites using pre-approved modular brand blocks for efficient scaling.
Simplify Navigation: A simple main navigation using consistent menus and links reinforces discoverability across core site sections.
Establishing and adhering to clear brand guidelines provides a cohesive, unified experience that allows customers to quickly recognize and connect with your brand across every digital touchpoint.
19. Poorly Written or Error-Filled Content
Despite having great design and functionality, websites with sloppy writing full of grammatical mistakes, typos, or difficult to understand language can severely diminish their effectiveness.
How It Affects Websites
Poorly written content makes a website look unprofessional and untrustworthy. If there are basic writing errors, visitors may question the credibility and authority of the information provided.
On a usability level, confusing language and mistakes make the content difficult to comprehend. Users may get frustrated trying to decipher the intended meaning and just leave the site.
Additionally, spelling and grammar issues can negatively impact SEO. Search engines prefer clean, well-written content that provides a good experience for users.
Did You Know?
59% of people don’t trust a company that has obvious grammar/spelling mistakes on its website
For every $1 invested in quality web content, businesses can expect a $16 increase in value
38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content is poorly written
How to Solve This Issue
Hire Professional Writers: Work with experienced copywriters or content creators who have excellent writing skills and attention to detail.
Develop Content Guidelines: Establish guidelines around tone, style, formatting, and approved sources to maintain consistency.
Edit and Proofread Thoroughly: Have a robust editing and proofreading process with multiple rounds of review before publishing.
Use Writing Tools: Leverage grammar checkers, style guides, readability scores, and other tools to analyze and improve content quality.
Conduct user testing: Get feedback from your target audiences on whether website content is clear, valuable, and easily understandable.
Update Legacy Content: Regularly review and refresh older website pages to fix any errors and freshen up outdated writing.
Localize for Audiences: If targeting global markets, ensure content is properly translated and appropriate for different languages/cultures.
Quality writing is essential for establishing credibility, improving user experience, and optimizing for search engines. Error-free content that communicates value clearly and concisely is key to any successful website.
20. Lack of E-Commerce or Online Payment Functionality
For businesses selling physical or digital products/services, having no way to accept payments or process transactions directly through their website is a significant limitation.
How It Affects Websites
Without e-commerce capabilities, websites essentially function solely as online brochures or catalogs. While visitors can browse offerings, they have to go through additional steps offsite to actually make a purchase.
This disjointed process creates friction that can lead to abandoned carts and lost sales opportunities. Customers expect the convenience of seamless, self-serve online shopping experiences.
Additionally, lack of payment functionality means businesses miss out on valuable consumer data and touchpoints like email lists, purchase histories, and multi-channel marketing opportunities.
Did You Know?
E-commerce sales worldwide are projected to reach $5.5 trillion in 2023
79% of smartphone users have made an online purchase using their mobile device
The global shopping cart abandonment rate is nearly 70%
How to Solve This Issue
Implement E-Commerce Platform: Integrate a secure e-commerce solution like WooCommerce, Shopify, or Magento to enable online purchasing from your website.
Payment Gateways: Connect popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc. to process credit/debit card transactions seamlessly.
Secure Hosting & SSL: Ensure your website is hosted on a secure, PCI-compliant server with required SSL certificates for safe transactions.
Optimize Checkout Process: Design a streamlined, intuitive multi-step checkout flow with minimal form fields to reduce abandonment rates.
Mobile Optimization: With increasing mobile commerce, ensure your e-commerce experience is fully responsive across all devices.
Multi-Currency & Language: If selling internationally, support multiple currencies, languages, and localized payment methods.
Security & Compliance: Clearly display trust badges, secure shopping guarantees, and privacy policies to build customer confidence.
In today’s digital economy, providing a secure, user-friendly e-commerce experience directly through your website is crucial. This permits businesses to maximize sales conversions and gather valuable customer data to drive growth.
21. No Clear Value Proposition or Unique Selling Point
A value proposition explains the specific benefits and unique value a product/service provides to customers. Without clearly highlighting this on a website, visitors may be confused about what differentiates the business from competitors.
How It Affects Websites
If the core value isn’t immediately evident, potential customers won’t understand why they should choose or buy from that particular website or business. This lack of differentiation makes it difficult to stand out or convince someone to take action.
Without a strong, compelling value proposition guiding the content and messaging, websites often end up as generic brochures listing features rather than promoting unique competitive advantages.
Additionally, search engines value content with a clear focus and purpose. Lack of a defined value prop can make it harder for crawlers to understand relevance.
Did You Know?
Within 10 seconds, most visitors decide whether to stay or leave a website
Businesses with an effective value proposition experience a 63% lower cost-per-visitor
Well-crafted value propositions can increase conversions by over 300%
How to Solve This Issue
Identify Key Benefits: Through market research and customer input, determine the primary benefits and advantages your product/service provides.
Define Target Audience: Understand your ideal customer personas to ensure the value proposition speaks directly to their specific needs.
Highlight Unique Differentiators: Clearly emphasize what makes your offering different and better than alternatives through unique selling points.
Feature in Headlines/Messaging: Ensure the core value proposition is prominently featured in primary headlines, calls-to-action, and marketing messaging.
Use Persuasive Language: Craft benefit-driven copy that paints a compelling vision of how your solution solves customer challenges.
Reinforce with Social Proof: Back up claims with testimonials, reviews, statistics and other types of validation from existing customers.
Split Test Variations: Try different value propositions and track metrics like bounce rate, time on site and conversions to optimize the most effective approach.
Having a clear, well-articulated value proposition gives visitors an immediate understanding of your unique offerings and how they can benefit, increasing motivation to engage and convert.
22. Lack of Responsive Design for Different Screen Sizes
Responsive web design refers to the ability of a website to adapt and display correctly across various devices and screen sizes, from desktop computers to tablets and smartphones. When this responsiveness is lacking, it creates a poor user experience.
How It Affects Websites
Websites that are not mobile-friendly or responsive become difficult to navigate, read, and interact with on smaller screens. Content may be cramped, images distorted, links hard to click, and overall usability suffers significantly.
This lack of an optimized experience for mobile users is a major issue, as an increasing number of internet traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. Visitors are likely to quickly abandon non-responsive sites.
Additionally, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their rankings, penalizing those that lack responsiveness across devices.
Did You Know?
Over 60% of internet traffic today comes from mobile devices
85% of adults think a mobile website should be as good or better than desktop
Google uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor for search results
How to Solve This Issue
Responsive Website Design: Rebuild or update your website using responsive design principles that automatically adapt layout, content, and functionality to the user’s screen size.
Mobile-First Approach: Design and code the mobile experience first, then scale up for larger screens rather than the reverse.
Responsive Testing: Use tools and browser emulators to thoroughly test the responsive experience across various device sizes and resolutions.
Optimize Media: Ensure images, videos, and other media are optimized to load quickly and display properly on smaller mobile screens.
Prioritize Content: On smaller viewports, prioritize and highlight the most important content “above the fold” before scrolling.
Streamline Navigation: Utilize responsive menus and navigation patterns optimized for ease of use on touchscreens and smaller displays.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Consider AMP for delivering blazing-fast mobile web experiences, especially for publishers/bloggers.
With mobile accounting for the majority of internet traffic, responsive web design is essential for providing an optimal user experience, boosting engagement metrics like bounce rate and conversion rate, as well as improving search engine visibility.
23. The Absence of a Blog or News Section
Many websites, especially those for businesses, lack any sort of regularly updated blog or news area to share fresh content with their audiences. This absence can negatively impact the website in several ways.
How It Affects Websites
Without a blog or news section, websites become stagnant sources of static information that provide little reason for visitors to return frequently. This lowers engagement and makes it harder to build a consistent audience.
From an SEO perspective, search engines value websites with fresh, frequently updated content. The lack of new blog posts or articles gives search crawlers little new material to index and rank.
Additionally, businesses miss out on opportunities to share news, insights, and expertise that demonstrate thought leadership and keep their brand top-of-mind for customers.
Did You Know?
Websites with blogs tend to have 434% more indexed pages than those without
Companies that blog get 67% more leads per month than non-blogging firms
Around 77% of internet users read blogs and over 60% get their news from blogs
How to Solve This Issue
Launch a Blog Section: Add a dedicated blog area to your website with tools for publishing, categorizing, and archiving articles or news posts.
Content Marketing Strategy: Develop a content plan that aligns blog topics to key priorities like SEO keywords, lead generation, brand awareness, etc.
Consistent Publishing: Set a publishing cadence, whether weekly, biweekly, or monthly, and stick to a reliable schedule.
Optimize for Discovery: Ensure blog content follows best SEO practices and is shareable on social media for increased exposure.
Incorporate Different Formats: Supplement blog posts with videos, infographics, podcasts and other engaging multimedia formats.
Highlight on Website: Feature your latest blog posts and content prominently on key pages like the homepage to drive more visibility.
Repurpose Content: Extend the life of popular blog posts by updating, repackaging and promoting them across different channels.
A regularly updated blog provides fresh content that engages visitors, improves SEO, establishes expertise, and gives you another marketing channel to communicate with audiences.
24. Insufficient Product or Service Information
For any business selling products or services online, having incomplete or lacking details about the offerings on the website can severely hinder sales and conversions.
How It Affects Websites
When product/service pages don’t provide enough information, prospective customers are left with unanswered questions that may prevent them from making a purchase decision. Gaps in details create uncertainty and doubt.
Insufficient information also makes it difficult for search engines to properly understand and rank those pages for relevant queries users may be searching for. This impacts discoverability.
Additionally, vague or sparse content about products/services projects a lack of transparency and makes the company seem less credible in the eyes of customers.
Did You Know?
98% of online shoppers have been dissuaded from completing a purchase due to insufficient information
Product pages with quality descriptions see a 100-300% increase in conversion rates
Including videos on product pages can increase conversions by up to 144%
How to Solve This Issue
Detailed Descriptions: Provide comprehensive product/service descriptions that highlight features, specifications, dimensions, materials, and other key details customers need.
High-Quality Visuals: Include multiple high-resolution photos, 360-degree spins, videos, and other visuals from various angles to showcase offerings thoroughly.
Compare Features: Allow customers to easily compare similar products/services side-by-side based on features and pricing.
FAQ Sections: Incorporate FAQ pages or areas that address common pre-sale questions and doubts customers may have.
Customer Reviews: Integrate customer testimonials, ratings, and third-party validation onto product/service pages to build trust.
Supporting Content: Supplement core pages with additional resources like how-to guides, spec sheets, case studies, and other helpful content.
Optimize for Search: Ensure product/service content is well-structured and keyword optimized for improved visibility in relevant search queries.
Providing extensive, informative, and trustworthy product/service details is crucial for converting website visitors into paying customers while boosting rankings and sales.
25. No Clear Privacy Policy or Terms of Service
Privacy policies and terms of service are legal agreements that websites use to disclose how they handle user data and outline the rules users must follow. Not having these policies clearly stated can have serious consequences.
How It Affects Websites
The absence of visible privacy policies raises red flags for users about how their personal information is being collected, used, and protected (or not protected) on that website. This undermines trust.
Additionally, many jurisdictions now legally require websites to post comprehensive data privacy notices. Not doing so can expose the website/company to fines and other penalties for non-compliance.
From a user experience perspective, not having terms of service creates ambiguity around acceptable conduct, leading to potential abuse of the website and its features by bad actors.
Did You Know?
92% of people worry about online privacy and data protection
Not having a privacy policy is one of the top trust issues for website visitors
Fines for major privacy violations like GDPR breaches can reach tens of millions
How to Solve This Issue
Develop Clear Policies: Work with legal counsel to craft easy-to-understand yet comprehensive privacy and terms of service policies for your website.
Prominent Placement: Don’t bury the policies – make them easily accessible via links in website headers/footers and at every data collection point.
Plain Language: Avoid legalese. Use simple, clear language to explain policies in a way any visitor can understand.
Transparency: Discuss data practices, cookies, third-party sharing, dispute resolutions and more transparently.
Compliance Standards: Ensure policies adhere to relevant data protection regulations like GDPR, CCPA, etc. for your business/region.
Acceptance Tracking: Use consent management platforms or cookie banners to properly obtain and track user acceptance of policies.
Regular Reviews: As data practices change, regularly review and update policies to maintain transparency and compliance.
Clear, accessible, and compliant privacy and terms policies are essential for building user trust, mitigating legal risks, and creating a safe, respectful online environment for all visitors.
How Traffic On Media helps Solve problems with small business websites
Online presence is crucial for small businesses to thrive. As we’ve explored, numerous challenges can hinder the effectiveness of your website, from outdated designs and poor navigation to security vulnerabilities and lack of mobile responsiveness. These issues not only frustrate visitors but also impact your search engine rankings and conversion rates.
This is where Traffic On Media steps in as your dedicated partner in web excellence. Our comprehensive suite of services is tailored to address each of the problems we’ve discussed, ensuring your small business website not only meets but exceeds modern standards.
With Traffic On Media, you’ll benefit from:
- Cutting-edge design and development: We’ll create a visually stunning, user-friendly website that reflects your brand identity and engages your audience.
- Optimized performance: Enjoy lightning-fast page loads and seamless navigation across all devices, enhancing the user experience and boosting your search engine rankings.
- Robust security: We implement state-of-the-art security measures, including SSL certificates and regular software updates, to protect your site and your customers’ data.
- SEO mastery: Our expert team will optimize your content and structure for search engines, helping you climb the rankings and attract more organic traffic.
- Content strategy: We’ll develop a content plan that showcases your expertise, engages your audience, and drives conversions.
- E-commerce solutions: seamlessly integrate online payment systems and create a user-friendly shopping experience for your customers.
- Accessibility compliance: Ensure your website is usable by all, including those with disabilities, broadening your reach and demonstrating social responsibility.
- Ongoing support and maintenance: We don’t just build and forget. Our team provides continuous support, updates, and optimization to keep your site running smoothly and effectively.
By partnering with Traffic On Media, you’re not just getting a website; you’re investing in a powerful tool that will drive your business forward. Our holistic approach addresses all aspects of web presence, from technical performance to user experience and marketing effectiveness.
Don’t let a subpar website hold your business back. Join the ranks of successful small businesses that have transformed their online presence with Traffic On Media. Subscribe to our services today and watch your digital footprint grow, your customer engagement soar, and your business thrive in the competitive online marketplace.
Take the first step towards digital excellence. Contact Traffic On Media now for a free consultation and see how we can revolutionize your small business website. Your success story starts here; don’t wait another day to unlock your online potential!