Is Your Website Limiting Your Business Growth?

Many startups fail within a few months of their founding. Others live beyond this point and continue to prosper. After a year or two, however, it’s not at all uncommon for growth to stall out. When your business growth plateaus, it can be very difficult to figure out what the problem is. Many entrepreneurs are simply too close to the process. They’re giving it their all in so many ways. Due to this close connection to all aspects of the process, blind spots necessarily develop, and it can be hard to get the kind of perspective necessary to accurately diagnose the problem. A business consultant can help to give perspective on all aspects of your business, but the problem may be no more complex than the operation of your website. Is your website limiting your business growth? Check out USIO’s survey to show the kind of website problems that drive your users crazy.

There are many problems on the average website, but not all of them are driving your customers away. In USIO’s survey, the biggest problems of all had to do with ease of use. When a site was Difficult To Navigate, this really peeved off users. Navigational problems were found in many forms, including chaotic layouts, sites that were very heavy in text, and sites that were generally clunky in their organization, making it tough to get the information the user wanted. Look at some of the websites for the best companies in the world. It’s rare that you find more than a couple of text paragraphs per page, and navigational options are few. This is because these websites are meant to start a conversation with the customer, not put every possible bit of information in one place. Simplify your website’s design and you might find that it’s a lot more pleasant to use for your customers.

Another problem that customer’s reported in USIO’s survey was excessive pop ups and autoplay videos. You know the stuff. There are many times when I’ve had lots of tabs open, for research or some other purpose. Minutes later, screeching ads start to blare out of my speakers and I’ve got to click back through the tabs to try to find where the annoying autoplay ad is located. This is an obnoxious way to advertise, though there are ways to do it right. Use these methods only when your users are demonstrating interested behavior. For instance, many advertising agencies make it possible to have these ads pop up only when a customer has read through 60% (or so) of a piece of content. This demonstrates that they are interested in what they’re reading, and the ad comes at a good time to monetize or further connect with that user, without seeming overly grabby.

There are plenty of ways for your website to be annoying, but it takes lots of focus and editorial thought to keep it good. A great website can help your business grow, and if your business has plateaued (and you don’t know why), why not see if your website could be the reason why?