13 Big Problems with Small Business Websites
Updated March 2024
Are You Plagued by Small Business Website Errors?
Small business websites are crucial in today’s digital age. They serve as an online storefront, representing the brand and attracting potential customers. However, many small business websites encounter a significant problem. They are plagued by errors that hinder their effectiveness and potential for success.
In this blog post, we will delve into the big problem with small business websites, highlight common errors hindering their growth, and provide insights on how to overcome them. Understanding these issues is essential for optimizing your online presence, whether you are a business owner, entrepreneur, or professional.
Let’s explore the world of small business website errors and discover how to create a powerful online platform that drives success.
Ouch, Small Business Website Mistakes Hurt!
Business websites are critical to connecting small businesses with increasingly mobile customers. Yet 29% of small businesses do not have a website at all! Maintaining an optimized site is crucial to acquiring new customers, building credibility, and nurturing client relationships.
Almost 1/3 of small business owners maintain their websites themselves. Unfortunately, they neglect essential site functions consumers want, like responsive and user-friendly design, engaging and relevant fresh content, and social network integration.
Let’s examine the big problem with small business websites, including the costly mistakes small-business owners make when maintaining them.
We work with many small-business owners and look at various small business websites daily. And don’t get me wrong; we have seen some fantastic small business websites—bravo! Unfortunately, we often encounter small business websites that lack a few critical elements or are barely functional.
We want to help small business owners understand what is most damaging to their websites. Here are the most common errors we see, how they harm small businesses, and how you can fix them.
13 Common Problems with Small Business Websites
1. Not Mobile-First
A responsive, mobile-first website will be essential for any business in 2024! As of 2024, 60.67% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. By 2025, there will be over 1 billion 5G connections globally. 92.3% of internet users consider accessing the internet through their smartphones compared to other devices.
Yet 19% of small-business owners do not have a mobile-friendly website or know if their website is responsive and mobile-capable.
Many small businesses are missing out on critical consumers without the technology to engage their mobile visitors. And the only way to fix that problem is with mobile-first web design.
2. Poor Design
The cost of designing their small business website is a significant concern for many small-business owners. As a result, many take shortcuts, such as using a free template or hosted solutions like Wix or Squarespace.
Generally, I do not recommend DIY website design. It often leads to poor designs that detract from the message business owners need to convey. You must avoid making these small business website errors when building your business website.
Visitors with a bad user experience will not engage with a business through the website. Even worse, they will most likely tell their friends about the bad experience and keep them away. So, yes, you will save a few dollars upfront, but you will lose a lot more in missed opportunities for lead generation and lost sales in the long run!
3. No Call To Action (CTA)
Lacking directions is a frequent side effect of bad web design. Without a prominent call to action (CTA), your customers won’t know why they are visiting your website or what your company offers. Even worse, 93% of small business websites do not display a contact email address, and 49% do not list phone numbers on their home page.
If you don’t give visitors a reason to visit your site or an easy way to contact you, they will move on to your competitors. Remember, it is up to you to tell your potential customers what you want them to do! No, you are not rude! However, your website visitors expect you to do so. If you don’t, they will get the feeling that you don’t care about them. And you don’t want that, do you?
4. No Metrics
Without performance metrics, small businesses cannot track their progress, organic or paid reach, or customer habits and needs. Unfortunately, 33% of small businesses do not use analytics tools like Google Analytics to measure their business website’s performance.
And 60% do not feel they have the tools needed to make sense of their site’s analytics or take action to resolve issues. Unresolved problems only become worse over time.
Many website analytics resources are free to use and install, and they are not limited to Google or Bing Analytics. Tools such as Pingdom and GTMetrix can provide detailed feedback regarding your website visitors. This data includes how long your website took to load, the device and browser used to visit your site, and their overall satisfaction level.
This insight can pinpoint bottlenecks on small business websites and recommend ways to correct them. I don’t understand why any savvy small business owner would turn down free help!
5. Poor SEO
Small business marketing is becoming more competitive, and owners need every advantage. Online discoverability is essential for helping potential customers find your company or business.
Yet 26% of small businesses cannot be found in online searches! The main reason is that their small business websites earn a Google Page Rank of zero or have no Google Page Rank at all. Here is how you can check your Google Page Rank.
Many small-business owners hesitate to implement a search engine optimization strategy because they do not understand SEO basics. However, no SEO strategy prevents them from reaching better search visibility. And I can understand that; you don’t want to appear “stupid” or lose your hard-earned money.
Here is an alternative: use one or more of the best SEO tools to improve your search rankings and visibility.
6. No Credibility
You can say marvelous things about yourself or your product, but they are worth nothing to your website visitors if you are the only one saying them. They have just met you and don’t trust you yet, so they won’t take your word for it.
To build trust quickly, you need credibility enhancers: Case studies or testimonials, logos of your clients, “as featured in…” section, awards, certifications, etc.
If you have nothing to back up your claims, your credibility suffers.
Sure, not everyone has won awards or written for famous websites. But even if you are starting, you can get a couple of testimonials from friends in exchange for some free advice.
7. Confusing Navigation
If your website were a city and visitors were tourists, navigation would be the direction signs. If direction signs in a town are confusing, the tourists won’t visit many places and will leave soon for another city where the mayor cares more about his guests.
All navigation labels must be descriptive and intuitive. But when you use ten navigation labels or labels that are too wordy or unclear, you have a problem.
Here is how to make your navigation more concise:
- Make it no longer than seven items (the maximum amount of elements our short-term memory can hold). The fewer navigation links you have, the higher is the probability that your visitors will click on something.
- If your page is just one paragraph, it does not deserve to be a separate page in the first place. It shouldn’t occupy a valuable slot in your navigation. Apart from not providing enough value for your visitors (how much can you learn from a paragraph out of context?), Google considers it low-value content, and it won’t rank.
- Keep your labels as short and as straightforward as possible. For example, “About,” “Contact,” and “Services” are as clear as “About Us,” “Contact Us,” or “Our Services.” Still, they make your navigation shorter and easier to process.
- Make it clear where each navigation item leads. For example, visitors may not guess that “How can I help you?” leads to your “Services” page.
Also, navigation is the last place you should try to be clever. If your visitors don’t understand the label of that navigation menu item, they won’t click on it. Would you?
8. No Social Proof
Social sharing is vital to any digital marketing and lead-generation strategy. According to Sprout Social, there are estimated to be 5.17 billion social media users worldwide in 2024. The average person uses 6.7 different social networks per month. Internet users’ time on social media declined slightly to 143 minutes daily.
Yet, only 32% of small businesses have a social media strategy in 2024.
Allow your customers to share their experiences with your brand via social channels. As a result, you enable information about your business to reach people you might not have otherwise targeted. At the very least you should have a Facebook page for your small business.
Other social media platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, Vimeo, or the professional networking platform LinkedIn, are most often missing. This makes it impossible for visitors to share your small business website or interact with the business through social media.
Some social media platforms have become less effective over the past few years. X (formerly Twitter) has undergone significant changes under the ownership of Elon Musk and, as a result, has been dropped by both brands and advertisers.
Since July 2022, Google My Business has been unavailable for download, replaced by Google Business Profile (GBP) and two apps: one for Google Search and one for Google Maps. In 2024, Google My Business remains an indispensable tool for local businesses aiming to thrive in the digital landscape. By maximizing your GMB presence, you enhance your visibility and build trust, connect with your local audience, and stay ahead of the competition.
If you want to get more out of your social media efforts and spend less time doing so, you may want to use one or more of these social media marketing tools.
9. Not Focusing on the Target Audience
The only part of your business website that is partially about you is your About page. The rest, especially your homepage, is about your visitors’ pain points and how you can help relieve them.
Many small business websites do not focus on the needs and expectations of their target audience. As a result, potential customers on your small business website begin their conversion journey. Unfortunately, while business owners are ready to sell, their potential customers are unprepared to buy.
Instead of hitting your visitors with a “BUY NOW!” button the moment they arrive on your site, you need to help guide them on their conversion journey. What need is your audience trying to fulfill? What makes you the best option to help them? How have you helped others in the same situation?
Answering these questions quickly before your website visitors decide to look elsewhere would help. Also, make sure your copy uses “you” and “yours” more often than “I” and “my.” This will clarify how you can improve their lives and show your visitors that you genuinely care about helping them.
10. Hard-to-Read Text
Before your visitors can appreciate the value of your content, they need to be able to read it. One of the big problems with small business websites is content that is difficult or even impossible to read.
The first problem is the text is often too small to read. Not everyone has a 20/20 vision, and if you make visitors squint, they will not stay around. If you want to keep your target audience reading, I suggest using a font size of at least 14px; 16px is even better.
Be sure to keep sufficient contrast between your text and your background. Avoid using similar colors that can blend into each other. And be careful when placing text on top of background images. Select images carefully, or add a darker overlay to keep your text legible.
Light backgrounds and dark text make it easier to read than white text on a dark background. And here is a little-known fact: dark gray text is easier to read than black. So feel free to use that tidbit on trivia night!
If you want or need to have a dark background, here is how to use white text on a dark background.
11. Outdated Content
Small business websites that get frequently updated rank higher on search engines and are more engaging for visitors. However, curating appropriate content and updating a simple website can be time-consuming and frustrating for many small-business owners.
64% of small-business owners find updating their website a major challenge, and 24% say the cost of maintaining their site is a big hurdle. When small-business owners maintain their sites, they risk wasting time that could be used to cultivate new businesses.
Building your small business website on a content management platform (CMS) is a much better option. My favorite is WordPress; our design and development teams support it.
However, there are other content management systems for small businesses. A word of caution, as my good friend and WordPress expert Bob Dunn likes to say: “Sure, WordPress is easy! Once you know how to use it!”
So, instead of trying to build your WordPress business website yourself, I highly recommend that you engage the services of a professional web designer or web design agency. Yes, it will cost money. But you can count on professional support and training to get you started on the right foot. And you can usually receive ongoing support, just in case you get stuck.
12. No Footer
The footer often seems the most underestimated part of a business website, which is ironic because it’s an area visitors see on every page! The footer is ideal for drawing attention to important information, pages, or products, keeping visitors on your website longer, and helping them navigate through it.
Here are the things you can include in your footer:
- Copyright
- Navigation to the main pages
- Privacy policy
- Terms of use
- Contact
- Postal address/link to a map
- Phone and fax numbers
- Social icons
- Email Signup
- Search box
- Your mission statement
- Latest articles
- Call to action
Of course, not all of these points have to be in your footer. Just select the most relevant to you and your business. Whatever you do, don’t leave your footer empty. Instead, make that valuable space at the end of every page work for you.
13. No Dedicated IT Support
Small business owners often are less tech-savvy than larger companies or lack the staff to hire a full-time IT person. This can be very dangerous! Small businesses risk security breaches or costly mistakes without a designated IT professional or team to support them.
Cyberattacks against small businesses have been on the rise in recent years. Despite the attitude among many small business owners that hackers only target behemoths, smaller companies are increasingly attractive prey. Certain types of attacks–social engineering attacks, like phishing, for example–are much more commonly aimed at small businesses.
Here is one way to prevent technical glitches and costly downtime for your business website: First, find out if your web designer or web design agency offers a monthly website maintenance plan.
Such a plan most often includes regular updates to your website framework, plugins, and database, optimization of performance, and regular backups. The money you spend on routine maintenance is a fraction of what it will cost to rebuild your website after someone hacks it.
How to Fix Small Business Websites
Before you panic, remember that you can usually fix the problems outlined above promptly and cost-effectively. However, you will most likely need professional help to get started. On the other hand, most website owners can usually quickly implement some immediate fixes, so let’s start there.
The Low-Hanging Fruit
Here are a few things that you can either do yourself or have a professional web designer do for you:
- Add a call to action (CTA) if you don’t already have one.
- Add your contact email and phone number to your home page; having it in the footer of every page is even better.
- Check to see if your business address is correct, including the pin on Google Maps.
- If you are active on social networks, add links to them on your website and blog.
- Look at your content, remove outdated content, and add new content.
- If you have a blog, write a new post or two.
A professional web designer or agency can complete everything on this list in a day or two. Of course, you will have to pay a few hundred dollars, but you will immediately benefit.
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly!
In 2024, having a responsive website is an absolute must for any business!
As of December 2023, the Google Mobile-Friendly testing tool is no longer available. Instead, Google introduced Lighthouse. It offers the same functionality plus additional tools to check website performance, SEO, and more.
I recommend this website emulator to compare your site on various mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. Again, these are not screenshots but real live websites you can navigate and scroll through.
A website emulator is also a great way to check whether everything looks and works as you want it to on mobile devices. Even mobile-friendly responsive websites may not look or function the same on all mobile devices. This resource will help you identify and fix shortcomings before they become a bigger problem.
Remember, if you do not have a great experience, your visitors will not have one either!
Free Website Audit
We can perform a comprehensive website audit to analyze your current small business website in depth. If you have not checked it, we will review it to ensure it’s mobile-friendly, up-to-date, and serving your business as it should.
We will provide you with a website audit report detailing our recommendations within five business days or give you a thumbs-up—all you have to do is ask!
What If You Need a New Small Business Website?
Starting over from scratch is sometimes easier and more cost-effective, especially if your current small business website has significant shortcomings. Common faults include not being mobile-friendly, being based on a template or hosted solution that is difficult to update, and having a bad design. And keep in mind that websites also get dated.
If your small business website is five years old or older, consider getting a fresh look and a website that works for you, not against you! Look for a web design professional in your city, or contact us, and we will be happy to help you!
Conclusion
In conclusion, having an optimized small business website is essential for acquiring new customers, establishing credibility, and fostering strong client relationships. However, numerous small business websites suffer significant issues, leading to missed opportunities.
To ensure success, it is crucial to address these common problems promptly. Remember, your website is a powerful tool for growth and should be treated as such. Take action today to fix any website issues and unlock the full potential of your business. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We Build Small Business Websites!
We are a team of expert WordPress designers and developers who design fully functional websites for businesses and product brands. We follow and implement the latest web design trends to ensure high performance. But first, look at our portfolio and read our case studies.
Then, if you believe we are a good fit for your business web design needs, let’s talk! We offer a full range of consulting and design solutions for businesses and product brands.
And if you are still unsure how to build a successful website, let’s talk. We will listen to you, answer your questions, determine what type of website will best support your business objectives, and build a user-friendly website or e-commerce store for your company or product brand.
To get a feature-packed and flawless website developed for your business, feel free to contact us for a free consultation and no-obligation estimate.
Did You Fix Small Business Website Mistakes on Your Site?
Did you notice any of the above small business website mistakes on your site? Or did you find some additional ones that were not mentioned in our blog post? How did you fix them? And what kind of results did you achieve once you updated your business website?
Please feel free to comment below so our audience can benefit. Grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!
For more content relevant to your business or product brand – check out the range of articles on our web design blog. (This one, explaining the importance of user experience in web design, is an excellent place to start!)
Thank you! We appreciate your help to end bad business websites, one pixel at a time!
By Gregor Saita
Co-Founder / CXO
@gregorsaita
Hi Gregor,
Thank you for this great piece!
Lea