Before anything, what does failure for a business website mean? For this discussion, failure refers to the inability of a website to achieve its intended purpose. The failure is not limited to becoming inaccessible or bogged down. As Oxford web design experts say, a useful website is one that generates the desired results for the business, organisation or individual it represents. Otherwise, it’s a site that has lost its purpose; hence it does not deserve to remain online.
Discussed below are the top causes of business website failure. Businesses need to be acquainted with these harbingers of problems to make sure that they get the results they expect from the websites they maintain.
Bugs and other defects
Who wants to shop at an online store with malfunctioning buttons and shopping cart system? Who would be enticed to browse through the products offered on an e-commerce site if the images fail to load and the layout of pages randomly goes haywire? Certainly nobody. That’s why it’s essential to make sure that business websites are properly coded and evaluated for possible issues before they are put up online.
Buggy and erratic business websites are a sure way to discourage customers. Pages that take a long time to load, missing images, 404 pages, and other problems shoo away potential buyers and create a negative reputation. According to one study, customers tend to leave a website if its page loading time takes more than 4 seconds. Similarly, prospective shoppers leave whenever they encounter unnecessary pop-ups, excessive redirects, and a dysfunctional checkout process.
Lack of SEO and promotion
Another critical factor in business website failure is the absence of search engine optimization and marketing campaigns. Sites don’t automatically gain visitors as they debut online. They need to be made search engine friendly so they can be presented among the top results for searches using specific keywords. They also have to be promoted. Without SEO and promotion, websites will fail to generate sales and revenues. Likewise, they will not become tools for spreading information about brands or products.
It’s also possible for a business website to become a failure because of over-optimization using black hat tactics. If search engines, especially Google, detect the inappropriate search engine optimization strategies employed by a site, expect the imposition of penalties. One of the severe penalties is the disappearance of a site from the search results. Search remains to be the most significant source of traffic for most business sites, so not appearing in the search results is tantamount to in-utility.
Cyberattacks
Sites can also become the target of cyberattacks, particularly DDoS and data theft. These threats can lead to downtime and reputation issues. Downtime entails inaccessibility and lost revenue. Data theft creates adverse effects on the reputation of a business. Both result in unwanted repercussions.
To sum it up, business websites can fail because of issues from the time they were created, and while they are being operated. If you can’t do a reliable, secure, properly-coded site on your own, better entrust the job to the experts (and prepare to shell out some funds for it). Also, make sure to promote and optimize your site. Website failures are avoidable if you know what to do and avoid.
