Why isn’t your website up to scratch? 9 reasons why.

A regrettable observation…

Let’s face it: unfortunately, most websites are not up to the job.

It often takes less than a second on the home page to realize this. Content that lacks clarity, information that can’t be found, links that don’t work, inconsistent design, misaligned text, inappropriate images, slow loading, a site that isn’t mobile-friendly… the list goes on.

What’s most worrying is that it’s sometimes difficult to understand what a company does, let alone what it offers or what sets it apart. The consequences can be disastrous: the company can be severely penalized, losing credibility and, consequently, potential customers.

Why is it so critical?

You are exposed

The chances of someone searching for your company on Google are very high. At some point, a potential customer, supplier, investor or future employee will need to know more about you, and they’ll undoubtedly do a Google search.

Being present on the web is therefore crucial for your company. It’s a mark of professionalism, and it’s surely what motivated you to develop a website in the first place.

But being present isn’t enough. You need a quality website.

First impressions count

Today’s web users are increasingly demanding. They no longer take the time to reflect and analyze. They trust their first impressions.

Your site should enable them, in a matter of seconds, to know whether they can trust your company, and to find answers to the practical questions that brought them to your site in the first place. If this first impression is wrong, even if your company is serious and offers quality services, you’ll be automatically disqualified.

You don’t go to a sales meeting dressed sloppily, and you won’t trust a potential supplier if he doesn’t look his best.

We all know that first impressions are important. It’s exactly the same for your site.

You are your website

Your website reflects your company’s culture and values.

Any perceived lack of quality on your website, any flaw in content, design or performance, is interpreted as a lack of professionalism.

The visitor projects this first impression onto the relationship he’ll potentially have with you. A site with spelling mistakes, that’s aesthetically incoherent, that’s unclear, where the content tries more to boast than to answer the surfer’s questions, will give the impression that it’s the company that isn’t consistent, that it doesn’t know what it’s doing, that it lacks rigor, and that as a result, it’s not a reliable partner.

9 reasons for this failure

1. Not being aware of the consequences

As I said earlier, first impressions are crucial, but we don’t give them enough importance.

I’ve heard customers say that the number of visits is so low (a hundred or so a month) that it’s insignificant, but it’s not that serious, a site is just a site.

Quite the contrary! These few visits are often qualified visits: they’re interested in you. You don’t find people on the Internet by chance. You can’t afford to miss them, because a convincing site can convert 5 to 10% of its visitors. That’s 5 to 10 customers a month you’re not converting.

2. Don’t formulate your objectives

Where does a visit to your website fit into your sales process?

As I said, people don’t find you by chance. A site is hidden from the world, it’s not like a store that takes advantage of neighborhood traffic. If someone has visited your site, it must be for a reason. And if you don’t know the reason, you’ve got the wrong objective.

The first task of a website is to make a good impression, so as to win the visitor’s trust. Secondly, it must be designed to answer practical questions asked by the web user, such as :

• What is the company’s activity?
• What products and services does it offer?
• What are your prices? (or at least have an idea of your positioning)
• What sets it apart from the competition?
• How can I contact her and get a quick answer?

Putting yourself in your visitors’ shoes, formulating these questions and answering them is already an excellent step forward.

3. Imitate the competition or a foreign site

Instead of thinking about their own objectives and resources for developing their site, some companies tend to copy what they see elsewhere.

That’s a big mistake! It’s good to draw inspiration from the competition, but you have to be very careful. Every company is different, with its own identity, unique message and limited resources.

Wanting to be like others, who certainly don’t look like us, is automatically a mistake. Your website is the translation of your business strategy into a digital communication strategy. If you don’t spend enough time thinking about your own strategy, your site will be ineffective.

4. Want to be exhaustive

I also see a lot of managers who want to integrate as much content as possible, just because others are doing it or because they’re afraid of missing something.

Why are photos of your offices relevant and will they make me want to work with you? Do you think it’s the smiles on your employees’ faces that will make them want to become your customer? Does the customer need to know the details of each of your services to the point of writing whole pages of empty content?

By trying to be exhaustive, companies end up taking a long time to produce content, producing irrelevant content and increasing the risk of errors (spelling mistakes, inconsistencies, etc.).

Your website should make people want to get to know you better and take the next step, which is often simply to deepen their relationship with you. It’s not there to answer every conceivable question. So you have to choose the content you share carefully. It must be relevant to be effective.

5. Wanting to project an image of grandeur

Do me a favor: stop this “Word from the President” business! And even less so when it’s highlighted as if it were the most important thing on your site. Unless you’re a big institution, a ministry or a bank, and even then, I don’t see the relevance of this heading.

Of course, you can talk about his or her vision and experience, limited to what is consistent with your company’s activity, but it’s not this section that will convert a visitor into a potential customer.

And stop talking about your company as if it were the best in its field, the first to offer this or that service, the only one to understand its customers’ needs. It’s a disservice to you, projecting an artificial image that won’t fool anyone. What the visitor to your website is looking for is to establish a relationship of trust with you, just as you are.

Be authentic, don’t try to impress. Sooner or later, we’re going to know you for what you are.

6. Wanting to please everyone

If you don’t know your audience beforehand, you’re not going to communicate effectively.

A website must first and foremost address your prospects, whether they be customers, partners, investors or future employees. Unfortunately, especially in the main section of the home page (the hero section), you can’t address everyone.

So prioritize. Address your potential customers first. Then, in the navigation and the rest of the home page, you can include specific headings, or even create parallel mini-sites aimed at a particular demographic.

*Also, your audience is not your hierarchy.

I’ve often seen websites turn into gas chambers because “the president said” or “the director didn’t like the colors”… If you have a clear vision and strategy of what you’re doing, you’ll be convincing. Be brave and find solutions.

As the saying goes, if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

7. Believing that a website is easy

Unfortunately, many managers believe that a website doesn’t need much thought or preparation.

Just write some content, have a logo and a few color preferences, hand it all over to a web developer, freelancer, intern or friend who likes to play around with WordPress, and you’re done.

Building a website is a lot more complex than you might think. First of all, you need to understand that it’s a marketing and communication tool, so you need to think and plan accordingly, with a well-defined strategy.

Secondly, like all communication media, it is subject to interface and user experience (UI and UX) rules that are not obvious to amateurs:

• Color consistency
• Typography hierarchy
• Spacing
• Contrast
• Balance
• User path
• Calls to action
• etc.

These are not obvious rules, and there are specialists who take years to study them.

Finally, what you see on the screen is just the tip of the iceberg.

How are you going to measure conversions, performance, mobile visibility, security, code quality for SEO? Neglect any one of these things and your site will be very poorly perceived by your audience, very poorly ranked on Google and won’t convert.

8. Believing that a site is first and foremost about software development

It’s all too common for companies planning to build their own website to start looking for developers.

Of course you need one or more excellent developers, there’s no doubt about that, but I repeat: a website is first and foremost a marketing and communication tool. A communication whose medium is a computer tool, but you mustn’t confuse one with the other.

Focussing on the technical side of things is like going to the printer and asking him to write your presentation. You can imagine the result…

To communicate effectively, you need to know what you want to say and formulate it, not to mention the fact that the web user interacts with your page: they navigate from page to page, click on a button, fill in a form, share your content… Which adds a layer of complexity.

Reducing your website to IT development is a mistake to be avoided at all costs.

9. Poorly evaluated resources

There’s a plethora of website creation services available on the web at unbeatable prices.

But ask yourself this: let’s start by forgetting all about marketing and communication. How long does it take to develop a site, even from a ready-made WordPress theme? You need to point the domain name, install the SSL certificate, install WordPress, adapt the colors, create buttons, resize the logo, create the pages, create each section, create the navigation, copy/paste all the content, work on performance, security, SEO, you name it.

And that’s not counting the finishing touches, which, like a house, take as much time as the basic development. For a simple site, you need at least a full week.

If the price is too low, you’ll end up with a shaky site. Take my word for it. And don’t count on corrections based on your feedback. First of all, there are going to be a lot of them, and the developer has already used up the man-days he devoted to you. You’ll either have to pay extra, or turn to real professionals who will certainly have to redo all the work, even though you’ve already paid a sum that will be lost.

I’ve seen countless websites that are still in the construction phase due to poor budget planning.

This doesn’t mean that a website has to be expensive. It simply has to fit your budget, and that’s also the job of the agency that will accompany you.

You can do better

Many factors can contribute to a website’s failure.

Whether it’s the importance of first impressions, clear objectives, or common mistakes such as blindly imitating competitors, every aspect plays a crucial role.

By understanding and addressing these issues, you can transform your website into a powerful communication and conversion tool. Take the time to review your strategy, prioritize user experience, and invest in quality.

This will make all the difference to the success of your online business.