Is Your Website Damaging Your Brand?
Hi! We’re Sox Digital, and Valhalla Branding is one of our preferred partners for all things branding. As with other preferred partners, we like to swap knowledge and blog posts to help each other - and our client bases - out. So this week, we’re laying siege to Valhalla’s blog to write to you about mistakes you’re (probably) making on your website, and why it’s damaging your brand.
Your website is your digital shopfront, and it’s important to take care of it as well as you would a physical shopfront. It’s often the first point of contact between your brand and potential customers. So make sure that the first impression is a good one. This blog is going to look at things we often notice people getting wrong - and why it’s important to get them right.
You’re waffling on your homepage
You know your brand and your business best. And you know why you’re unique and awesome, and why people should buy from you.
The problem comes when you get a bit overexcited about telling website visitors all of that awesome stuff, all at once. And it’s just cluttered, repetitive, information overload.
When someone lands on your website, you have a fraction of a second to grab their attention, and less than eight seconds to communicate the important stuff. Valhalla can help you make it look great, and be visually appealing. Don’t undo Valhalla’s hard work by trying to fit too much on your homepage; it should be a blurb (or overview) of your business as a whole. Lightly touch on each area, with buttons (sometimes called a “call to action” i.e. what you want your visitors to do) directing the site visitor to find out more.
If in doubt about how to get to the point, try this framework to start with:
I am a [thing] and I help [these specific people] with [this specific stuff].
For example, Sox Digital’s is:
We are the no bullsh*t web agency, who help small UK businesses on a budget with websites and content creation.
Why does waffling damage your brand?
It’s pretty savage to say this, but it is unfortunately true: people don’t really care all that much about you. They care about how you can help them. And waffling too much about yourself and how awesome you are will distance yourself from how you’re going to help them. It can make it look like you don’t care. Do you want to be a brand that looks like it doesn’t care about its customers?
You’re ignoring mobile users
Did you know that, in quarter two of 2022, mobile devices made up nearly 60% of website traffic globally? With 5.03 billion active internet users worldwide (as of July 2022), that’s a lot of people.
When’s the last time you checked how your website is performing on mobile? If your site isn’t responsive, you need to fix it - and fast. (“Responsive” means your site responds based on what it’s being viewed on i.e. mobile, tablet or desktop.)
The best way to check this (other than visiting your site on a mobile yourself) is to have a look at Google’s own tool - Page Speed Insights. Simply put your website link in the box, and click “Analyze”. This free tool will then produce a report for you, split across mobile and desktop, and scored out of 100, about how well your site is performing in the four key areas:
Performance (your site’s loading speed, basically)
Accessibility (can people with disabilities / screen readers easily use your site?)
Best practices (have you got the basics right)
SEO (search engine optimisation)
A website that looks great on desktop but is clunky and slow on mobiles is a pretty grave mistake - you’ll frustrate your website users and drive them away. It also gives the impression that your brand isn’t keeping up with the times. Who hasn’t browsed a website on their phone these days?
Whilst we’re on the subject of slow and clunky, we just want to touch on loading speeds.
Your website loads as fast as a slug
This is especially important on mobile - as slow websites on mobile gobble up mobile data, and are incredibly frustrating. Data heavy websites cost your users money in data allowance, which Google doesn’t like. Google also doesn’t like slow websites. So it takes mobile loading speeds into account when they’re judging you on your SEO (search engine optimisation). If your site would be beaten in a race by a slug, expect to be penalised by the search engine bot.
A user journey and menu that’s as clear as mud, and as easy to use as a chocolate teapot
Completely understand if you don’t get what tree we’re barking up with this. So let’s start by explaining what a user journey is.
WTF is a user journey?
Imagine your website is like a little adventure park for your visitors. The user journey? Well, that's basically the whole exciting ride from the moment they step into your site until they decide it's time to leave. Alright, a website isn’t quite as exciting as a rollercoaster but you get the point.
If you don’t know what you want your website visitors to do when they land on your site, it’ll be pretty obvious. They’ll feel a bit lost, and not know where to go or what to look at next - or even where they should start looking. You need to guide them through your site, and you do this using calls to action (which we mentioned earlier, remember? The buttons). Calls to action should be unavoidably obvious and easy to use. You want to make them stand out from the body of the text - that’s why buttons work so well - and you want to make sure they do what they say on the tin. If your call to action says “Read about our team” then don’t make people jump through hoops, or navigate to other places first. Just take them straight to the “about us” page.
Want to find out more about user journeys? We’ve got a blog on that. Check it out here.
How do I know if my menu’s a chocolate teapot?
If people can't easily find what they're after on your website, chances are they’ll wander off, feeling a bit annoyed. Complicated menus and unclear calls to action (or, worse, calls to action that don’t work) are a recipe for a not-so-great user experience. A website without smooth navigation gives off the vibe that maybe your brand doesn’t really know what your customers need. If in doubt: KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.
Try to avoid menu items with masses of sub-menus, or page titles that are vague and difficult to decipher. For example “Stories for change” might sound super swanky to you. But is it a page with case studies, the reason you went into business, or why you changed your bedsheets this morning?
“Urgh this is too confusing!”
We totally understand that. We’re nerds, and we love websites and deal with them everyday. But it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. So if this doesn’t make sense to you, you don’t understand, or you’re not sure how to apply it to your own site, then why not drop us a line?
We really want to see you succeed online, so we actually give our advice away for free - no strings attached. Do what you want with it. We just want to help. Drop us a line on hello@soxdigital.co.uk or stalk our website (link below).
And, don’t forget that Valhalla Branding can help you with a Fearless Brand Review if you’re not sure what you want to do with your brand - or if you even like it!
About Sox Digital
We’re a small, but pretty chill, web agency based in Truro, Cornwall. We launched Sox Digital because we strongly believe in doing the right thing. We had frequently been disappointed with our experiences elsewhere, so decided to “be the change”, and provide the kind of organised, passionate service we wished we’d experienced. Just because you’re a small business, on a budget, doesn’t mean you should get the budget experience from your supplier.
You can have a nosey at us on our website here. We’ve also got loads of useful stuff on our blog, check it out!