Most businesses now have a website, but many make some fundamental mistakes that are easy to fix. These are the common ones.

Meaningless Headings

We've all seen them. Meaningful and vague headline titles that tell you very little about the business or what it does.

Some time ago, I was on a painter and decorator's website. At the top of the home page was a great picture with the title "Live A Better Life In Colour". This told me nothing about the business, where they were and what they did. Worse, the headline had zero SEO value.

Keep your headlines on point. Make them descriptive and informative.

Do this test: Get someone unfamiliar with the business to look at the website. If they can tell you what the company does within five seconds. Well done. If not, rethink your headlines.

Too much text!

In most instances, people don't read websites, they simply scan them looking for relevant information. Help them by first editing down your paragraphs, removing as much waffle and unrelated text as possible. Then, break it up into smaller bitesize chunks.

Your site visitors will thank you by staying more engaged with your website, which helps with user conversion and search rankings.

Generic "Stock" Photos

We've all seen them. Those often bland stock images of perfect people with perfect smiles in perfect settings.

No one relates to images like this, and every site uses them. So, in the end, everyone's website looks the same.

Your site visitors don't need to see perfectly lit studio shots of what you do or sell. Research shows repeatedly that they engage far more when the photos are of real people in real settings. So get out your smartphone and start snapping!

It's About You And Your Team

This follows closely on the point about stock images... When it comes to small businesses, people buy from people. So make sure you and your team appear on your website.

If you are a one-man band, or your business is built around you, don't have the text on your website written in the third-person tense. Don't talk about "what we do". Talk about "what I do". The main reason someone uses your business is because of you, so make that the focus of the text on your site.

And always... ALWAYS... have an "About" page where you tell people about yourself and your team, ideally with photos.

Social Links At The Bottom

Social media can be great for businesses, but its purpose is to drive traffic to your website, not the other way around.

If you have to put social media links on your website, don't put them at the top. All you're doing is encouraging users to leave your site for a social media platform. Put them at the bottom, where users will find them if needed.

And finally...

Dateless Blog Posts

Blogs are amazing for website search results and user engagement. Every site should have one. But there is nothing worse than a blog page on a site that hasn't been updated in ages or has had only three posts in the last year. It makes the site look dead.

If this sounds like your website, the solution is simple. Don't remove the blog. Just remove the dates!

Blog posts without published dates are perfectly acceptable, so long as the content isn't date-specific.