4 Mistakes Startups and Entrepreneurs Make with Their Websites

A critical component of getting your startup off the ground is having a killer website. It’s so important, in fact, that it’s one of the first things that many startups will concern themselves with. However, in their eagerness to develop a web presence, startup businesses often make big mistakes, costing themselves business and investment, putting their nascent company in jeopardy.

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If you’re an entrepreneur and are currently getting your startup’s website off the ground, then here are the mistakes, made by so many other companies like yours, that you’ll want to avoid.

1. Using Way Too Much Jargon

Surely, you understand your business and all of the nitty-gritty that goes into it. Therefore, when it comes time to fill out your website with content, you use all the technical terms you’re neck deep in every day to describe your business. This is a mistake. You have to remember that your potential customers, clients and investors may not possess your level of knowledge about your business and what it does.

Therefore, you’ll want to keep things simple. Focus more upon what your product or service does rather than upon how it works. Establish clear benefits to what you’re offering – focus on your value proposition. By doing this, you should be able to avoid the jargon that clogs up so many other startup websites, and you’ll stand a better chance of retaining your visitors.

2. Ignoring the Mobile Component

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re starting up, mobile is the future for everything. Think about how many websites you visit on a day-to-day basis on your smartphone or tablet. Then, think about the last time you tried to visit a website on one of those devices, only to discover that it didn’t work correctly. What did you do? You navigated away from it. Did you go back later on a laptop? Probably not. Make sure your website is responsive and mobile ready; anything less is unacceptable. Truly.

3. Making a Website That’s Too Complex

Part of making a website that will work on mobile is doing whatever is possible to simplify its design. You want the information that your website conveys to be right out in front of your visitors, pure and simple. If you’re hiding content on different pages that are behind other pages, then you’re decreasing the likelihood of that information getting in front of the eyeballs it needs to get in front of. Remember the classic rule: Keep it simple, stupid!

4. Hire a Professional

If your founding team has writing and web-design know-how, then by all means go it alone. But, if these things are lacking in your core competencies, then it might be best to hire a professional. Ideally, you’ll want to work with a web design firm that understands your needs and your market, so that they can make something that will appeal to potential customers, clients and investors.

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If you go this route, remember the age-old adage: garbage in, garbage out. Be prepared to explain your business fully, to indentify its market, and to clearly establish your wants and needs. This will ensure the best result when bringing in someone to develop your website for you.