Websites have become essential tools for communication, business transactions, and accessing information in today’s digital age. They now serve as the primary interface between businesses and their customers, offering services and valuable content. However, websites can encounter a variety of technical and design issues that affect their performance, user experience, and search engine rankings. If these problems are left unaddressed, they can have a significant impact on a company’s online presence and ultimately hurt its bottom line. In this article, we will explore some of the most common website issues, how they affect your business, and provide practical solutions to fix them, improving both site performance and SEO.
The Impact of Website Issues and How to Fix them
The impact of website design and development issues can be substantial, affecting businesses of all sizes and industries and hurting their search engine rankings. Here’s a list of issues and how to fix them.
Slow Website Speed
Poor website performance, such as slow loading speed, can lead to lost sales, decreased search engine rankings, and a damaged reputation. According to Google, site speed is an essential ranking factor, and websites that load quickly are more likely to appear higher in search results (Google, 2021).
In addition, a study conducted by Akamai, a leading content delivery network, found that 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% of people will abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Issues such as large image file sizes, excessive plugins, or insufficient server resources can all contribute to a slow website. To address this, website owners or their web design and development agency team should regularly monitor their site speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and address any issues identified to improve loading times and enhance SEO performance.
In today’s fast-paced world, users expect websites to load quickly and efficiently. If a website takes too long to load, visitors are likely to become frustrated and leave the site.
High Bounce Rate
When it comes to website user experience, bounce rate is an important metric to consider. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave a website after only viewing one page. A high bounce rate can be detrimental to a website’s success as it indicates that visitors are not engaging with the web design and website content and are not exploring further. Having a slow website is another cause of high bounce rate, if its too slow to load, people will simply leave the site.
Web Design Layout
One of the main causes of a high bounce rate on a website is poor user experience. Having a well designed website that is easy to navigate and is uncluttered will ensure visitors will stay on the site and explore further. According to a study conducted by the Stanford Web Credibility Research, 75% of consumers admit to making judgements about a company’s credibility and brand presence based on their website’s design. If a website is not visually appealing or lacks intuitive navigation, visitors are likely to bounce.
Additionally, poor-quality content, such as short or duplicated content, can also harm a website’s SEO performance. Creating unique, relevant, engaging and high-quality content, optimizing metadata, and using relevant keywords can help improve a website’s SEO and drive organic traffic.
Poor Metadata
Metadata, including title tags and meta descriptions, plays a crucial role in SEO. Inaccurate, duplicated, or missing metadata can impact a website’s visibility in search results. Not sure what this even means, contact ZOO Media Group today and we can assist you with fixing your metadata and all website design or functionality issues!
Mobile Compatibility
With the increasing use of mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly website is essential for user experience and for search engine optimization. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning that it primarily uses the mobile version of a site for ranking and indexing (Google, 2021).
Websites that are not optimized for mobile devices may experience lower rankings in search results, affecting their visibility and organic traffic.
Responsive design and mobile optimization techniques can help ensure that a website is compatible with various devices and screen sizes, improving its SEO performance.
Broken Links and Redirects
Broken links and redirects website issues can have a detrimental impact on a website’s user experience and SEO. Broken links can harm user experience and signal to search engines that a website may not be well-maintained, leading to lower rankings.
Similarly, improper or excessive redirects can confuse search engine crawlers and negatively affect a website’s SEO performance. Regularly checking for broken links and ensuring proper redirects are in place can help maintain a healthy website and improve SEO rankings.
Website is Not Accessible for People with Disabilities
If your website is not AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) compliant, then you need to have this fixed especially for public sector and businesses with 50+ employees, or face steep fines of up to $50,000/day for individuals, and up to $100,000/day for corporations. Accessibility compliance ensures a more inclusive online experience for all website users. Follow these steps or contact a web development agency to look after this for you.
Website Vulnerability
Additionally, security breaches and data leaks resulting from website issues can have severe legal and financial implications for businesses. The ability to identify and fix website issues in a timely manner is crucial for maintaining a positive online presence and ensuring user satisfaction.
Staying up to date on software and plugin updates, checking the site monthly and hosting the site on a secured server is an integral part of maintaining a website and should be done monthly.
Annoying Ads
Furthermore, an overwhelming number of advertisements or pop-ups on a website, such as on various food blog sites and news media websites, can also lead to a high bounce rate. If a website bombards visitors with ads, videos or pop-ups, it can be off-putting and disruptive to the user experience. Users may choose to leave the site rather than dealing with the unwanted distractions.
In today’s competitive online landscape, it is important for businesses and website owners to prioritize user experience and ensure that their websites are well designed, visually appealing, easy to navigate, and provide high-quality, relevant content.
Web design and development issues can have a significant impact on businesses, consumers, and search engine optimization (SEO). Addressing issues such as bad design layout, slow website speed, mobile compatibility, broken links and redirects, and poor metadata and content is essential for improving a website’s SEO performance. Timely and effective resolution of these issues is essential for ensuring a positive user experience, maintaining trust, and staying ahead of the competition.
By addressing these issues and following best practices, website owners can enhance their website’s visibility in search engine results, drive organic traffic, and ultimately improve their online presence and performance.
For businesses looking to enhance their online presence and fix any website issues, ZOO Media Group, a London, Ontario web design and development agency, provides expert advice and support either by designing and developing new custom websites and ecommerce stores or through their website renovation and repair services.
If your business website is experiencing any of the above listed issues, our team of professional SEO experts, developers and software engineers at ZOO Media Group are equipped with the skills and knowledge to guide you through the process.
Contact ZOO Media Group today to ensure your website is well-designed, search engine optimized, and provides a great user experience while keeping up with changing technology and your business needs. Let’s us be your guide and elevate your online presence together!
Frequently Asked Questions
Slow website speed is commonly caused by oversized images, unoptimized code, server issues, excessive plugins, or heavy scripts. Improving image compression, reducing file sizes, enabling caching, and reviewing hosting performance can help speed up load times. Need a performance audit? ZOO Media Group offers website speed evaluations.
A poor mobile experience often comes from outdated design, non-responsive layouts, or fonts and buttons that aren’t mobile-friendly. ZOO Media Group specializes in building responsive websites that look great and function smoothly on every device.
Sudden traffic drops can happen due to broken links, slow pages, outdated SEO, algorithm changes or hosting issues. ZOO Media Group’s SEO specialists can diagnose the cause and restore your traffic with targeted website and SEO repairs.
Websites may appear outdated when design elements, layout styles, typography, or content haven’t been refreshed in several years. Modern usability standards and device expectations also evolve, which can make older sites feel less intuitive.
Common reasons include slow speed, thin content, missing metadata, poor mobile experience, broken links, or technical SEO issues like crawl errors. Search engines prioritize fast, accessible, well-structured sites with helpful content.
Broken links often result from deleted pages, outdated URLs, incorrect redirects, or changes in the site structure. Regular website maintenance helps identify and fix these issues.
Signs include text that’s too small to read, buttons that are hard to tap, elements that overlap, or pages that require horizontal scrolling. Responsive design ensures your site adapts properly to all screen sizes.
Security problems can include outdated plugins, missing SSL certificates, weak passwords, malware, or unpatched software. Regular updates and security scans help protect users and data.
A high bounce rate may be caused by slow loading pages, confusing navigation, intrusive pop-ups, outdated content, or poor overall user experience. Enhancing usability and content relevance can help reduce bounce rates.
Common accessibility barriers include low colour contrast, missing alt text, unclear navigation, non-descriptive links, and content not optimized for screen readers. Accessibility improvements ensure all users can navigate your site. Read AODA Compliance Checklist to learn more.
Content may be outdated, unclear, lacking structure, or not aligned with user intent. Incorporating helpful information, visuals, clear headings, and consistent formatting can improve engagement.
A website audit can diagnose performance issues, SEO problems, design flaws, accessibility errors, broken links, and security concerns. Comprehensive audits provide actionable insights into what needs improvement. ZOO Media Group offers complete website audits for businesses, contact us today to learn more!
