The document discusses signs that a website may not be performing well. It lists several potential issues:
1) Low conversion rates, especially below 0.1%, indicate users are not taking desired actions on the site.
2) Errors shown in Google Webmaster Tools, such as crawl errors or malware, suggest issues that could hurt search engine optimization.
3) Site speed being over 4 seconds to load is too slow and could cause Google to give lower rankings.
4) An outdated WordPress installation is a security risk and prevents the site from keeping up with current technology.
3. You like your website, right? You
enjoy the way it looks, appreciate
all the distinct design details and
all, but this doesn’t change the
fact that your site can still suck.
4. How come?
Well, basically, websites are not
that much about looks … they are
more about goals, and proper
content presentation. Check out
the following list to find out what
I’m on about.
5. It does not convert
The fact that your website does
not convert is the first and the
most important indication that
something bad is indeed going
on.
6. First of all, what’s a conversion?
Basically, it’s when a visitor does
exactly what you want them to
do – a specific predefined action.
Such action can be signing up to
your newsletter, buying your
product, clicking your affiliate
link, or whatever else.
7. Now a bit more important
question: What’s a bad
conversion rate? This all depends
on your market, site, and
audience, so you’ll have to use
your own judgment. I just want to
draw your attention towards this
issue.
8. However, if you’re experiencing
conversion rates in the range of
0.1% then there’s much room for
improvement.
9. However, if you’ve got your theme from
other sources then your mileage may
vary.
The problem here is that Google might
find it hard to crawl and index your site
if it has many HTML errors. And this
means only trouble for your SEO.
10. You can do a basic error check
with the Firefox extension –
HTML Validator
11. Google Webmaster Tools errors
Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) is
a great package of software for
many different web management
purposes. It can really help you to
structure your site in a way
Google actually enjoys and
appreciates.
12. After you sign up and add your site
you can go to Health > Crawl
Errors (the left sidebar):
[gwt-errors]
13. You can also go to Health >
Malware to check if there’s anything
else suspicious going on.
In the end, GWT is your way of
speaking with Google, take
advantage of it.
14. It’s slow
If your site is slow, Google won’t give
you high rankings. Website speed is
as important to Google as any other
ranking factor.
15. How to check if your site loads fast?
Start with Pingdom Tools. You can
check the loading time of any
domain. If it’s more than 4 seconds,
you’re in trouble.
16. What to do in such a case? Start with
your hosting account … maybe it’s
time to get a better one? If that’s not
the case then the problem lies
somewhere within your site. Try
installing a tool like Yslow and doing
a more in-depth analysis.
17. WordPress not updated
This is actually pretty fundamental,
but people still forget to update their
sites on a regular basis.
18. There’s a reason why WordPress gets
updated so often. The internet and
the technology behind it is constantly
evolving, and every web
management platform needs to
follow the trend.
19. If you decide that you don’t want to
update anything, soon enough you
will have a slow, un-optimized, and
malware-prone site. In a word …
you’ll have a site that sucks.
20. Do you know of any other factors
indicating that a website sucks? Feel
free to share.