With Halloween upon us, you are probably trying to find the most frightening haunted house in your town, or cooking up a spooky costume to scare your neighbors and friends. While you are handing out (or eating) exorbitant amounts of candy, painting on your fake blood and strategically placing cobwebs and skeletons on your front porch, it is time to consider something truly terrifying: how your website could be damaging your business. Boo!

So what are some of the scariest mistakes that you may be making, and how can you fix them so you can enjoy a spook-filled Halloween without worrying about your business?

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Your design is a terrifying blast from the past

Like the classic horror movie standby of ghosts, nothing will make your customers turn and run more quickly than a website with an outdated web design. You may not think about your website design very often. After all, it is just doing good work that matters, right? Wrong!

Since most potential buyers will encounter your business for the first time through your website, your site design is the first impression that they have of your company. Sure you might be the best mechanic, photographer or accountant in town, but if your website design is outdated, ugly and irrelevant, your customers will run away to a competitor, without ever experiencing your wonderful skills and services.

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Your content is bare bones

Another mistake that many small businesses make, is quickly creating poor content to fill space on their website. However, like a skeleton will make you stop in your tracks and retreat, so a website with poor content will scare away potential customers and damage your business.

As we have discussed previously, your content should add value to your customer’s experience. It should educate potential buyers and establish your brand as an authority in your field. Instead of creating content just to create content, focus on creating content with flesh and bones that will draw customers in and keep them coming back to your business time and time again for your expertise in your field.

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Your website is like the walking dead

Have you added new content to your website recently? Is your contact information up-to-date? When was the last time you posted on your company Facebook page? If the answer to these questions is seldom to never, your website may be scaring customers away from your company like a zombie makes a grown man quake in his boots.

With your website being the main way that new customers find your business, it is important to regularly update your page, so that everyone knows you are still in business. It is also crucial to keep your contact information updated and accurate. If you have social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it is key to update them on a regular basis. Make sure your customers know your business is alive and well, or they will run like you are a zombie!

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Your lack of SEO is sucking the life from your business

We have posted many times about the importance of making sure your website is SEO-friendly. In fact, 93% of online experiences now begin with a search engine, and most of us rely on services like Google for finding new services and products.

With this shift in how customers discover new brands, SEO is the lifeblood of your business, and if your website is lacking SEO, you may be draining the life force from your business, like Dracula drains the blood from his victims. What could be more terrifying than this?

Nothing is more terrifying than unknowingly damaging your business through little mistakes in your web presence. Be sure you are not making any of the spooky, but common errors detailed above, and after you resolve any issues, pop in your favorite scary movie, sit back and snack on that trick-or-treat candy.