How Incorrect Info on Your Small Business Website Costs You Money

Incorrect information on the website of any small business will cost that business money. That is because potential customers rely heavily on businesses’ websites to learn about those businesses.

If a business has outdated or otherwise inaccurate information on their website, it can lead to lost revenue in a variety of ways. For the same reason, it’s just as important to make sure you don’t have any missing pieces of information on your small business website.

Let’s take a look at some specific problems that can arise from incorrect or missing information on a business’ website.

Potential Customers Can’t Reach Your Business

What happens when important information like your phone number or physical address is wrong on your website? It stops you from getting customers from the Internet into your business.

The reason is obvious too. How can customers find you or get in contact with you? The reality is that they can not. And if they can’t reach you, they can’t spend money with you.

For this reason, you should double, or even triple, check all of your basic information. You should do this when your website is first created, whenever it’s updated, and whenever any of your information changes.

When your website is first created or when it’s updated, that is the time when information is most likely to get messed up. That is because there is a lot going on. Mixups can be as simple as a typo. They can also occur due to miscommunication between different people involved in the process.

You can’t stop mistakes from happening, that is why reviewing and testing is so important. Make sure the person verifying the information isn’t the same person who added the information. Like with many things, when you are the creator of something, you lose perspective and overlook small mistakes that would be obvious to a set of fresh eyes.

The other obvious, yet critical, time to update information is when it changes. If you move to a new physical location or get a new phone number, you need to update your website as soon as possible.

Customers will not be forgiving of arriving at an empty building or receiving a “this number has been disconnected or is no longer in service” message. They will just move on to the next business, and you may never get them back.

Potential Customers Will Not Trust Your Business

Incorrect information can also make your business look untrustworthy. And that is a huge loss, because trust is one of the top ways your business can benefit from a website.

Many potential customers decide if and how much they trust a business based on a business’ website. This means, obviously, you need a website, and then you need to make sure it looks professional.

If you’ve spent the money to create a professional small business website, the last thing you want to do is miss out due to little mistakes. Incorrect or outdated information can make even the most appealing website look unprofessional or outdated.

The key here is to update time-sensitive information as quickly as possible. Don’t promote events or sales on your homepage that are outdated by months or years. If you don’t have something to replace it with, just remove the outdated content and try to get something fresh up as soon as reasonably possible.

Relevant and up-to-date content is a surefire way to build trust by showing that your business is active and engaged. Anything else will diminish trust, and, over time, lead to fewer sales and lost revenue.

Existing Customers Will Not Refer Others to Your Business

Even if your existing customers trust you, they may still hesitate to recommend others to your business. People don’t want to let their friends down by making bad recommendations.

They may still be willing to visit your establishment, because they remember when the information on your website was up to date. Now, since they frequent your business, they know the menu has changed or the store has moved.

If they know your website is now inaccurate, they may decide not to refer people to you. They may fear people will search the business, and think poorly of them because they frequent a rundown business.

The other potential situation is your existing customer doesn’t know your online presence contains errors. They refer their friends, and their friends get burned by the inaccuracies on your website. Their friend may never become a customer.

Worse yet, the friend may tell your existing customer how they showed up on Sunday, because the website said you were open. However, you’ve been closed on Sundays for years, and the customer didn’t tell their friend that. Now the original customer will think twice about referring others, and may not even return themselves depending on the situation.

Incorrect Info on Your Small Business Website Will Cost You Money

Missing, outdated, or otherwise inaccurate information on a small business’ website can create all sorts of problems that lead to lost revenue. That is why it’s best to just keep it as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

Put someone in charge of monitoring the website for inaccuracies. They should update the website as soon as information changes or becomes stale. This will ensure your customers stay happy and informed, which will lead to more revenue in the long run.

Have a story about bad information on your website or another business you were trying to work with? You don’t have to mention any names, but let us know about your story in the comments! We’d love to hear about it and let others learn how to avoid similar mistakes of their own.