The chemical industry has been notoriously slow to embrace digital technologies and when compared to most other industries, has fallen quite behind.  Now the entire industry seems to be racing to build new websites and invest in digital technologies. A bad website can negatively affect how customers view your company and discourage potential new business. Avoid making these seven chemical website mistakes that are sure to drive customers away.

1. Building a website that isn’t mobile friendly.
   These days, people are always on their phones, so buildinga website that is optimized for mobile is key. More than half of all internet use is done on mobile phones, and a clunky website that requires users to zoom, search, and swipe to find the information they need can be frustrating and leave potential customersrunning to your competition. A large number of people will abandon an inquiry and leave a website if it isn’t optimized for mobile. Building a responsive, mobile-friendly website will make your website’s  information easily accessible so that it adapts, or responds, to all device’s screen sizes cleanly, allowing users to interact with and contact your company.
    
2. Not having an effortless user experience that allows potential customers to request a quote.
   Your website is often the first impression potential customers will take in of your company, and the first thing most users want to do is request a quote. If they can’t easily find out how to do that or have to jump through multiple hoops to make their request, they will likely get discouraged and move elsewhere or start their experience with a bad impression of your company. Make it easy to meet their needs and put an option to request a quote front and center on your site. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes—what questions would you have and what information would you want right away before requesting a quote? Make that the center of a user experience that is streamlined and simple.
    
3. Putting your product catalog as a list on a single page or PDF download.
   Listing all of your products on one page is overwhelming, clunky, difficult for customers to find what they want and most importantly does not help your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). Instead, build out a dynamic catalog that puts each product on its own page and allows the search engines to index each product page. This will help your products be found when potential new customers search for your company’s products..
    
4. Not hiring an SEO professional to create a lead generation strategy for your products.
   With so much content on the internet, search engine optimization is vital to getting people to your site. Hire an SEO to work in house or outsource your SEO to a team that has proven their ability to produce results, but do not overlook the value an SEO strategy will bring to your bottom line. A lead generation strategy drives interest in your company, draws attention to your services, and transforms browsers into customers. A good lead generation strategy helps your company stand out from all of the noise online. Digital marketing and SEO is constantly changing, so make sure you have someone who can keep up with trends and put you ahead of the competition.
    
5. Not checking the website on different devices.
   Just because the website looks good on your laptop doesn’t mean it will look the same on other devices. The colors, layout, and size can change based on if you are using a tablet, phone, or desktop computer. Use a device checking service or do it manually to make sure the links work, the interface is consistent, and the site is presentable and consistent across all devices. That last thing you want after spending the time and money to build a new site is for it to not work properly for some users.
    
6. Not checking the website on different browsers.
   Each browser has its own quirks, and something that can function and look great on one browser could run into issues on another. Run your website through all of the most common browsers, including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. There are a number of tools that test cross-browser compatibility and find discrepancies and things to change to make sure the website is usable and consistent.
    
7. Not running your website under SSL.
   The best designed and written website doesn’t mean much if the information isn’t secure. SSL, or security sockets layer, is the standard technology for creating an encrypted link between a website and a server and makes sure that information passed between the website and server stays private and secure. This is especially important if your customers are submitting personal information, such as for requesting quotes, or making purchases and entering payment information. In 2014, Google began giving websites that run under SSL a slight boost in the search engine result pages (SERP).
    

A high-quality website will set your chemical company apart and help drive new business. Avoiding these seven common mistakes will help lead your website rebuild to success and help your company grow.

If you’re just beginning your website redevelopment, consider using ChemSource. The team at ChemSource has worked with chemical distributors for over 10 years and has produced over 100,000 b2b inquiries via digital channels.