By Tom Parling
One of the most frustrating parts of startup management is when the initial push for the business fails, and things start to go on a downward trend. While the company owner and staff will all be doing their best to steer things in the right direction, startups are infamous for their downward spirals. Once things get started, it can be hard to bounce back.
That said, just because you are currently running an ailing startup does not mean that all hope is lost. One of the best parts of business management is that there is always a way to move forward, even when it seems like you’ve exhausted all your options. The strangest thing is that sometimes, the solution is so simple you’ll smack yourself in the forehead, wondering how you could have failed to notice!
Of course, it can be challenging to figure out the solution to your problem without the necessary context, but this guide will look toward the various ways an ailing startup can make a big change and get back on track. Here are some of the best ways to reignite a company that’s on the ever-annoying downward trend.
Take the slow and steady route to Internet marketing
If you want your business to be known across the Internet, it would be prudent to go for the slow and steady route that guarantees success. Learning how to take advantage of the world’s greatest search engine is a sure ticket to popularity as a business. For example, link building techniques can help pull a company out of any downward slump. All it takes is the help of a professional link building agency like www.ocere.com.
Looking into your company site’s metrics
There are plenty of tools that can help you figure out your site’s metrics, with bounce rate being one of the most crucial. It’s the rate at which online users snuck a peek at your website only to immediately leave after. Every company website has a bounce rate, as sometimes people end up on the website by accident. However, a high bounce rate means that even those who wanted to have a look at the website closed the tab as soon as they got in.
Why does such a thing happen? What should you do to prevent it? A few potential culprits include:
- Loading times. Surprisingly, this is the most common complaint that online users have when it comes to business websites. When potential clients are so busy that they only have a little bit of time to spare, they will not tolerate loading times of more than ten seconds. Chances are, they’ll leave before things load fully. If you want to reduce the loading times, get rid of site widgets and accessories, and ensure that your website’s images have a reasonable resolution and not such high quality that it takes ages to load.
- A wall of text. Another common complaint online users have with some websites is the presence of walls of text right at the main page. Web design 101 recommends against putting too much information on the main page, as it’s supposed to be the page that attracts online users and makes them look further. If you want to make sure that walls of text don’t turn people off, compress what you want to say into as few words as possible. Let people know about your company’s purpose without bombarding them with text.
Another thing to watch out for is the lack of a mobile platform for your website. Considering most people have smartphones, they often wonder why they get frustrated with a company’s website. While many of the steps above seem obvious, it is typically the most straightforward solution that helps startups the most.