So you have a website and you have analytics tools that is showing that you’re getting traffic. However, you’re not getting any contact forms submitted, leads, sign-ups, or whatever the objective is. In other words, the conversion rate sucks. Why is that?
Find out 5 Reasons Why Your Website Is Driving Away Valuable Clients
1. Outdated Design
I’m sure you’ve looked for a service or product before and came across a website that looked like something from the stone age of the internet. Did you stay on the website or did you leave almost immediately after telling yourself “wow this website is old as shit”?
You probably hit that back button and looked at other companies as you might’ve thought that this company might not even be in business, and if they are, their products and services are probably just as outdated and crappy as their website.
So, when a website is from 2002 this is extremely noticeable. However, you may be thinking to yourself “well, my website is from 2012 so it’s not outdated.” Even though some websites from 2012 look like websites from 2019, most don’t, and this is because most companies are not early adopters of new design trends – they stick to what works for as long as they can.
2. Responsive Design / Mobile Friendly
Just a couple of years ago, internet traffic from mobile devices such as tablets and phones had surpassed that from computers, rapidly continuing to grow. Because the majority of traffic comes from mobile devices, it is important to have a responsive, mobile friendly, or mobile first website. All these terms mean that your website looks and works great on phones and tablets.
Why is this important? Well, because 80% of consumers will leave a website that does not display well on their mobile devices. So, if your website isn’t mobile friendly, you lose 8 out of 10 people that access it from their phones – regardless how great your company, products, or services are.
3. Navigation
Is it easy for visitors to navigate through your website to find whatever information or section they are looking for? Or is it complex? Maybe even difficult?
At some point it was trendy to have a website with tons and tons of pages and information. Now however, less is more. Your website has to make it very simple, easy and quick for people to find whatever it is they are looking for.
This ties into the next point…
4. Copywriting
How is the text on your website? Copywriting is equally as important as any other element on your website and it’s a meaty subject, so I won’t go into too much detail in this post because it would become its own post.
The copy (text) on your website should be easily readable and placed in the right spot at the right time when visitors are navigating your website. While not all industries are the same and some of these may apply to some more than others, the copy should answer questions such as who you are, what you do, where you are, why you, and so on.
It also shouldn’t be just “we do this, we do that, buy it”. It should focus more on benefits, results. Even though it’s about you don’t make it seem about you. Make it seem about the client. Also, it should be somewhat persuasive in convincing your website visitors to fill out a form, sign up, give you a call, or whatever you’re looking to achieve.
The industry that you’re in affects the type of copy you need but it should always be easy to read, easy to find, and cater to your target audience.
5. Call To Action (CTA)
There are two elements to calls to action: first is incentivising and action and the second is the ease of that action.
Is your contact information highly visible and extremely easy to find? Phone numbers, locations, and other information has to be extremely easy to find and readily available at all times. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to find a phone number on a company’s website.
However, just having your phone number in the visitor’s face the whole time is not enough. There needs to be an incentive for them to actually dial that number. Get a free estimate, call now for 10% off, sign up for our newsletter and get discounts, etc. All these are examples of calls to action that incentivise your visitors to take an action. Combine that with the ease of taking the action (phone number highly visible, contact form highly visible etc.) and you will get a conversion.
6. Loading Speed
If your website loading speed is more than 5 seconds, you’re done. That’s it. It sounds crazy, but 74% of users will leave a website if it doesn’t load on their phones after 5 seconds.
Your website could be loading slow for a number of reason, which might be a good topic for another post but essentially, there’s nothing more to say here. If your website is slow, the visitors go.
7. Unique / Quality Content
This is very important, and it was hard for me to nail down a name for it because it greatly varies depending on the industry – so I just went with unique / quality content.
It’s difficult to explain without using an example so I’ll use this website as an example.
We are a web design and digital marketing company. So, on this website you will find our projects such as websites we’ve worked on – these are unique to us, they are our projects, a clear display of what our work looks like. You will also find testimonials from clients – these are unique to us, they are our clients speaking about their experience working with us. Third, you will find the blog posts, which are all about small business, web design, and digital marketing, offering value to our target market and displaying expertise at the same time.
Here’s another example. Say you have a construction company. You absolutely want to feature images of work you’ve completed, images of your staff working on a site maybe, as well as testimonials from clients. You don’t need a blog but you definitely need to show your work and build trust with your website visitors who are potential customers.
Imagine this. You check out a construction company’s website that has pictures of their work, their staff working, testimonials, and then you check out another website that has generic pictures off google and no testimonials. Which one do you know more about? Which one are you going to call? It’s no question.
If you’re having trouble analyzing any of the 7 things I mentioned on your website, I would be more than happy to take a look at your website and let you know where it could use some improvement. Free consultation, absolutely free, no obligation.Let’s Connect!