
You may have a slick, professional website, yet struggle to convert page views into leads/sales – thousands of websites do. Here at Echo, we’ve noted down a few points to help you avoid this trap. We’ve even explained some of the most common reasons as to why your website may not be making you money.
A website is your online shop window. It’s your own advertising space and marketing tool, so having a well thought out flow of how your customers will find your services/products is vital. There are many areas on a website which allows for advertising of your services, whether it’s publishing your thoughts on a blog, products on an e-commerce store, or displaying your services using photo/video on the homepage of a brochure website – the opportunities are endless. These tips can help in all cases.
1) A bad or non-existent CTA
A call to action (CTA) is as simple as it sounds, it draws the user into making an action on your website. Research suggests that more than 90% of visitors who read the main headline of a website will also read the CTA too, making it one of the most important elements! Websites can often over complicate a CTA with unnecessary technical jargon which only confuses the reader. They should be clear and simple to understand. Where applicable our web design team at Echo include relevant and well thought-out CTA’s that are designed and worded to draw your potential customers in. The purpose of a CTA may be to generate a lead, make a sale or send the audience onto a specific landing page for more information, eventually taking them to the next stage of the sale.
A simple example of this is when we developed the Cathedral Locksmiths website, we ensured the CTA was visible on all devices on the initial page load and included the phone number and contact button, allowing a viewer to progress and quickly get in touch with the locksmiths. Emphasis was placed on the phone number due to the reactive nature of the business, specialising in emergency call outs.
2) A Messy Customer Journey
It doesn’t matter if you have the best-looking website in the world, if your target audience cannot easily navigate it then it’s not an effective marketing tool. In our industry, we see too many websites launched with a nice design but the core reasons behind the need for a website neglected. Your online presence is arguably the most important sales tool and a design can easily become ineffective when the main focus was lost on making it look ‘slick’. An excellent website should look great and have a functional UI, so a user can land on your website and subconsciously navigate around with ease, finding information and your services or products.
“What you prefer or what your designer prefers doesn’t matter if it’s not getting you conversions.”
We always recommend taking it back to basics. Put yourself in the mind of the consumer and see for yourself how easy your website is to use. Land on your homepage and then see how long it takes and how many clicks to find your contact details, products or services. Test this with multiple people, whether that’s colleagues in your office, family/friends or some of your existing customers – the more feedback the better! Once you’ve analysed the findings you can update your site to become a supercharged marketing tool, making it easier for potential customers to spend their money with you!
3) Outdated Content
The World Wide Web is extremely dynamic. New things are happening every nano second and content is instantly becoming part of online history once published. It shows an incredible lack of professionalism when content is outdated, especially when you’re researching a business and it’s clear the content is months, and in some cases years out of date. From a users perspective, it could indicate that the website is not maintained and hint it may not be up to scratch with latest security standards. A user may even question if the business is still operating. Here at Echo, we offer website management solutions to ensure your website remains relevant and secure, keeping your online presence in check.
4) Not Monitoring Website Performance
There are hundreds of different reasons that could be causing poor website performance. Page load speed is key, which is why Echo take great care by using carefully selected hardware, software and cloud-based technologies to provide high-performance hosting. If a potential customer visits your website and it takes more than 3 seconds to load, chances are they’ll leave and go elsewhere. This is even more relevant on mobile! Losing a potential sale can be as simple as having poor loading speeds, so make sure you regularly test your website on a variety of devices and speak to a professional if you’d like a consultation to discuss your options.
All our websites are fully bespoke and designed by our creatives who are well trained in developing websites which look great and are fast performing. Two tools we use with every website we design are Google Analytics and Google Search Console, which allows us to monitor your website traffic in detail and monitor users behaviour, find out where the user originates from and set up goals to allow tracking of conversions. All of this information can be used to redesign and adjust your website to improve the customer journey, which will also increase your leads/sales. You should not be happy with a complete website but always strive to make it better!
5) Not Mobile Friendly or Responsive
More and more people use mobile and tablet devices to browse online and the growth rate for web usage on portable devices is showing no sign of slowing. Therefore, having a website that isn’t responsive and not mobile friendly simply segregates a large part of your audience and in most cases will leave potential customers with a bad taste in their mouth. If they cannot successfully use the website with ease, they won’t use it at all. This will mean fewer visitors all round.
A Google Survey suggests that over half of users say they would be less likely to use a website if they have had a bad experience using its mobile website. All of the websites we develop adopt a mobile-first approach, meaning they’re mobile friendly and fully responsive. Furthermore, Google also ranks websites based upon how mobile-friendly they are, boosting websites that are compliant for all devices. This means if you’re a business with a non-responsive website, you’re giving traffic to your competitors!
“Google state 61 percent of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing”
There are many more factors as to why your website may not be generating as many leads or sales as you think it should. Focusing on the above is a useful start and will get you well underway to a successful website. To look further into how you can increase your sales online you will need consulting the experts. Here at Echo, we specialise in developing your website into an extremely effective sales tool that helps your business grow and reach as many potential customers as possible.
Call us now on 01733 28 66 46 or email us at [email protected] for a free website usability & marketing review.
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