Spending time on launching and promoting a website only for it to fail at converting can be disheartening for any business owner. It’s even more difficult when you don’t know the exact reason why it’s failing. You could have all the traffic in the world and a killer marketing strategy, but if your website fails at its most critical function, all of this will be for naught. However, there are some common reasons why many websites can’t convert as well as they should, and most of them can be remedied with little effort. Here are a few of them.
Your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for your prospective clients to convert. You should be giving your site a deep look and check how many opportunities you’re giving visitors to buy or opt-in.
If the only way they can do so is through a quote form on your contact us page, then you may have a problem. A lot of people may want to actually buy in but can’t find a way to do so. So, make sure that you give your visitors a chance to convert at every turn. You could do that by adding conversion opportunities in your site’s headers and footers, or even use a floating pop up if a visitor has been on your site for a certain amount of time.
Things like poor navigation, outdated graphics, and overall poor design could simply put off your visitors. A lot of people don’t know what constitutes good web design, while others will try to go cheap on design and think it’ll be enough. But skimping on web design is probably one of the worst mistakes you could make. Not only will it affect conversions, but you could also damage your brand’s reputation beyond repair.
That’s why you should only consider working with a reputable web design team. Many web designers offer a free strategy session. They have a solid track record for top-of-the-line design and can assist you with branding and digital marketing as well. They’ll be able to build a website that is consistent with your brand and that will be in line with the latest recommendations as far as mobile-friendly design and SEO goes. Not only that, but they’ll build a site that is easily navigable and designed with conversion in mind.
We’ve all come across websites that were downright irritating. Maybe it was taking too long to load. Or it had some annoying pop-ups or media playing that you couldn’t seem to get away from.
If you notice that you have unusually high bounce rates, then this could be a sign that there is something ticking off your visitors. Or maybe your landing page isn’t matching with their needs or what they expected. So, you might also consider readjusting your meta tags and descriptions, and the way you phrase your marketing message.
If you want to know what the reason is for the high bounce rates, there are a few things you can do. You could actually conduct user surveys to see what they have to say about your website. You could also use heat maps. Look at things like your navigation, graphics, performance, and the number of ads relative to the content.
A lot of business owners are trying to do way too much with their website and end up overloading their visitors will information. A lot of people for some reason think that white space is a bad thing when it comes to site design, but it’s often actually the opposite.
As a matter of fact, you could have a perfectly fine and high performing website by using only black and white and adding images wisely. White space is relaxing to the eye and allows readers to focus on the content first and foremost. Instead of focusing on snazzy graphics and media, you should focus on using the right fonts and styles to get your point across. You’d be surprised at how much white space could affect your bounce rates, and subsequently conversions.
Conversions are not something that just happens. It’s always an exchange between you and the buyer, and if they don’t feel like whatever product or service is worth the information or the money you’re asking them in return, then it means you’ll have to re-evaluate them. Try to find a way to offer better value or revise your pricing strategy and see if there’s any improvement in your conversion rate.
Everything you do, whether it’s your website’s copy, design, or offerings, should be targeted at your main demographic. If you try to be everything to everybody, you might end up actually alienating your core base by being too vague. Your content, in particular, has to talk to your main intended audience, or else all of your efforts will be ruined. You could use tools like Google analytics as well as perform market research to identify your niche and do everything with them in mind from now on.
At the end of the day, prospective clients have to trust you before they can transact with you. This means doing everything in your power to make sure that they can do business with you safely, and that they will be covered if they’re not satisfied with your products. Make sure that you use secure payment methods and proper encryption for credit card transactions made on your site. Also make sure to have a clear return policy and a reasonable, easy to read guarantee that is easily accessible to everyone.
Building a website that converts should be your first priority. Only then will you be able to put your marketing dollars and efforts to good use. So, make sure that you check your websites for these errors, and make the corrections immediately if you want to start getting favorable results.
