You keep hearing that this is the information age. People are more likely to pull out their phone and search the web to answer a question than they are to make a phone call or drive downtown to the physical business. And you thought you were on board when you put together your own website.
But how much time have you spent pouring over your computer screen to create the perfect website for your business?
Make Your Website Work For You
That’s a lot of sacrifice, especially considering how much time you already spend on the business itself. And let’s be real: that’s what you would really like to be doing anyway, not messing with your web content. So why isn’t your website making any conversions? Why doesn’t anyone stick around before bouncing to another site?
It can’t be you…can it?
The truth is, you might have put in some hard work for your website but missed some important points to make it function successfully. Why are people avoiding your website? Make sure none of these are among your culprits!
There’s Too Much Going On
Four Reasons Your Company Website Needs To Be On Point
We know that you are super excited about what you have to offer on your website, but it’s easy to get carried away and overload your pages, and that definitely happens the most on your homepage.
We get it, you ‘re an expert here and every piece of information is vital to your subject matter. Nothing can be relegated to another page or removed completely because it all matters.
This is actually one of the more ideal issues. Why? Because you’ve got more than enough material to work with. The trick for you is toning it down and pulling things out.
Focus on three or four of the most important things on your homepage, then use links and menus to help visitors find their way from there. Pare down the colors, graphics, and fonts too, so that visitors can get a clear feel for what you offer before they dig deeper.
They Don’t Feel Safe
If You Don’t Have a Website, Do You Even Exist?
Have you ever hopped onto a website just to be redirected to a warning saying it might not be safe? Those kinds of situations can pretty much guarantee visitors won’t come back.
Something as simple as having an expired or no SSL certificate could convince customers that your website isn’t trustworthy, which is especially important if you’re handling customer data.
Keep your website friendly and trusty by enlisting the right security so you and your customers will have nothing to worry about.
It Doesn’t Make Sense
7 Tips for Designing a Clean Website
Visitors to your website usually arrive with a mission, and your job is essentially to read their minds, so answer the following questions:
- What’s bringing this person to my website?
- What words, phrases, or photos will they be looking for?
- Where will they start looking for the information they want?
It could be an advertisement, a link shared on social media, or a Google search that brought them to you, so it follows that you should have information related to that link readily available. People are jumping from stone to stone here, and if it looks like they’ll have to hop too far, they’ll turn right back around.
Make it easy for them to navigate your website by using universal words and phrases, especially those used across most websites. Your menu navigation should be a flowchart game where you anticipate the question where can I learn more about that? and give them the information or link to the information that answers it right here!
Your Information is Shallow
Too much information can be a serious turn-off, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it completely. You want your website to offer increasingly more in-depth explanations as visitors dig in and click through.
Don’t lead them in a circle by skimming over details; they won’t be fooled. People recognize repetitive information pretty quickly and will go looking elsewhere for more meaningful answers.
It has No Aesthetic
10 Best Website Designs You Can Copy Today
Face it, the way your website looks plays a huge part in its success. You may have the right answers, but if your website is sporting mistakes or glitches, your visitors won’t be impressed.
Spelling errors and oversized photos will do the opposite of showing customers you’re dedicated and professional, so take the time to review and properly fix issues.
When your website is mistake-free, your customers will be more focused on your products because the sleek design will direct them onward rather than snagging their attention with eyesores.
It’s Not Meant for Them
3 Features You Must Have For Your Professional Website
Right now you may be pretty proud of yourself for avoiding all of these problems, but our final indicator may be the hardest pill to swallow, because you may be absolutely enthralled with your website, but no one else can muster the excitement over it that you have.
This is likely because it’s been built and designed just for you–not for the customers you want to attract. You may love it, but they may shudder at the logo design and color palette you’ve insisted on.
You should work closely with your designers/developers and rely on their expertise. Get honest opinions on what you’ve commissioned (and what they’re turning out) from family, friends, and potential customers. Look here for more inspiration, too.
You may find that your initial vision is better kept for yourself and a talented web team can push your business forward with their skills and experience in the industry.