6 Important Factors Your Website Is Lacking
Your website design accounts for merely 5% of what keeps people on your website.
And to think, when I started my business, the design was my 100% focus.
The longer I spent designing, the more I noticed a trend with a lot of stellar websites out there: Flash, flare, tech, special features, flipping and twirling images, well, all of that is crap.
Again, design is very important, but its not the end-all, be-all.
Design is a small factor in the big picture. The design doesn’t get people to your site, although it is a contributing factor to keeping people on your site.
I’ve redesigned sites that all they needed was an upgrade to their visual appeal. They had all the other pieces figured out and the beautiful new design added to their credibility and user experience.
If you just can’t figure out why your beautiful (or not-so-beautiful) website isn’t performing, this post is for you.
6 factors that might be the contributor to the lack of your website’s success are:
1| Your Website Is Lacking Function
You can have an amazing-looking website with all the right marketing strategies in place, yet your site lacks function.
Your site may be very difficult to read, navigate or understand, and in more recent years, people are too impatient to try to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing on your site. Or where to go to find what they’re looking for.
The design should be visually attractive and up-to-date. A dated website will give visitors the idea that you’re either a “dated company” or, that you’re out of business.
No kidding.
The design should be consistent. On a minor scale, for example, a lot of online retailers will have their shopping page, let’s say black, but the rest of their site is white. Most visitors might think they made a mistake and clicked an ad or something.
Consistent shapes, colors, images, language, and flow are just a few examples of what you should look closely for.
Example of an out-of date website.
Is the design brand-appropriate? This is another common inconsistency.
This is typically an issue in small to large companies where they have several hands in the web strategy pot, and some people’s personal style may vary from the brand’s desired image.
It’s important to train staff accordingly or have all content streams go through one editor to keep the company image in check.
Using a company-wide style guide is a great way to keep your brand consistent.
A major factor nowadays is mobile-optimization. No, I’m not talking about separate sites (a mobile site and a desktop site — commonly used with banks and portal-based companies), but depending on your industry and site needs, having a responsive website design (visible across desktop and all mobile devices) is key.
More than 4.6 billion people use mobile devices worldwide, according to Statista.
With those kind of numbers, why are so many websites still making people “pinch and zoom” with their immobile (get it?) sites?
Design has changed greatly due to the mobile-optimized necessity. And with good reason.
RELATED: Create Your Own Website in 7 Days Using #OneWeekWebsite
Example: My mobile-optimized site.
2| Your Content Is Lacking in the Freshness Department
Just like with design, dated content equals visitors thinking, are they still in business?
You want your visitors to see value in what you’re offering. And if its not fresh, valid content then you’re online presence is a waste of digital space.
For example, a few weeks ago I came across an all-natural cosmetics company website. The site was okay, but the products intrigued me tremendously.
I couldn’t tell if it was still in business, so I went to check the blog page — the most commonly updated section of a website.
The last and only post was from over 2 years ago.
Not only could I not find a way to contact the site owner, but for all I knew, they were out of business.
The point is, that website lost a potential customer — ready to restock their entire skin care and cosmetics line — to one of their online-active competitors.
What are you offering? Do you have a strong content strategy in place?
Many companies miss the boat on developing a content publishing schedule because they feel like they don’t have enough experience or enough time to keep up with quality blogging.
If the time to learn it and the time to consistently do it is too much to spare, it may be time to outsource or hire someone to do it.
RELATED: 5 Steps to Successful Online Marketing
Social media is doing wonders for my business. Aside from “vanity metrics” — the amount of “Likes” or followers you have online, which personally, I don’t care about — I haven’t paid a dime for advertising since I started my business.
Granted I waited to build solid content (blogs, free resources, and a free course) before I marketed my site. But social media is paying off.
And the best part is, social media is free.
Are you sharing blog posts filled with valid content for your target market? How about tutorials, industry news, videos, webinars, eBooks, testimonials, infographics, case studies, product reviews and more?
Are you using the social media networks that your audience uses to drive that relevant traffic to your website?
Guide your visitors with strong, well-timed calls-to-action to encourage your visitors to take the next step in the buying process.
Your content strategy is an ongoing, consistent process that will drive the results that you’re looking for in your website and marketing.
If you’re not utilizing online marketing, your site is just floating without an anchor in treacherous web-waters.
3| You’re Ignoring SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may be very overwhelming or you may just be avoiding it altogether.
This is another content tie-in: If you’re not continually creating new and unique content, your SEO results are falling short.
Use relevant keywords to draw in the right people to your site, blog, newsletter, etc.
For a deeper look into SEO, see The Advanced Guide to SEO by Neil Patel and Sujan Patel.
4| You’re Only Directing Traffic to the Homepage
This is a common mistake that many site owners make.
When you send a link to your site to someone, is it always a link to your homepage? Or do you send them to the page that they’ll be most interested in?
The biggest problem is that most companies put all the eggs in the homepage’s basket and lose momentum on all the other pages of their site.
Each page of your site should be landing page optimized.
Your website isn’t a brick-and-mortar storefront — not everyone has to enter through the front door.
This is especially true for visitors who have already been to your site.
Traffic segmentation allows your visitors to dive straight in to their desired content. This gives you a greater chance of engaging them and turning them into paying customers. “The further down the sales funnel a visitor goes, the more important each subsequent page becomes.
With most businesses the homepage should only serve as a way to direct visitors to the relevant-to-them pages of your site. Segmenting website traffic is really important when your target visitor is looking for a particular service or category of services, and for existing customers you hope to up-sell.
5| Your Call-To-Action is Poorly Worded or Non-Existent
Okay, this is another common problem.
I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve been to and forgot what I was there for because maybe their site didn’t have enough info or contained an overkill of information:
(I was being nice putting this one up… I’ve seen worse but didn’t want to spend too long searching for the “perfect” bad example.)
Each page of your website should have one objective: to move your site visitors one step closer to taking a desired action and a strong, viable call-to-action (CTA) to guide them there.
A CTA can be an obvious button or link that moves users along and are applicable to the stage the visitor is at in the buying process.
For example, if you jump in on your homepage with “Buy Now”, you’ll most likely drive your visitor away or confuse them as to what exactly it is that they’re supposed to be buying.
At the homepage there’s minimal to no trust, no relationship and maybe they still haven’t figured out what it is that you actually do yet, or if you provide the service that they actually need.
So instead of jumping to that “Buy Now” or “Request A Consultation” right off the bat, try something like, “Browse Our Products”, “See What Our Customers Are Saying” or “Learn More”.
6| Your Website Doesn’t Build Trust
Trust. A great, big, beautiful contributing factor to business for your visitors.
As a new online business or new online presence, you can start to build trust through design, testimonials, tutorials, and free content.
The design should reflect your industry, but also provide a unique presence to set you apart from the masses.
Testimonials should fit with your present services or products.
Tutorials and content should reach your target visitor and help solve a problem they’re dealing with.
You can always start by asking existing or prospective visitors what it is they need the most help with.
What’s an important piece you use to enhance your website? Please share your strategy or thoughts @GoffCreative on Twitter.
Originally published at goffcreative.com.
