Introduction
Your website says a lot about your business.
When customers interact with your brand for the first time online, your website has the power to make a strong first impression that sets you apart from the competition or creates a negative one that’s difficult to recover from.
People want a clear and authentic picture of what doing business with you is going to be like and if your website doesn’t present the full picture, you run the risk of losing the sale to the competitors
The good news is that many of the most common issues we find on websites are easy to fix and produce significant results once they’ve been implemented.
1. Website is Not Mobile-Friendly
Did you know that 60% of customers browse your website on mobile or tablet devices?
If your website was designed more than a few years ago, it likely wasn’t designed to be responsive and doesn’t display correctly on mobile or tablets. This can lead to poor engagement and time-on-site, which means your messaging doesn’t get across.
By creating a mobile-friendly website design that adapts to whatever device your visitor is using, you’ll dramatically improve user experience and keep people engaged for longer.
2. Website Design is Outdated
First impressions matter, especially for competitive industries.
If your website is outdated, missing key information, or wasn’t designed professionally, you could be giving a negative first impression to potential guests who are interacting with your brand for the first time.
Your website should be like a member of your sales & marketing team, working around the clock to highlight your rooms, location, facilities, staff, activities & services to set the expectations for the guest experience.
Not only does this lead to an increase in direct bookings, but it also increases word of mouth and referrals as people can see for themselves what you have to offer.
3. Website is not SSL Secure
SSL certificates are an extra level of security in your website hosting that helps protect visitors from hackers who are trying to steal credit card numbers, emails, usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information.
When your website isn’t secured with SSL, hackers can easily intercept this information when it passes between servers. While absolutely critical for eCommerce sites, we recommend that every business website should enable this feature.
Luckily setting up SSL on your hosting is a fast and easy process that will help to keep your website protected from a number of attacks.
There are several options ranging from free to paid, however for most small websites a free option like Let’s Encrypt SSL will do the job just fine. Ecommerce websites may need a more premium option for enhanced security.
4. Broken Internal Page Links
Clicking on a link that leads to an error page can be a frustrating and annoying experience.
Although it may seem like a minor issue on the surface, this instantly creates a negative user experience and most users will simply abandon the website altogether.
Fix it by ensuring that all links are working from time to time especially the main menu and updating those you think may have recently changed or deleted.
5. Slow Page Loading Time
Did you know that 53% of visitors will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load?
Keep your site optimized for fast page loading and you’ll dramatically increase your engagement rate with new visitors.
This will also help increase your search rankings on Google because the bounce rate is one of the main factors considered when ranking your website in search.
6. No Clear Call to Action
A call to action is a marketing message designed to prompt an immediate response or encourage an immediate sale (asking for the sale)
Having a clear and compelling call to action on your website is perhaps the single most significant factor for increasing sales.
While it seems obvious to us, potential customers won’t take the next step unless it’s immediately clear what to do. For best results, try to limit to one CTA per page.
7. Not Optimized for On-Page SEO
Websites that aren’t optimized for on-page SEO sit much lower in the search results and are clicked on far less often, if at all.
In order to reach customers who are actively searching for the services you sell, you need to make sure your website is optimized for Google search. Not only will you show up in Google search but you also appear in places like Google Maps and Google Images.
Make sure you have a page title that accurately describes your business and a meta description that explains the benefit of what each page will offer visitors.
8. High Bounce Rates From Google Search
A bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that enter your website only to hit the back button and “bounce” back to Google search.
This is normally a strong indication that your page is mismatched with your visitor’s intent. Broken or missing pages (404) can also cause this issue.
A typical bounce rate can range between 20-60%, but this generally depends on your industry and type of website.
When Google sees a high bounce rate on particular pages, it places you lower in the search rankings, resulting in fewer visits and potential customers.
Update your SEO page titles to better reflect the content on your website & who would benefit from it.
9. Low Conversion Rates on Sales & Signup Pages
Improving conversion rates on your lead and sales pages can dramatically increase your revenue, with even the smallest of changes resulting in significant differences.
What’s great about this approach is that you don’t need new people to visit your website, you can make improvements to existing campaigns and see the benefits right away.
Just like with bounce rates and time spent on a page, conversion rates tend to be industry-specific. 1-5+% is considered average, but it’s going to vary based on what you sell and who buys it. To offer a single reason why your conversion rate is underperforming is difficult without first seeing your website.
More often than not, it’s a variety of issues causing the problem instead of just one thing. Elements like messaging, page design, call to action, social proof, and adequate incentive should all be considered on underperforming lead generation pages.
Design your landing pages for users to achieve one main objective (like a sign-up, subscribe, or outright sale). To uncover the optimal messaging and design, multi-variate testing is recommended in your lead generation & advertising campaigns.
10. Not Speaking Directly to Your Target Audience
Does your website copy speak to your audience in their language or your language? Are you using visual assets your visitors can identify with?
Many businesses think that by targeting a wide range of customers (a one size fits all approach) they will increase their exposure and odds of making the sale, but as you know the exact opposite is true. When you try to appeal to everyone at once, you appeal to no-one.
What if you’re selling to more than one audience? Ideally, you’ll want to create separate landing pages for each target audience segment, tailoring the content and messaging to those specific buyer personas. (target audience)
Try using language that your customers use to describe your business and services. Reviews on similar websites can be a great source of information for the research.
11. Website Content isn’t Easy To View
Did you know that most people scan web pages instead of reading them word for word?
Chances are if you have “walls of text” they are not being read and your message is not getting through to your prospects.
Try to break up text into easily consumable sections with things like headings, subheadings, bullet points, and lists.
About 47% of consumers will view up to five pieces of content from a company before talking contacting a salesman, so it’s important to make sure your content is well written and formatted for your prospects
Make sure your pages & posts are easy to read and scan through. Focus on short paragraphs of 2-3 sentences, using lists, and bullet points to convey your message without losing reader attention.
Breaking up long blog posts and guides with headings, sub-headings, lists, bullet points, and other visual assets. In addition to images, you can also utilize graphs, charts, infographics or other representations of data to get the point across and make it stick
Conclusion
If you take action on even just a few of the recommended changes above, you may see a MAJOR increase in brand awareness, engagement, conversion rates, & most importantly direct sales.
