Imagine you walk into a local business and encounter a disorganized, mostly-empty waiting room. The signage is confusing, no one is there to answer your questions, and you can’t figure out what to do next. You would probably assume this business can’t help you and quickly lose interest.
You might find this hard to believe, but many websites perform this way for visitors who land on them. And since your website essentially functions as your home in the digital landscape, it could be turning away a large portion of potential customers!
If you’ve ever felt frustrated by your lack of marketing progress online, it’s time to check your website for these three common errors.
Your website loads too slowly. How else can we say it? It’s not 1995 anymore! Gone are the days when we would click into a website, walk away from the family computer to start dinner, and return later to read the website that required ten minutes to load. No one has that kind of patience.
Yes, that example is a tad extreme, and hopefully no website requires that much time and effort anymore. But research shows that internet users will navigate away from websites that require more than three seconds to load. Yes, only three seconds!
Don’t make your visitors wait. Build a sleek, functional website that draws interest without overburdening your visitors’ devices.
Your website copy is unclear or unmotivating. With regard to website copy, two main problems can occur: Your home page does not address visitor needs, and/or your content fails to engage them.
Within moments of landing on your website, visitors should receive a clear impression of your business. What are you all about? How can you help them? What do you offer that is unique within your market? Do you have what they are looking for? Your copy should address these questions clearly and quickly, so visitors aren’t forced to click around seeking answers.
Elsewhere on your site, such as your blog, visitors should feel engaged by the content. It should speak to them personally, offering solutions to their problems or information that piques their interest. When visitors don’t feel engaged or informed by content, they quickly navigate away. And that’s when you lose potential business.
No clear call to action. Internet users could spend all day pursuing the content of various websites, but what makes them act? How does an online lead eventually convert to a customer?
Website visitors must understand what they need to do next. Clear calls to action, placed strategically on your website, instruct visitors on how to deepen the relationship. When written and presented correctly, calls to action prompt visitors to follow you on social media, provide their contact information, email you for more information, or return to your website in the future. All of these actions turn visitors into leads, and many of them will become customers.
After checking your website for these three pitfalls, do you see room for improvement? If so, give us a call. We can troubleshoot your site for these and other problems, and show you what needs to be fixed in order to maximize your online marketing potential.
