Is your website getting views, yet not converting into the leads or sales that you wanted? I know I hear time and time again across the web that their website just isn’t performing the way that it should. Maybe your website isn’t attracting the right clients or scaring them away. Yes, it can happen. Many small business owners think (especially new ones) that a couple of pretty pictures here, an about us there, and bam you should be golden right? Wrong. The website game, and digital marketing, in general, is way bigger and more complex. Here are three reasons your website viewers may not be converting into leads.
You are not talking to the right people.
Have you done your homework on who your clients are? If not, your message probably isn’t resonating with the people that are viewing your website. This one seemingly simple point affects everything from your copy (text on your website) to your design to your off-site adverting such as Facebook ads and SEO. If you have done that homework, have you adjusted your website to fit that perfect client? If you have current clients or customers that fit into your perfect client slot, maybe run some of the messaging by them to get feedback. These bits of homework are absolutely essential to your website and your business in general.
Your website does not have a clear objective.
If viewers are going to your site, and bouncing right off or not converting, it could be your site does not have clear objectives. You can’t just slap a website, say “Here I am,” and expect it to do much. What are you telling them? Why are you telling them? What are you wanting them to do? These are questions that should be answered by viewers of number 1. Here are a couple of quick tips to help direct your views.
- Have a call to action button or a web form right there. If your website offers something such as services, free call, anything of the sort, always have a call to action button if you cannot or deem not to have a web form right there at the offer.
- Make your service or sales page be a 1, 2, 3 walkthrough. For example, “Call us to set an appointment, and we will come out and give your exterior a thorough inspection, our rep will help you choose the right paint for the exterior…”
Your website is too slow
Everything is expected in the blink of an eye now in 2018. And this will only get worse. So if your website loads at 4 seconds, don’t expect your website to convert into the leads. In 2017, 47% of viewers expected load times to be under 2 seconds (https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/page-load-time-conversion-rates). If your site runs 4 seconds or higher, it won’t matter if you have the right audience in mind and clear objectives on the website because your viewers will never see it. Depending on what platform your site is built on (WordPress, Wix, Drupal, etc.) will dictate what you can do to speed your website up. Yet here is 2 quick tips that will work no matter what you have used to build your website.
- Limit how many outside scripts are on the website. If you have Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, Youtube, and Google Analytics, those are good things to have, yet that is 4 other website servers that have to load along with yours in order for your website to load.
- Compress your website images. Your image file sizes can be as little as a quarter of the file size it used to be. There is a bevy of sites and tool out there that one can use to compress their image files and still get quality images.
Let’s face it. The internet is maturing. It has gone from infancy to almost every website being a success in the dot-com boom, to high skepticism when it busted to now; a more mature use of the internet. This means your website, and the way you use it must mature. Almost 75% of all small businesses in the U.S. have a website as reported by smallbusiness.com. So if your website is not doing what you want it to, I would implore you to investigate why, because it is almost a guarantee that your competitors are tweaking their sites. That means the cost of doing nothing, is leaving money on the table.
About the Author:
Chris Hughbanks owns and operates Hughbanks Design, where he helps small business websites turn into business growth engines.