Ok, so you have a website, you even have some traffic to your website. But you don’t have any sales, calls or emails from it. What are you doing wrong?
I run into this issue a lot and not always because the owner had his son build the site. Quite often, even web designers are churning out non converting sites by the dozens. Knowing how to design a site and knowing how to make one convert, are two different things.
There are some key things you need to have in your website’s design in order for it to convert. In this post, I’ll show you 3 reasons I often find for a website not converting.
1 – You’re Not Tuned to WIIFM
No, that’s not a radio station. It stands for, What’s In It For Me?
A typical business website is all about the business. How great they are and how friendly they are. How “state of the art” their facilities are. Blah, blah, blah.
The most important fact you need to know about your business is … No one cares about you or your business. They care about themselves. And if you can show that you care too, you earn their business. You need to show them what’s in it for them.
Talk about them, not you. What are their needs and desires? Address those and your site will convert better.
2 – Not Paying Attention to the Fold
What is the “fold”? This term comes from newspapers. A newspaper is folded in half when you purchase it and because the first thing you see is only what is above that fold, the best stories and headlines are there. They put what is most likely to make you pick up the paper, above the fold.
This same principle should be applied to your website. Most of your visitors will not scroll down without a reason to. So what you see above the bottom of your monitor (the fold), is most likely all that 80% of your visitors see before leaving.
You should have enough above the fold to grab their attention. They should instantly know what your site is about. You have only a second or two to get the visitor to stick around on your site. If you have a strong USP, that should be up there somewhere.
3 – You’re Making it Hard
When a person is on your website, what is it that you want them to do? Should they call? Email? Visit? Whatever it is, stop making it so hard for them to figure out what you want them to do.
If the goal of your site is to generate phone calls, then why is your phone number buried on the contact page and nowhere else to be found? If it’s calls you want, there should be a few different places to find your phone number on EVERY page. Preferably with the words “Call Now”. Give them a reason to call and then show them the phone number.
If they can purchase on the site, show them how and ask them to do so as often as possible.
So many sites make it so hard for the visitor to figure out what to do next. Phone calls are gold for most businesses but the phone number is always buried on the contact page.
Make it easy for the visitor to do what you need for them to do next.
If you have any of these 3 problems on your site, getting them fixed will be a huge step towards seeing better conversions on your site. Good website design involves ensuring the site converts, not just looks good.