GET NEW LEADS FROM YOUR WEBSITE
There are many reasons why your website might not be garnering any new customers or clients. One of the most common reasons for this is that the website developer you retained may have focused more on appearances and technology, rather than on building a website that actually performs. This is a problem today with many web developers that are just looking for a nice addition to their portfolio so they throw in all the latest bells and whistles. Technology is great, but it shouldn’t get in the way of your message or hinder your lead generation.
Of course we have to mention search engines in any article talking about acquiring new clients. If your website is buried on page 4 of Google for your important keywords, this is likely the main cause of your underperforming website.
Apart from search engine optimization, there are some other reasons why any website might not be bringing in customers. Let’s take a look at some of these basic reasons so you’ll know how to fix up your website and bring in more leads.
Your content isn’t good enough
You might be surprised to learn that search engines can differentiate between good copy and ‘less-than-good’ copy. They can – and what’s more, they’re getting better at it all the time. Google’s algorithms are constantly evolving, and relevant content is a big part of search rankings. Spend some time on your website content. Keywords are still important, but you shouldn’t just dump them in every few sentences if it doesn’t make sense.
You should also have enough content on your site to show expertise. A 100 word website about wood flooring is not as good as a 500 or 1000 word article about the same. But always remember to give value to your readers. Don’t just fill in words to get to 500. The AI will know!
Your website is too slow
Not only is load time one of the characteristics highly ranked by search engines, it’s one of the characteristics highly ranked by users. If your website is slow loading, you are more than likely to have a high abandon rate. Your users will be scurrying to a competitor site that loads much faster. Admit it. You’ve done this too!
Slow loading can occur for several reasons – large graphics, inefficient coding, too many special features, or a poor web host. Check out your own site to see how quickly pages load, and if any one of the pages on your site is slow, especially your home page, you are probably losing traffic because of it.
Google offers a special tool called PageSpeed Insights which quickly tests the load time of your website on both mobile and desktop computers. And since it’s put out by Google, you can bet that it’s used by Google. Hint. Hint.
Your customers can’t reach you
Your customers can’t reach youSomething that’s often overlooked is as simple as having your contact information readily available online.
How many times have you been on a website for a company and you keep clicking and clicking to try and find a phone number to reach a human being? Often times these mega companies bury their number because they don’t want people calling, they want web responses only, because it’s less telephone operators to hire. But for you—you want the phone calls! Have your phone number in the upper right or somewhere at the top of your page. On every page. You should never have to look for a contact number.
It does help if you list your address on your website too. If you’re a retail store, this is just as important as your phone number. Your address, complete with a Google map, should be very prominent on your site. Of course, there should be a way to contact you online with an email address or better yet, a website form that emails you to help reduce spam. If it’s on your Contact Us page, that’s fine. But we recommend creating a small section on every page of your website so the potential customer doesn’t have to click far to find it.
Your site is too new
It does usually take some time for a new website to achieve any kind of real visibility on the Internet. If your site was recently launched, it could take up to 6 months to get indexed by Google. You can speed this up by performing some basic Search Engine Optimization, or SEO work. Many clients think once their website is online, their obligation is completed, and people will just find their website. Save some of your budget for some good initial SEO work. SEO can be expensive long-term, but at least start off with the basics to get started. It will definitely pay off.
Your site isn’t Mobile Friendly
I feel like this is talked about a lot, but I still continually see websites that are not mobile friendly. More than 60% of Google searches occur on a mobile device. And if your page is not easily read without having to pinch and zoom, most customers will click to the next link. Google recently introduced Mobile-first indexing, whereby they will be ranking sites more on their appearance in a mobile environment rather than a desktop version. This could be a business buzz kill for millions of websites that haven’t gone to a mobile friendly or responsive design yet. If that’s you, this is your number one task for 2018.
HELP ME GET MORE LEADS!
These are just a few ideas to help increase with conversions and bring in more sales on your website. Your site should function as a 24-hour salesperson for your business. And what salesperson wouldn’t you fire after several months of poor performance?
If you need more sales from your website, and you’re just not sure how to go about getting started, you can take this quick 4 question quiz to find out if it’s time to redesign. You’ll also get a handy article on the five tips for website success without being put on a crazy spam e-mail list. If you start this process now, you’ll thank yourself later, as leads start showing up in your inbox.
Tom Hanberg is the CEO of Skyhound Internet; an Orange County based web design and Development Company specializing in getting results for their clients.