A website is like a bucket, and a good bucket will hold the liquid in long enough to serve its purpose. When visitors pour into your business’s website, you’ll want them to stay long enough to convert into customers. However, they could be leaking out too fast for that to happen. If your website is a “leaky bucket,” it will cost you lost leads and sales. Read on to uncover potential holes in your website and how to fix them to turn your website into a marketing machine.
Website Design
One of the first things you’ll want to consider when analysing your website is its design. Whether consciously or not, people are drawn to appealing visuals. Your website design says a lot about your company, so you’ll want to be picky and make sure it presents the right message.
Not only should your website’s design be a reflection of your business, but it ought to be in line with current trends. Website visitors have certain expectations based on what they’ve seen on other sites, which is why your site will need a facelift every couple of years. Since most users will be viewing your website on a mobile device, it’s important to make sure it’s mobile-friendly.
User Experience
Have you ever visited a website and had trouble finding the information you were looking for? No matter how visually appealing your website is, you’ll want to avoid frustrating your visitors. Make sure it’s easy for users to navigate your site and easily contact your business. Include your phone number on every page along with a clear call to action, letting them know what it is you want them to do. “Fill out this form today for a free quote” is an example of a call to action. It’s also a good idea to build trust by displaying confidence factors such as your business’s Google reviews.
Search Engine Visibility
No matter how good your bucket is, some of the liquid is bound to slosh out. And by “liquid,” we mean website traffic. Since not everyone will take the desired action when they get to your website, you’ll need plenty of visitors—and that can be achieved through search engine optimisation.
Search engine optimization involves many different factors that change over time. Still, there are a couple of simple things you can do yourself to boost your website’s ranking and become more visible in search results.
First, make sure you have a Google My Business listing with your business’s contact information. Optimising your GMB listing by filling it out to completion will be beneficial for local SEO.
Keywords are also vitally important, so you’ll want to check to see if you are ranking for longtail keyword phrases that people might use when looking up your type of business. To quickly get an idea of how you’re ranking, sign out of Google so the search results won’t be customised for you. Then type in some keywords to see where your business appears in the results.
Conversion Optimisation
Regardless of how someone got to your website, it’s the website’s job to ask them to do something. This is why there needs to be a noticeable phone number or “contact us” button as well as that all-important call to action we mentioned previously.
Not everyone will take action on their first visit, which is why your website might need a lead capture form to capture visitor’s email addresses, allowing you to follow up with them.
You may have also noticed that lately, when you visit most websites, a bot pops up offering to chat with you. Consider adding an online chat or help feature somewhere since your competitor’s websites may already be doing this.
Before a potential customer communicates with you, they might first pore over your website looking for trust factors, which is why customer reviews and testimonials are being included on business websites these days.
Website Speed
Your website may look great and be easy to find and use, but don’t neglect your website’s technical aspects, such as speed and security. A content delivery network (CDN) will significantly improve how fast your website loads, so you may want to make sure your web hosting plan includes this valuable feature.
Website Security
You need website security to protect your site against malicious code and prevent revenue loss resulting from downtime. One preventative measure you can take to keep your website secure is to make sure its software is up to date. You’ll also want to make sure there’s a backup mechanism in place. Without a backup mechanism, your site could be down indefinitely, resulting in missed opportunities. Your website’s backups should be stored offsite, and whoever is monitoring your site’s security should regularly test its ability to restore a backup.
Now that you’ve identified the holes in your proverbial bucket, it’s time to start repairing them. If you’re ready to turn your website into the marketing machine it should be, download our free checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything.
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