A lot of times, it’s as much about what you don’t do as what you do. This could be particularly true of your website. There is a considerable amount of crazy things that can send website visitors streaming away from your website.
Let‘s see which if any of these apply to you.
- Not possessing a clear objective – According to DinkumInteractive.com a user must know what the site is about in 4 seconds or they’ll click away. Use images that show clearly what your website is about.
- Your content isn’t scannable – Web viewers read in chunks, and if they can’t scan your page and get it in a few seconds, you’ve probably lost them! Use smaller paragraphs, sub headlines and bullet points to make your content more digestible.
- Not being mobile friendly – No longer an option, and according to Google over half of all web traffic is now mobile.
- Not making use of video on your site – Videos rule, but whatever you do, avoid auto playing music without exception! That’s so 90’s!
- No updated, quality content – If your content is from Bush’s first term, it’s no wonder they’re fleeing! Also no fancy fonts or extremely long pages.
- Hard-to-find contact information – Make certain we can contact you if we want to! Your phone number should be at the top right hand corner and footer of every page. I’m a smidge flexible on location, but wherever you put it, make sure it is noticeable when you first visit the site. Remember, 4 seconds.
- Not collecting emails or newsletter signups – You do wish to be in business for the long haul, right? Offer something of value in exchange for your visitor’s contact information. This way you can stay in tough with them. 99% of people NEVER buy the first visit. that means you need a way to stay in touch to nurture the relationship.
- Not utilizing title and description Meta tags on your website – These can help you get indexed and ranked on the web. Every page should have a different Title and Description… Unless every page on your website is the same, which is highly unlikely.
- Lack of social sharing buttons – Like it or not, having your site be shareable on social sites is where the party is, so get over it!
- No or poor Calls-to-Action – You want an action from your visitors; ask for it! Ask for it on every page of your website.
- Poor site navigation – Avoid using drop down menus, and make sure that every page on your website includes links back to your home page.
- Not optimizing images – You need to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for any images you post.
- Overuse of Flash – Besides being a pain for the GoogleBot to read, it may be very annoying to your visitors.
- No metrics to determine your progress – Do you really not want to know the quantity of people that are coming around and from where? What do they like, or not like? At very least install Google Analytics.
- “Intro” pages – These are only a hurdle to your content. You really don’t want to go there? (I’m looking at you, fancy restaurants.)
Make sure not to commit these homepage sins and your online sales will be heavenly! 🙂
