Jonathan Wickham: 5 Warning Signs That Your Website is Ineffective

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is your website as effective as it could be? Are you taking advantage of every user that visits your site? Is your website struggling with a poor conversion rate? If so, please be sure to read through this blog post.

Having a site that converts at a low rate is one of the most common and damaging problems for many businesses. We have found that improving the messaging, imagery, content, and calls to action can greatly improve the rates at which users actually make a purchase.

1. Establish Trust by Getting Personal
One of the main goals for your website should be to establish trust. Any sales professional will tell you that building a strong relationship is the real key to success. Having credibility and trust is usually more important than the product or even price point when it comes to a client’s decision to buy. So how do you create that connection with a website? How do you build trust and project, through your website, something that people can connect with emotionally? You tell your story!

Telling your story creates a vision that is emotional and noteworthy. This will enable you to create a personal bond with your visitors. The idea is to give the user something real to connect with.

Showing people that your company is an industry leader is a great way to give them confidence in your recommendation. This can be done through telling about your experience and citing examples of successful projects you have finished.

We highly recommend having a section of your website where people can read about the history of your company. We also recommend having a “testimonials” and “success stories” section on the site. These are great places where visitors can start to get a feel for your company culture, values, and experience.

2. Problems with Stock Photography
Stock photography is the supply of photographs that are licensed for specific use. Today, stock images can be purchased and delivered online. What this means is there may be several websites in your industry that have the same images. Stock photos are not a bad thing in and of themselves.

Stock photos can be great if used correctly, however, too many can cause your website to look clinical and boring. Ideally, you should have some images on your website that are unique to you. Pictures are a great opportunity for you to connect on a deeper level with your visitors. Photographs of your facility and team can go a long way to establish trust with the end user.

3. What Are Calls to Action and Why Are They Important?
A call to action, or CTA, is a banner, button, or some type of graphic or text on a website meant to prompt a user to click it and continue down a conversion funnel. Calls to action are very important for having a website that converts at a high rate.

Your calls to action should be tailored to specific questions or problems your company solves. The messaging in the call to action should have direct, strong language.

Placement of strategic calls to action is one of the most common mistakes we see at Digital Flavor. We strongly recommend having the call to action on every page, and in a place that every user will see. Having calls to action hidden at the bottom of a page is a mistake many webmasters make. Here are a few other keys to remember:

• Avoid vague calls to action like ‘sign up’, ‘click here’, ‘contact us’.
• Always return something of value to the visitor that shares their contact information with you.
• Make your calls to action standout; they should grab your attention on the page.
• The easier it is for the customer to fill out your form the more likely they will be to take action.
• Be very clear about what the visitor will get in return for engaging with you.

4. Show Me the Content
We strongly recommend getting a blog set up for your business. This is really the best platform for generating new content for the site. Your blog should really be the hub for your inbound marketing strategy.

Having an effective blogging campaign is an area where 90% of businesses go wrong. This is the place where you can show your industry expertise and answer questions the community may have. Really, the idea is you want to add value to the Internet and your website. If you start blogging with that in mind, we guarantee you Google with reward your site with high placement in the SERPs.

Most companies will invest significant resources for the creation of high quality, static content with the development of their website. After this initial copy is created, many companies think the job is over. The truth of the matter is that is just beginning. Fresh content helps give the right impression to the user. If you want to be viewed as a trusted resource, you should have quite a bit to say about your industry. Regular posts ensure that you remain relevant and show you to be organized.

Aside from needing fresh content for a proper user experience, fresh content is a critical component of favorable search rankings. Google rewards fresh content for the same reason that users enjoy it; It shows that you are on top of your game and can answer the questions that are being asked today.

5. Prove You Are the Expert
New visitors usually come to your site to seek information. Highly effective websites are built around answering the most relevant questions of their prospective customers.

You should put yourself in the position of someone researching your product and write down the questions they would have. After you do this, you can prioritize which issues are the most important. This is a great way to come up with what kind of content would be most effective on your website.

Having a site with outstanding content, good calls to action, and unique imagery is the easiest way to show users that you are the industry expert. Having content that answers relevant questions with up-to-date information gives you immediate creditability.

We guarantee if you focus on these 5 simple points, your website will have a much better conversion rate. We also guarantee Google will reward you with much higher placement in the SERPs.