You just launched a new website after putting in time, effort and resources. But unfortunately, there is just no impact on your bottom line. Your revenues aren’t growing simply because your website isn’t converting. Why is that so? What’re you doing wrong?
Talk to a reputed web designer. They’ll evaluate your website, and accordingly, inform you of what you may be doing wrong. But in the meanwhile, read our blog and make sure you aren’t making any of these website conversion mistakes.
Let’s first take a look at what most people do wrong when they design a website for conversions and then see what you can do differently.
What You May Be Doing Wrong
Slow Websites
Visitors dislike a website that takes ages to load. Speed is among the most crucial factors of successfully performing websites. And if you don’t win this one, your visitors will leave even before checking out what you have to offer.
So minimize the loading time to the maximum extent possible because 40% of the visitors will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
What Can You Do?
- First, optimize your website on all devices, i.e., take a responsive approach.
- Sign up for a good hosting plan, preferably on a server that has enough capacity to handle your needs.
- Compress images prior to uploading them, but make sure this does not affect the quality negatively. Visual elements matter when you’re aiming for higher conversion rates.
- Reduce the number of fonts that you use. At most, you should have one for headings and one for the content, and that is pretty much it.
Unclear CTAs
Your website acts as a communication tool between your potential customers and business. It isn’t the end product. This means that you must clearly explain what your product will be like and also highlight what you want the visitors to do. This is why you need call to actions. Many websites don’t convert simply because the call to actions are vague, placed improperly or not persuasive enough.
What Can You Do?
- Make the CTA as prominent as you can. Remember a really simple rule here: the KISS principle – keep it simple and stupid, meaning that your content should be simple to understand, clearly highlighting the next step.
- Be straightforward and place the CTA in an appropriate position.
- Work on the design; it must be in contrasting colors, the fonts must be readable and so on.
Once you optimize your call to actions, you can persuade users to go ahead further on the buyer’s journey.
Low Quality Images
We talked about this a bit, but let’s elaborate now. Images capture the visitor’s attention, so you can’t skip them. Images must also be of high resolution, but like we said, the images must not negatively affect your website speed.
What Can You Do?
- Stay away from generic stock photos! They don’t work. Bring on board a graphics designer instead. There are costs involved, but the decision is a wise one.
- Can’t afford a graphics designer? No issue. Buy stock images from reputed websites out there instead of just resorting to the free ones that are available. For instance, Shutterstock has a collection of good photos that are different from typical stock images.
- Use real photos of your company and team. They can be powerful!
Obsolete Design
Web design trends change now and then, sometimes in just a span of a few months! And not staying updated with them is one of the biggest website conversion mistakes that you may be making. Users are now more tech-savvy than before. And they prefer websites that feature a spark of creativity and innovation, and of course, a good user experience.
So ensure that you have a design that is updated and trendy. It doesn’t have to be fancy; a minimalistic design works wonders – but it must be edgy.
What Can You Do?
- Review your content hierarchy and layout. People read web pages in an F pattern; present information keeping this in mind. Make sure all the content is properly arranged, forming an association and a flow.
- Keep the navigation simple and straightforward. Avoid unnecessary clutter on the bar so that users can quickly find the information that they want. Creating a sitemap can help you here because it quickly shows how each page is linked to one another.
- Work out whitespace. Having whitespace in the right amount emphasizes the core message and the CTA.
Low Quality Content
Content plays a major role when interacting and engaging your customers and must be of topnotch quality. Poor content won’t get you any conversion even if your website design is out of this world.
What Can You Do?
- Value, value and value. Provide users a solution that addresses the pain points and the challenges they face.
- Complement the content with engaging visuals and infographics. Add a relevant video as well because it can boost conversion rates by a lot.
- Post content regularly, and use social media for promotional purposes.
No Social Proof
Lack of elements that convey your credibility or quality can turn people away. So it is best to add social proofs and trustable elements.
What Can You Do?
- Add testimonials to your website.
- Ask your existing users to leave a review.
- Upload case students, but they must be genuine.
- Showcase your past and current customers.
Not Conducting Split Testing
Testing is essential in order to gauge website performance.
What Can You Do?
- Conduct tests regularly!
- Review the results and then make the necessary changes to improve performance.
A ‘Softer’ Approach
Now that we have talked about different website conversion mistakes and possible solutions to fix them, let’s consider a general solution that can rectify the issue as a whole.
Review Your Current Performance
The first step to figuring out why your website isn’t converting is evaluating the existing performance. So review monitored metrics and determine areas where you lack. Also, conduct usability tests to find out exactly what elements on a page discourage people from using it again. Once you know where you’re going wrong, you can understand what you should do to rectify the issue.
Ask Away!
One of the best ways to determine why your website isn’t converting is to simply ask your visitors why they don’t like what they don’t like. Just add a survey to your website and request two minutes of their time to fill it up. As an exchange for the favor, you could offer them a freebie or a discount. But please keep the survey as brief as possible—two or three questions at most.
As an example, you could pop up the server window when users are about to leave your website. Assuming that you’re offering a training program, you could display the following message.
If you aren’t enrolling today, we’d like to know why so that we can improve. Thanks!
Now present four to five suitable options as answers. In this case, these could be any of the following.
- I’m not clear on the course contents and the value I get in return.
- I don’t need this training.
- The course description doesn’t convince me to sign up.
- The course is expensive.
- I need more time to decide.
- Other reasons.
The last option, Other Reasons, should be accompanied with a text box so that visitors can type their own opinion.
Now go through the options one more time. Notice that they aren’t technical in nature or related to the actual design and development of the site. People who leave your site usually take a step back not because of the usability or the design – even though they do matter a lot— but because the copy isn’t persuasive enough or they find nothing of value. Both of these reasons are not related to website design and development. Instead, they focus on how you market your products and services.
Can there be other reasons as to why people won’t convert when they visit your website? Yes, they may not be among your target audience or match with your ideal buyer persona. So in other words, you may be driving the wrong kind of traffic to your website, which could result in a lower conversion rate. How do you set this right?
Get an opinion from the people who did convert.
Take Feedback from Converted Visitors
This might not make sense, but there is logic in doing this. For starters, these are the right kind of people because they took the action that you wanted them to. But why exactly were they compelled to do so? Which particular feature or element attracted them? This is what you should find out, which you can do only when you talk to them.
When you ask for their feedback, also find out if they had any concerns or worries. Knowing this can help you streamline your products and services.
Want more advice on website design and development? Keep following our blog!