Southern Illinois Marketing Blog

Your website is usually the first place someone goes to find out if your business has what they’re looking for, so it’s important for it to make an exceptional first impression. If your website is planned out well, there’s a good chance they’ll spend time on your site and turn into a paying customer. If your website has any of the following red flags, you run the risk of confusing (and losing) your customers.

RED FLAG #1 - IT USES TOO MANY WORDS.

When your website is cluttered with words and paragraphs, visitors aren’t able to easily scan the page and locate the information they’re looking for. We live in a day an age where humans are bombarded with thousands of messages per day and as a result, society has become very good at ignoring information that isn’t easily understood and readily available. People aren’t reading websites; they’re skimming them to find information they want and if they can’t locate it in the first few seconds, they’ll move on.

Make sure your website doesn’t include any large blocks of text above the fold on your homepage. Content “above the fold” requires no scrolling; it’s what visibly displays when your website first loads. Any content that is viewed only after scrolling down the page would be considered “below the fold”. As the user scrolls down the page, you can include more text, but it’s still recommended to condense your content to make it as clear and concise as possible.

If you have areas that do require a large amount of text and it can’t be condensed, it’s recommended to only show the first few lines of text and include a “Read More” link the user can click on to expand the content to read the rest of the section.

RED FLAG #2 - IT DOESN’T OFFER ANYTHING TO THE USER.

You’re an expert at knowing your products and services, but a first-time or repeat visitor to your website is not. Put yourself in a visitor’s shoes and imagine seeing your website for the first time without any context or background knowledge. If someone visits your website and it’s not explicitly clear what you’re offering them, they will lose confidence in believing you can provide them goods or services that can help them.

Current and prospective customers want to know exactly what you’re offering them. If it’s not obvious, it will create confusion. When humans get confused and can’t find what they’re looking for, they will get frustrated and move on to tasks they find to be more important. In today’s fast-paced digital society, this all could happen in a matter of seconds—so clarity in your offers is crucial to your website.

RED FLAG #3 - THERE ARE NO OBVIOUS CALLS-TO-ACTION.

Even the most visually appealing websites can fail if there isn’t an obvious call-to-action for the user to take. If your website isn’t asking the user to take a specific action, they won’t. If your website is asking the user to take action but it doesn’t stand out from the rest of the page, it will get overlooked.

Keep the text on your call-to-action button short, concise, and direct. Don’t leave any guessing or interpretation up to the viewer. Good call-to-action examples would be “Call Today”, “Sign Up Now”, and “Schedule an Appointment”. Choose one that works for what you’re trying to accomplish and stick to it.

Make sure your call-to-action text is placed on a button with an eye-catching color that stands out from the rest of your page. It’s suggested to put the call-to-action button in the top right of the page, again in the center of the page above the fold, and to continue repeating the button every so often as users scroll down your page. When viewing a website, the eyes travel in a Z-pattern, so the top right and center are considered prime real estate on your website. Every instance of your button should be the same color and style. This makes the follow-through process of clicking your call-to-action button very easy for your website visitors.

RED FLAG #4 - THE IMAGE CHOICE IS POOR.

The right imagery can make or break the overall feeling of the website. Although you may be proud of your facilities and team, current and prospective clients will respond more positively to images that convey what they’ll feel like if they use your products or services. You can absolutely include images of your facilities and team elsewhere on your website, but they shouldn’t be the first thing website visitors see when your page loads.

By using strong images that convey customer success, you’ll start to build confidence in your prospective customers that your brand can (and will) help them. The more confident your website visitors feel in you and your brand, the more likely they’ll convert to paying, happy customers. Using excellent and appropriate imagery is a great way to instill said confidence.

RED FLAG #5 - THE SERVICES AND PRODUCTS ARE OVER-COMPLICATED.

Almost all businesses offer more than just one product or service, so revenue streams can be widely diverse. If you have multiple unique services and products to offer your customers, it can be challenging to convey this information in a clear and succinct way on your website. If you immediately bombard website visitors with a detailed list of everything you offer, it will overwhelm them and they’ll lose interest more quickly than you’d think.

Instead, try grouping your services and products into two or three categories and create a simplified message that unifies the categories. This unified message with two to three categories to choose from should be readily available on the main page of your website. From there, create separate, more detailed pages for each of your categories in which users can view. This allows customers to easily navigate your content and only view the information that’s relevant to them without getting lost from the get-go.

Your website can, and should, be a powerhouse that attracts new customers. It’s an element of your marketing plan that should never be overlooked. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. In HubSpot’s Inbound 2017 report, 26% of marketers reported that managing the company website was their company’s top marketing challenge. It can feel like a daunting task, but with proper planning and thoughtful choices, your website can be your most powerful marketing tool. When your website is performing well and is easy to use for your customers, you’ll feel major relief and have confidence that your business is headed in a positive direction.

Did you know Aldrich Web Solutions offers Free Website Review services for businesses?