10 Reasons Your Website Is Not Successful
- Amber Flores
Digital Marketing Manager
- November 29, 2017
What you'll learn?
Nation Media A Top B2B Company
Read time:
- 8 Minutes
A web design for your business is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity. But, just because you invested in a website doesn’t mean it’s effective in connecting with your customers and ultimately improving your sales. While there could be numerous reasons why your website isn’t effective, here are 10 of the most common explanations for website fails and why your website is not successful.
1. Your Website is Not Successful If It’s not mobile friendly
2. Your Website is Not Successful If It Contains too much jargon
I understand that you’re an expert in your field and that you want to demonstrate your knowledge and authority. But unless you’re talking to directly to your fellow industry experts, your average customer isn’t going to understand the technical language or industry jargon that you use to describe your business throughout your website.
Avoid jargon and use straightforward language that your customers can easily understand. Overcomplicating this portion of the website build will ensure your website is not successful.
3. Your Website is Not Successful If It Lacks content
Your customers have a problem. And they’re turning to your website to help them solve said-problem. That’s why your website needs to contain fresh and valuable content that answers real-life questions.
Remember that doesn’t mean that they’re searching for your exact business. For example, our blog contains useful information for freelancers and small business owners. If someone is searching for advice on invoicing and processing payments, they could also land on our site because that’s the content we’ve been producing. If you lack content, your website is not successful.
In short, start a blog and keep writing awesome content. This will also help boost your SEO and content marketing efforts.
4. Your Website is Not Successful If It Hides essential information
Besides looking for information that will make their lives better, if customers are looking for your specific business, they want to easily locate information like:
- The address of your business. If you have a brick and mortar business, include a map link.
- Contact information, specifically a phone number and email address.
- Social media plugins.
- Hours, pricing and an “about us” page.
You’d be surprised at how many businesses still don’t have this information on their websites. And, if you’re like me, you may stay from those types of businesses over security or legitimate concerns.
And there’s no excuse for forgetting this information. These additions are easy-to-integrate onto your site and are usually free as well. If you do not implement these, your website is not successful.
5. Your Website is Not Successful Because Loads too slowly
Customers expect a website to load quickly. In fact, 47 percent of consumers expect a website to load in just 2 seconds or less. Anything more than this and your website is not successful. And that’s important to remember because an astounding 79 percent of shoppers who don’t enjoy their website experience are less likely to ever return to that site again, nor buy from that site again, ensuring Your website is not successful.
You can test the speed of your site using tools like Pingdom and GTmetrix. These tools provide insights and advice on speeding up your site. If you don not use these tools, your website is not successful.
6. Your Website is Not Successful Without clear calls-to-action
You don’t want to leave your visitors in the dark by making them guess what you want them to do next on your site. So, give them clear instructions by creating a call to action button or hyperlinked text that is front and center.
HubSpot has 31 call-to-action examples that you should review if you need some inspiration. For instance, Dropbox has a blue “Sign up for free” call-to-action button that stands out from the rest of the page.
Remember, your potential customers won’t move forward with your services or resources without these buttons. When that happens, you won’t get those all-important business conversions, and your website is not successful.
7. Your Website is Not Successful If It’s outdated
Webpages that are maintained and have a current design build trust and credibility. That doesn’t mean that you need to update your site every month. But, if it’s been years since you’ve had a major website design overhaul, then it’s time to find something more contemporary. The last thing that you want is to have a site that looks like a Geocities page from the late 90s. Your Website is Not Successful.
8. Your Website is not successful because It’s annoying and cluttered
Believe it or not, that are still businesses that insist on having websites that have music or videos play automatically once your enter the site. Even worse, these sites are also full of banner ads, bright colors and flashy text. These sites are just plain annoying and end-up slowing the page down because it’s so cluttered.
So, how many people are going to ever click on that site again at work — or anywhere else?
Keep in mind that a bulk of your visitors are browsing your site on mobile devices too. This means that you’re site should be clean and organized. Keep information to a minimum and use sub-headings, bullet lists and graphic elements so that visitors can digest this info in smaller chunks.
9. Your Website is Not Successful If Your Shopping cart or payment platform is broken
Unless you’re relying on a third-party payment gateway or shopping cart, then it’s your responsibility to frequently check to make sure that everything is working properly. You won’t be able to make a sale or receive a payment if your cart or payment processor is busted. and your website is not successful.
10. Your Website is Not Successful If You don’t guide users to different pages
Many businesses send all their traffic to their website’s homepage, as opposed to relevant links that their customers want to land on. This could be because service and other site pages are just an afterthought when designing a website. But the fact is that the home page isn’t as important to general web traffic and the overall design. Without this, your website is not successful.
Instead, start creating specific landing pages for the various types of potential customers you encounter and where they are in the sales funnel.
Table of contents
FAQs
Facebook? Aim for once a day and definitely no less than 3 times a week.
Instagram? Once or twice a day.
LinkedIn? At least twice a week and no more than once per day.
Twitter? This one is a bit more varied but generally anywhere from 3-30 tweets per day is good.
Definitely! You should never assume that because social media has become so hugely popular, that it’s enough to solely focus your digital marketing strategy on social platforms. There are more active email accounts than active accounts on any social media in the world. Email marketing is more private and often feels more personal to the consumer. Most people are consistently tuned into their email, checking it multiple times a day and constantly seeing notifications appear on their mobiles, laptops and tablets.
It’s wise to send regular updates your subscribers with news of new content, new products (or improvements), events, and so forth. It’s not wise to expect your email list to expand fast simply by offering a newsletter.
Please don’t. Bought email lists are just a way for you to SPAM random members of the public. Grow your email list organically through subscription buttons and calls to action. This way, you are not only protecting your company’s reputation but also spending your time and money on an email campaign geared towards genuine prospects who have asked you to contact them.
Your business goals and the source/medium you choose to convey your message will determine what KPIs (key performance indicators) measure digital marketing success.
For example, if your goal is to increase the number of visitors that convert to leads on your blog, then you would want to track blog sessions and resulting lead forms and/or clicks-to-call. The KPI you care about may vary based on your role in the company and who you report to.
What does “conversion” mean in digital marketing?
Speaking of KPIs, does it seem like everyone defines “conversion” differently? Some companies (or single departments within) may differentiate between a website conversion – like a contact form completion – and a sales conversion, which is a successful sale that occurs after a website conversion. In our agency’s experience, companies commonly call sales-oriented website actions conversions, and they call sales, sales. However you want to talk about it, just make sure your internal team and vendors are on the same page.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of conversions from your digital property, typically a web page. CRO involves executing tactics to improve the elements on your site (or app) through testing. Relative to your marketing funnel, CRO focuses on moving prospects to the next stage.
The simple answer to this complex question is to create value. You need to identify and communicate a promise to your customers that resonates on an emotional level. Start with this question: How can we improve the lives of those we serve?
Google Analytics is a free website analytics platform that gives you insights into how users find and use your website. With Google Analytics, you can track ROI for your online marketing and review important metrics to make informed decisions. The bulk of Google Analytics categorizes data into acquisition, behavior and conversions.
A practical approach to marketing metrics should include establishing which key performance indicators (KPIs) are most important for the growth of your brand. As a starting point, consider metrics that reflect your progress regarding traffic generation, conversion, and marketing costs and create a dashboard to track them monthly.
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