A great website has the power to help you scale your business exponentially, promoting the benefits of your product or service to a national – or even a global – audience. Visitors are much more likely to convert to customers if your website is engaging, persuasive and easy to navigate.
However, the reverse is also true: a bad website with a poor user experience can be very damaging. If visitors cannot easily find what they are looking for, or are unclear about what your business does, they will quickly lose interest and look elsewhere.
In this article, we’re going to highlight seven warning signs that your website doesn’t cut the mustard.
1. Low conversions
If visitors to your website are not converting into customers, this is one of the first indications of a problem. For example, a SaaS company may have 100 visitors to their website per day, but a conversion rate of only 1%.
The challenge is to figure out why people are visiting the website but not making a purchase, and there are many possible reasons – some of which are covered in the points below.
2. Your website is difficult to navigate
One of the major issues for visitors is a website that is not intuitive. Imagine a clothing website with hundreds of products, but no search bar or filter options. If a customer wants to look at t-shirts, they will quickly get frustrated if they have to search through pages of jeans and trousers first.
Contact information that is hard to find is also a big turn-off. It may result in a loss of potential sales, because people cannot easily ask a question about your product.
3. Your website is not mobile friendly
If you designed your website a few years ago and haven’t updated it since, it won’t be optimised for mobile use. And with over 50% of internet traffic coming from mobile phones, this could be a reason that your site visitors aren’t converting.
Why not test it now? Visit your website on your mobile and observe whether it’s easy to use. If it’s not, you’ll need to design a mobile-friendly version of your website to remove this barrier.
4. Your website doesn’t accurately reflect your brand
Many businesses create a website when they launch their business and then update it sporadically – or not at all. If your website first went live a couple of years ago and your business is still relatively new, it’s likely that your offering has changed.
For example, your business might now be in more of a niche, or maybe it has had a rebrand. If your website doesn’t reflect this too, you may not be showcasing your product to your ideal customer.
5. Your website looks dated or unattractive
Technology moves fast, and so does fashion. Even websites that were created a couple of years ago can already look dated. Although you may have a construction company that specialises in luxury builds and has been established for 20 years, if your website has an uninspiring or unprofessional design, people will look elsewhere. One recent survey found that 48% of users agree that website design is the most important factor when judging the credibility of a business.
6. Your website is not optimised for SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving your website so that it moves higher up the Google Search results, making it easier for customers to find your business. SEO involves improving your website from both a technical design perspective and in terms of content.
Making sure that certain keywords appear on your website that customers are likely to type when searching for your product or service – for example, “WordPress developers in Bristol” – is one aspect of SEO that you may be able to implement yourself, but there are many more complexities to this type of optimisation that it’s best to take advice on.
7. Your website is not secure
If your website is more than a few years old, it may not be deemed secure and safe by Google. This will weaken its position in the rankings, and therefore reduce the visibility of your business.
Do a quick test by visiting your website and observing whether a small grey padlock symbol appears next to the website address in the address bar. If it does, it means your website has an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer certificate). If the padlock is missing, you need to improve your website’s security.
WordPress developers in Bristol
Is your website in need of a refresh? Are you looking for WordPress developers in Bristol, or help with SEO? Contact our friendly team at Nebula Design for a free, no-obligation consultation tailored to your needs.