7 Reasons Your Website May Not Be Selling

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Not all small business owners know the importance of having a well-designed site and its impact on their bottom line. When your website has a good design and quality content, it can help grow your business and strengthen your company’s brand.

Most visitors remain on a website for about 1 minute but you only have a second or two to capture their attention. If they happen to stay longer, it means that they are interested in your content and/or your products and services.

When it comes to your website, every second counts. Below are several issues that can affect the presentation of your company’s website and ways to fix them.

#1 Mobile Unfriendliness

Many website owners have not yet gone mobile. This is a big mistake. New technology is moving fast and business owners who are left behind will be sorry.

Today over half of online shopping is done using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website you are very likely missing out on new business.

Not only are you turning away visitors when they get to your site and can’t read it on their phone, but Google recently announced that mobile-friendliness will be a ranking factor.

There are essentially three ways to make your site mobile-friendly.

1. If you have a WordPress website you can install a plugin like WPTouch that will provide you with a mobile theme. That way, when visitors come to your site on a mobile device they will be presented with a mobile-friendly layout, which makes it easy for them to read and navigate.
2. You can have a mobile-responsive theme installed on your site. This is actually the preferred method recommended by both Google and Bing because there is one URL for each piece of content on your site, rather than having separate URLs for desktop and mobile. This can cause duplicate content issues for your site and make it more difficult for the search engines to rank the appropriate content.
3. The third option is to have a completely separate mobile website. Although some large enterprise companies go this route it is not recommended for small businesses because of the time and expertise involved in syncing your desktop and mobile sites so that the information is consistent across both platforms.

#2 Difficulty to Find

You have a problem if your website is difficult to find with a simple search on Google or Bing. Optimizing your website for search can mean a lot of things.

The first thing you need to do is optimize the content on your website so that it speaks to the wants and needs of your target audience. You can do a little bit of keyword research first using Google’s Keyword Planner Tool to see how people are searching for your products and services.

Then incorporate those keywords into the content of your site. You’ll want to be sure and use your main keywords in the meta title, meta description, headline tags, image alt tags, and of course the content, to get the most benefit.

Pick one main keyword as the focus for each page. That will make it easy for Google to index and rank your content accordingly. It will also help with internal linking as you add new content because you will have one focus keyword for each page and can link to it using your focus keyword in the anchor text.

Then there are more technical issues that may need to be resolved. To learn what technical issue may be affecting your site you may want to consider a website analysis.

#3 Out-of-date Information

No business should have out-of-date information on their website. This is one of the easiest things to fix and yet it’s overlooked by small business owners all the time.

If a visitor finds that the information on your website is out of date it’s very frustrating and creates a question in their mind about how you conduct your business. If your website isn’t kept up-to-date then what else is being neglected in your business?

As a small business owner you should stay on top of trends; bringing current, recent and evergreen information to your visitors by way of your website.

When you put time and effort into staying current, visitors will appreciate it and want to come back and do business with you. One way to do this is by adding current, relevant content to your website on a regular basis.

#4 Contact Information Not Easy to Find

You know how difficult it is when you visit a brick and mortar store and can’t find what you are looking for. And just when you want help from a sales associate, you can’t find one of them either.

It’s the same feeling when a prospect goes to your website and is unable to find what they are looking for, and then can’t find your contact information to ask for help. The visitor will most likely leave your site if contact information isn’t easy to locate.

This is one of the Seven Things Every Small Business Website Needs Today and is one of the easiest to fix.

#5 Testimonials and Reviews

The best advertising for small business owners is the use of honest testimonials and reviews. There is nothing better than a third-party endorsement confirming that you know what you are doing and have helped people with similar issues in the past.

This helps the visitor learn more about your company and its product and services from previous customers. It also helps build trust between prospective customers and your company.

This can be a great source of information to potential customers who have questions or concerns about how you do business and whether or not you’ll be able to help them.

Again, there are lots of ways to add testimonials and reviews to your website. And this is a very easy fix.

#6 Low-quality Images

Communicating your company’s brand, visuals and images is one of the most powerful things you can do. In fact, visuals have proven to be one of the best ways to communicate your brand values, company culture and expertise. Just look at the massive number of infographics that have been created just within the last couple of years.

When your visuals are of a low quality, it sends a message that you don’t really care about your business. High quality images can immediately build trust, grab the user’s attention and increase the possibility of engagement and social shares, thereby boosting your SEO efforts.

#7 Holding Your Content Hostage

Never force your visitors to sign up for a subscription before they have access to your website. This is like having someone standing in front of your store and keeping people out unless they sign up for your newsletter. It’s one of the most annoying things in the world and will instantly turn away prospective clients.

You should make each prospect’s visit count and not make them feel uncomfortable doing so. Welcome them with open arms. Teach them something, entertain them and then sell them something.

Because once they’ve gotten to know, like and trust you and can see that you provide quality content and services, they will be much more likely to buy from you or hire you to fix their problem.

In Conclusion

These are only some of the things that you should pay attention to, especially if you want to have a successful website that sells. After all, a website is only what you make it, so make it great! That’s what we do!

If you need help with a new website, SEO, Blogging or Social Media, give us a call at 877-334-8022. We’d love to help you!

To your success!
Ken Partain