Leon O'DanielYes, you did read that correctly. You may have achieved your ultimate goal – the number one placement on Google. Is it getting the results you had hoped? Is your phone ringing or Inbox being filled with people seeking your services? If not, there may be a very good reason for that.
Below are some reasons why those visitors may not be turning into clients.
- Does your website speak to your target market?
- Does your website have outdated information?
- Is your website cluttered with unnecessary “bling” that repels visitors instead of drawing them in?
- Is your website a museum? Did you put it up a while ago and haven’t even gone back to dust or move around the furniture?
- Was your website designed 2, 3, 5 or 10 years ago and looks like it?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be time to re-evaluate.
You need to think about your website as your home – your marketing core. After all it is your welcome mat to the world and your 24/7 sales force.
Below are some tips you can apply today to improve your conversions:
- Research and define your target audience.
- Design your site to attract your target audience, and ask yourself this question: Is your website designed for your likes or your target audience’s likes? Is your target audience 20-30 something skateboarders or are they 20-30 something Wall Street bankers? As you can imagine, these are two totally different target markets. If you (the business owner) relate more to the wall-street banker type but if your target audience is skateboarders, your website needs to relate to the 20-30 year old skateboarders or it will turn them away. Think strategically.
- Create a plan for your website wording. In other words, does your website copy speak to your target audience – making it all about them and their needs or does the copy look more like a resume with a bunch of blah, blah, blah? If your website copy is written to solve your target audience’s problems, it will keep them interested, and compel them to tell their friends and co-workers about you and your company.
- Spell-check your web site copy before putting it on your web site (then spell-check it again). Misspelled words will make you look less credible.
- Avoid using music on your web site, unless it is really applicable to your marketing message, and make sure to have a conspicuous Audio Off or Mute button if you use music.
- Use professionally produced audio and video. This will serve to make you and your company appear more credible.
- Avoid using auto-play with your audio or video. The web site visitor should be able to choose to listen to, or play these.
- If you must use auto-play with audio and video, provide a way to turn off the audio or stop the video, and only auto-play the audio or video the first time a visitor comes to your site.
- Do not use animation for animation’s sake on your web site. Make sure the animation is relevant to your branding message.
- Provide an alternate navigation strategy for those browsers or devices that do not support Flash if you use Flash for your navigation. This is especially important to ensure that people that use an iPad or iPhone will be able to get to your services, products and contact us pages.
- Provide a way for people to contact you on every web page.
- Add fresh, compelling content to your web site at least weekly. This can be accomplished via a “What’s New” section of your site, Twitter feed, Facebook feed, or Blog and will keep potential customers coming back to your site.
- Include a “call to action” on your home page that compels your target audience to act.
Getting potential customers to your website is only half the battle. Once they get there, they need to be informed about your company and compelled to act. A well designed modern website with compelling text and graphics matched to your target audience will turn those visitors into customers and get your phones ringing.
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Gina O'Daniel
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