10 Ways Your Website Is Driving Customers Away

blkwtr web design your website is driving away your visitors and how to fix it

There are a few things preemptively that will drive people elsewhere when it comes to finding your website in the first place, but that’s for another post. THIS post is all about keeping people on your website, and not scaring them away with basic web design concepts. It sounds intimidating, but I promise it’s not. These are easily implemented concepts that YOU can do today to improve your website and reduce your bounce rate.

So let’s get started with why your website is driving customers away:

It’s Not Aligned With Your Brand

There’s nothing worse than finding an awesome Instagram account, learning a little about what they do from their feed, and then linking over to their website to find that it looks like it’s from a completely different person, and maybe even DECADE. Your brand isn’t only visual, but also the voice you use throughout your copy, the interactions customers have with you and so on. It’s the experience, and the feeling they get when interacting with you. Does it all mesh together? Or was your copy for IG written by Joe Cool over in Zimbabwe, and your website content written by Marie Claire in NY. Make sure your voice is heard throughout. Visual, and emotive.

It Delivers a Poor User Experience

Yikes. Broken links, buttons not active, videos not playing, oh my. These techy issues all add up to a very poor user experience, and a low chance that someone will follow up with working with you. If website visitors can’t click over to your scheduling platform, how do you expect them to book with you? Make sure the user experience is top notch. Every now and then (once a month – AT LEAST) hop on your website and make sure that as you’re clicking around, pretending to be a random user of your website, that everything is working, and up to snuff. Don’t wait till it’s too late! Those are hard earned clicks you may be missing out on!

Auto-playing Music or Video

DOUBLE yikes! Autoplaying music or videos is just a big ‘ol NOPE on every front. Accessibility-wise, it can make your website unusable for some. The mom working 2 jobs commuting on public transportation without headphones? She’s going to close your website IMMEDIATELY when the music starts. The ability impaired guy on the other side of town that relies on an e-reader to browse websites, he can’t hear his e-reader speaking over the volume of the auto-playing video. Finally, user experience-wise, it’s just very 1990 to do that to your website videos. Don’t be that guy. or gal.

Grammatical Errors

daenerys targaryen i didnt come to argue grammar gif | WiffleGifNow, take this with a grain of salt as I am the FARTHEST thing from a grammar nazi. Clearly. My blog posts should pretty clearly show you that. What I want you to take away from this point is simply to spell check your stuff. Read it out loud, have your mom read it, and your high school english teacher (kidding, unless you want to). Simple spelling errors are ok in VERY limited quantity. After all, we are only human. Do your best to string together well written content for your website (or hire someone to do it for you), and you’re bound to boost the number of leads you have coming in!

The Design Is Not Responsive

This is my biggest pet peeve these days, but if this applies to you, let me explain before I offend anyone. I completely understand that sometimes the techy side of things (building a website) isn’t your forte. That’s why I do what I do. But if you’re on a budget, make sure you do your research in picking a web builder platform that WILL be responsive. SquareSpace is a great example of a website builder that has responsiveness built in to their templates. It does make DIY a little easier on the overworked business owner.

Your Website Isn’t up to Date

It always makes me a little sad to see an outdated website. My first assumption is that they’re no longer in business. If the blog hasn’t seen any action in 6 months or longer, I assume the worst. Unfortunately I know firsthand how HARD it can be to get content together for your business. Your brain is chock FULL of all the things you need to know to keep you business moving full steam ahead, but getting it out of your brain and into a blog post, or into some social media posts, is WORK.

Take time, at LEAST once per month, to update your events section, staff, pricing, and so on. If you can get a blog post up as well, that is great, but if it ends up being once every other month, that’s honestly better than nothing. Not only is this great for NOT driving customers away from your website, it looks good to Google for your SEO. Additions and edits on your website shows Google that you’re active online.

Too Many Popups

How to stop pop-up ads in Google Chrome - QuoraThis circles back to the section on auto-playing music or videos. Pop ups make using a website frustrating for anyone using alternative website browsing methods. Not only this, but pop ups in recent years have been getting kind of annoying. (My own personal opinion, but I don’t know many people actually excited to close out popups every time they land on a website.) There IS however a right way to do pop ups on your website. Important things to know are how to time the pop ups so they’re helpful, not annoying, and how to keep it simple/to the point. This article from Sumo has some great info HERE.

Slow Page Load Times

No one is going to wait around to see what you have to offer if it takes longer than 2 seconds to load your site.  This is just the fact of the matter. This link has great information on why your website may be slow: HERE

Unclear Customer Journey

If you don’t have clear calls to action with buttons clearly marking the customers next steps, customers will be confused on how to work with you or book an appointment. A clear CTA (Call to Action) eliminates that confuusion, and directs them to take the proper next step with you. A CTA can lead a visitor to sign up for your mailing list, book a consultation, schedule an appointment, purchase your products and so on. If you don’t make this crystal clear, then what’s the point?

No Clear Pricing

Your customers need to know if they can afford your services. This is why I ALWAYS recommend putting a “Starting At” price point on your website. This is the optimal way to set expectations, and not to give your clients sticker shock when your quote is $2k more than what they were expecting. Personally, I don’t reach out if pricing isn’t listed. And I outsource a handful of the backend of my day-to-day operations. All of my contractors are people who have listed their pricing on their website, or were upfront about it. Don’t waste potential client’s time, or yours!

And to leave you with a final question – How is your website driving away potential clients? Let me know how you’re going to fix these problems in the comments below! I’d love to hear what your plans are!

And as always – If you’re in need of assistance with leveling up your website, and converting those clicks to calls, give me a shout! I would be thrilled to talk with you about how we can take your website to the next level.

 

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