One of the top questions I get from business owners is: "Why isn't my website making sales?"
Recently, I went through and offered some of my email subscribers a free review of their website (scroll to the bottom to sign up yourself if you haven’t already, I try to run these offers as much as I can).
In total, twenty-two websites were put forward for review during the 2 days the offer was open. Twenty included an answer to the simple question I asked (and I reviewed one that hadn't by accident). So this is not a massive study, and it certainly won't meet academic statistical rigour, but you should find the results interesting and helpful if you're a website owner.
I found 6 critical website mistakes:
While all of the sites reviewed had an email opt-in somewhere, not one of them had a compelling incentive to have visitors opt-in.
In general, email newsletters are not a good opt-in incentive, that's just not compelling enough:
"Sign up for our newsletter" is code for "We know you get loads of email, but if you subscribe here we'll fill your inbox with even more email you don't want to read".
You could test using a discount coupon – but save your profit margin, you can do better than that!
Recommendations
The first thing visitors look for is something to let them know they're in the right place. Usually this a clear statement of purpose, or visitor benefits.
"What's In It For Me?"
Of the review group, 30% made the website purpose very obvious and clear via a tagline or headline what the site was about. 25% less so, and a whole 45% of the sites didn't make it clear at all.
Recommendations
After a clear purpose, the next thing to look for is the Call-to-Action. What action should I take? What does the site owner want people to do? Around 1/3rd of the sites did this well, with a strong, clear call to action (CTA), e.g. Book Now, Add to Cart, Contact Us, that stood out from the page content and told me what to do next. 25% had a weak call to action and 40% had none at all.
Recommendation
The About Page is the 2nd most visited page on a website – after the homepage – and crucial in building trust with a potential customer.
Only 10% of the sites reviewed had a good About page that included photos of the business owners/staff, names and a bit of background. The rest had far less, usually just a block of generic text that could be copied and pasted onto a competitor's site.
You're asking people to trust you with their hard earned cash, so you have to include more information than that.
Recommendations
It's somewhat subjective, but most visitors recognise a professional design when they see it, even if they can't articulate the details. And it's a big factor in generating online sales. Visitors will spend money on a site they trust, and design aesthetic is crucial in building that trust.
There was a mixed-bag in the review group when it came to design aesthetic: almost a 3-way tie between good, average and poor designs.
Recommendation
In this study, thankfully the vast majority of sites were responsive. If you're one of the few who doesn't have a responsive website, you need to get to work on updating your website, or say goodbye to 50%+ of your traffic.
Recommendation
Here's some background information on the type of sites by type:
Have you got these problems on your own website? Looking for tips for resolving them as quickly as possible? Leave a comment below!