Have you ever walked into a restaurant in Houston and thought, “I want out of here right now”? Maybe the décor wasn’t appropriate, hostess was rude, seats weren’t comfortable, or it was dirty and smelled badly. Same thing can happen with websites. No, they don’t emit foul odors, thankfully, but they can drive customers away.
The goal for your company’s website is to attract and engage potential new clients. But some business websites are like bad restaurants, they send their customers right out the door and they never come back. The last thing you want to do with online marketing is to cause users to quickly exit your website.
To prevent that from happening, avoid the following mistakes:
Don’t make customers wait! Have you ever surfed to a website and sat there for minutes waiting for the page to load? What do you normally do when that happens? It’s like having to wait to be seated at a restaurant when you are hungry – you quickly move onto the next place that can serve you right away.
Solution: Use Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix – these are free tools that provide suggestions to help increase the speed and performance of your website. Or let ITVibes build your website. We will make sure your site never has this problem.
Don’t force customers to register! If you walked into a business and they wanted your contact information before they would help you, would you like that? Users don’t like it when they go to a site that makes them register first.
Solution: If you provide well written content that showcases how your company’s products or services can benefit customers, you will cultivate a loyal following and eventually get the conversions you need. It’s about building your brand.
Don’t blast customers with loud music! In today’s online marketing world, loud music or annoying animation on a businesses’ website is not cool. It might have been back in the day, but people in 2014 don’t have time for that.
Solution: I may sound like a broken record (forgive the pun), but it’s all about well written content that’s user friendly and easy to scan. They want to get on and off your site quickly. Consumers today don’t want gimmicks and sales pitches. They want to be educated and informed, not fooled.
Don’t hide your products or services! If you went to a store and they hid all the items from you, would you stay? Same thing goes for a website. Customers don’t want to waste their time with sites that are hard to navigate.
Solution: Use one single navigation menu that’s easy to follow and clearly defined. If users can’t locate your main menu or don’t understand the purpose of your site, they’ll take off. And they’ll probably go to your competitor’s site, one that’s user friendly and allows them to take care of business quickly.
Don’t serve your customers stale content! If you went to a restaurant that served old food, would you hang around or go back to it in the future? No, I’m sure you wouldn’t.
Solution: Dynamic content is important from a reader’s standpoint and from Google’s. Update your content a few times a year, blog weekly, and push your blogs out on social media sites. This keeps your site fresh and keeps your clients coming back for more.
You want your potential customers to have a positive experience when they visit your company’s website. So, it’s important for you to keep things simple, easy to follow and understand, and don’t use gimmicks and sales pitches.
If you need to update your website, contact ITVibes today. We provide web design and content management services. We will take your businesses’ website to the next level in online marketing.
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