Most likely you’re not trying to drive away your customers with your website. You love your website and I’m sure it represents your business well, except when it doesn’t.
From a visitors perspective, your website might be offering an entirely different message than you intended it to. Take a look at your website and see if your website is making any of these 5 common website mistakes.
We certainly avoided these when building the new UhuruNetwork.com.
1. The “Cool” Factor
As a business you want to stand out above the rest so you design your logo and site with attention grabbing flair. The assumption is made that the cool design will stick in people’s minds and make you memorable. But far too often this level of presentation forgoes clarity and distracts visitors from your unique selling position.
While people will tell you your site looks good, they won’t remember what your service or product is all about. It’s likely the visitor doesn’t grasp the concept, which will cause them to hit the back button or worse, not give your site a second thought.
This is the painful reality. Visitors are picky so you must make sure to focus on explaining what your business does and how it makes your customers’ lives better.
For the Uhuru Network site transformation, we wanted the first message a visitor reads to be exactly that – what our business offers and how it will help solve their problems.
2. Overwhelming Page(s)
I believe people can only handle one message at a time. You might be the exception but in general you don’t want to go overboard in telling people each and every reason they need to sign-up, hire or purchase your service or product. Here’s a case where you might be causing more harm than good.
In the case of Uhuru Network’s site, we made sure not to pack every piece of information or options on every page. We opted for clean, clear and concise. By framing each major section with purposeful empty space (also known as negative space) we are able to focus the eyes of the visitor on specific information. Keeping visual distractions and options to a minimum will always result in better conversions.
For your site, answer the question: What are the big three benefits you can deliver on any given page. Always focus on the the type of business you want more of, or get less of, and present your unique selling position with clarity and purpose.
3. Optimized for All Devices
Your website looks great on your computer and maybe your phone too. But have you tested it on a variety of different devices? Or, have you considered making your website design responsive, which means that it will resize based on the dimensions of the screen?
These are all great questions to consider before you hit publish on your new website, but it’s worth going back and checking different browsers and devices even if your site is live.
4. Not Ask for Contact Info
Most visitors who stumble upon your website are not always ready to buy. You’re not going to know exactly where each visitor is in the buying cycle and thus can’t expect every visitor to covert, it’s not going to happen. But this doesn’t mean that you should let these curious individuals leave your site and never return.
Instead, make sure you provide them with an easy way to stay in-touch with your business so they are able to buy when they’re ready and the need is there. We made sure to offer an insider’s view to our company. We are deep in the industry and thus are on the pulse of industry changes and then present those findings in a easy that’s meaningful to businesses who follow Uhuru Network.
5. Not Providing a Valuable Taste Before Asking for the Sale
Speaking of freebies, do you have anything on your website that people can try before they buy? Depending on your product or service, you might be able to offer a taste before asking them to commit by plunking down their credit card details.
We use free content in the form of articles, ebooks and videos that will interest our ideal customers. It’s important to offer highly targeted freebies designed to solve their exact problems.
Remember to provide value and think outside the box. Offering a sample is one of the best ways to introduce your product and to get people open to buying from you.
Have you made any of these mistakes?
Now that you know what to watch out for when creating or updating your website, it’s now time to be honest with yourself and assess your own site. And if you need any help please feel free to contact any member of the dedicated Uhuru Network team.
Thank you!