If you’re like most businesses who have had a website developed, you put a lot of thought into your website design. You chose a great style, picked the perfect colours for your brand, and added all the bells and whistles. But even with a beautiful website that you love, you’re not seeing the results you want. Why? It might be time to focus on SEO, it could be an issue with your conversion rates or you might need to work on your User Experience.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss why your new website may not be working and what to do about it!
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is the practice of optimising a website for search engines (mostly Google). This means focussing on the right keywords, creating relevant content, and making sure your website follows the ever-changing requirements of the search engines.
SEO is an ongoing process, and one that should be regularly monitored and tweaked to ensure your website is seen by as many people as possible. It can be a complex process and it takes time, but it’s worth putting in the effort to do it properly. When done well, you’ll achieve incremental improvement over time, which can result in more website visitors, leads and customers. If you cut corners and sign-up to a cheap SEO provider it could lead to your website being penalised or blacklisted and that’s the last thing you want.
So, if you’re serious about your business and want to get the most out of your website, make sure you invest in good quality SEO or learn how to do it yourself if you have the time. And remember, it’s an ongoing process, so be prepared to commit time and resources to it regularly.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
If your website has plenty of targeted traffic but it isn’t bringing you more business, it’s possible that your conversion rate needs attention. Your website’s design is a major factor when it comes to conversion rate. Even if you personally love your website design, it may not have been designed in a way that is appealing to your target market.
Of course, if your website looks outdated or unprofessional, people will be less likely to do business with you. It gets tricky when a business falls in love with their website design when in reality, it’s not serving them well. This can often happen if someone has personally invested in the website design, and finds it hard to move away from it.
User Experience (UX)
If your website isn’t user-friendly, your conversion rate will be negatively impacted. People might not be able to find what they’re looking for, or the process of converting from a visitor into a customer is too complicated. People tend to rush online so your website needs to be fast loading and easy to navigate.
Keep your UX simple. The more complex it is, the harder it will be to navigate and use. Use clear typography, clear buttons and minimalistic design elements. White space is also your friend! You don’t need to cram everything onto one page, let it breathe a little. You’ll find clean and simple designs work best on mobile devices too.
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. In this day and age, having a website that isn’t mobile-friendly means you’ll miss a lot of opportunities. More people are browsing the internet on their phones than ever before so if your website isn’t responsive or doesn’t have a designated mobile version, you’re going to miss out.
Branding
If your website design isn’t a perfect fit for your brand, it will likely perform poorly for you. This often happens when a website uses a pre-exiting template or theme that isn’t well customised. Ideally, you should have a custom created website design so it’s perfect for your brand. This means it will be optimised for your target audience, reflect your brand’s personality and look professional.
If you’re not sure whether or not your website is a good reflection of your brand, ask a professional web designer for their opinion. They will be able to tell you whether or not your website is on track and offer suggestions for improvement if necessary. You might be just a few small tweaks away from a far greater outcome.
Larger companies may have brand style guides that can be helpful. Smaller companies tend to be more flexible with their branding, but this can lead to inconsistency across platforms. It’s important to have a consistent look and feel for your small business so that you can create a customised website design and ensure that all of your branding is on-point.
What Next?
If you’ve been struggling to get more customers from your website, it might be a number of issues. Often, it’s a combination of a few things that when corrected, can greatly improve a websites performance.
If you’ve paid good money for your website but it’s not helping you grow your business, it’s worth getting some professional advice to see how it could be enhanced or improved. If you’ve read this far chances are your website needs some work, so don’t hesitate to get in touch. We can help you improve your website so it will wow your customers and bring in more business. Get in touch today for a free consultation!