Baffling? Brilliant? Boring? As soon as a visitor clicks on your website they decide within seconds if they’re going to stay and look around or leave forever.
That’s the reality.
It’s possible to get visitors to stick around for a while if your website looks the part. If it’s nicely designed with big, shiny buttons you will get those crucial extra seconds of visiting time from a prospect.
But how many sales prospects are you losing because the benefits of your product or service aren’t clear, or your web content is not addressing your customer’s needs?
It’s those simple things that can turn a visitor to your site into a customer and it’s the simple things that are so often overlooked if a company’s website has become part of the furniture.
Next time you click on your website ask yourself these five questions:
- When was the content written? If you haven’t touched the site for a while there’s probably way too much copy. Nobody has time to read acres of copy these days. Cut the amount of copy in half. Then cut it in half again.
- Do I focus on the features of my product too much? The single biggest problem we find in web content is just describing a product’s features and not how it will add value to the customer’s life. You sell a good night’s sleep, not the mattress (as the old copywriting adage goes).
- Are my headlines captivating? If not, then nobody is going to read what’s below the headline. Imagine your web page is a story in a magazine, then try to think of the perfect headline for the story that will make people want to read more.
- Is the voice of your copy consistent? Many websites lurch from business-speak to pub-chat with a couple of paragraphs, meaning their company has no brand voice or identifiable personality. Pick a brand voice and stick with it.
- Are there any errors? Whether it’s spelling mistakes, out of date information or links that don’t work, nothing says ‘I don’t care about my business’ like a mistake-laden website.
Asking yourself those five questions (and fixing any problems) is an easy way to get your website firing on a few more cylinders without any technical expertise.
