This month in our blog, we’ve looked at how to drive more traffic to your business website. Today, let’s examine some website issues that may unintentionally drive your customers away from your website.
1 – Pop-Up Ads. Top of the “annoying” list has to be pop-ups. Does anyone actually like these? Users quickly become frustrated and feel like they’ve lost control of their interaction with your website as soon as the pop-ups appear. There are much better ways to collect information from your users than pop-ups. Avoid them altogether and you’ll have happier website customers.
2 – Poor Text Appearance. Is the text font on your website tiny and hard to read? Your twenty-something programmer may not understand why that is problematic, but every single customer over age 40 will. Yes, most of us do use devices that enable text to be resized, but once again, this is on the “annoying” list. You want to quickly give customers the information they are seeking and the ability to purchase from or hire your business, so having tiny font is slowing that process down. The good news is: this is a fairly easy fix.
3 – No Responsive Design. When you go to a website on your mobile device, you expect it to look and perform just as well as the desktop version. These days, most businesses do use some level of responsive design so that their website is optimized for viewing on any size or type of screen. Is your business website optimized for mobile use? If not, you are losing customers! You may expect that most orders are placed through a laptop or desktop, but today’s employees, managers, salespeople, parents, and even normal folks are always on-the-go. If I remember in the carpool line that I need to order a gymnastics grips bag for my daughter, I want to use my smart phone to order it right now, before I forget. The website I use better be easy to view and use on my smart phone or else I’m moving on to the next sporting goods website. Read more detailed information about responsive design HERE.
4 – Poor Content. Have you read the content on your website lately? Has someone with content creation or editing experience proofread it for you? An excellent business website simply cannot contain misspellings, grammatical errors, and poorly-written content. While it is possible to cheaply purchase “canned” content, it is often written in other countries and doesn’t translate well to the general American public. Other areas of concern are outdated information and broken links within your website. These kinds of issues drive customers away.
5 – Generic Photography. Most customers are savvy enough to know when they see stock images of models and fake business transactions. What are stock images saying about your business? Not much, except that you are cheap and take the easy way out. This is not the quality impression you want to make on your business website. It is definitely worth the expense of hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of your actual location, actual staff, and actual products. This helps your website users get to know you and your business.
Your business website is a vital extension of your company. Make sure it represents you well and encourages customers to return. Morris Marketing can help your business succeed in the online marketplace. Call us today at 919-424-8314 .
