You can be running fantastic AdWords, social media and SEO campaigns, driving large amounts of traffic to your site but people may not be buying because your website itself is turning them away. Web design drive 94% of first impressions so if your design isn’t cutting it, people will just click away.
There are 12 main reasons that people give for not buying from your website. Work through the list, determine how your website stacks up and work towards fixing up any issues to improve the conversions from your website traffic.
- Low quality design
Many websites are merely online brochures or catalogues – they don’t actually ‘sell’ to the viewers. Ensure your website is well-designed.
- The website isn’t in line with the target audience’s expectations
Think about your target audience is, who you are aiming to sell to. Does your website speak to them? Does it use the language they use? Will the content, images and design appeal to them?
- The content is old and boring
From eye-tracking studies conducted by the Missouri University of Science and Technology, users spend approximately 5.59 seconds focusing on a website’s written content – that’s not very long to engage so you need to ensure you capture that attention if you are going to have any chance to sell to them. Your website must be current – implement the latest technology, and add new, high-quality content on a weekly basis. Tip: Ensure that the copyright date at the bottom of the website is current or your website will instantly appear to be out-of-date.
- Underestimating About Us and Contact Us pages
In the majority of industries the About Us page is one of the most visited pages. Contact Us pages ranks almost as highly so it’s important to pay appropriate attention to getting these right. Make sure your Contact us page includes a phone number and an email address; having only a simple web form, without basic contact information can appear unprofessional and suspicious.
- Shopping care doesn’t work correctly
Does buying from your website involve more than one step? Then you’re making it difficult for people to buy from you. Your checkout should be contained on one page. Consider whether or not it is imperative to your business for guests to sign up before they can check out (or even view your home page) – this is a major barrier to many sales.
- No trust indicators
When a person initially lands on your website, chances are they don’t yet trust you, like you or even know much about you so how can you expect them to buy from you? Bad reviews (or no reviews), a lack of social proof and missing (or incorrect) contact information will create a barrier to trust. Research shows that visitors mistrust websites that have:
- Complex or busy layouts and designs
- ‘Loud’ and pop-up advertising
- Hard to read small print
- Lack of colour and boring design
- Slow load times and website introductions
- Awful SEO
If your website is still using ‘bad hat’ SEO techniques such as bad quality linking, keyword stuffing then Google can penalise your website and affect your search engine ranking.
- Not mobile-friendly
Mobile searching and mobile conversion is the future of online shopping and already 72% of consumers desire mobile-friendly websites. Specifically, users are looking for:
‘Click to call’ access
Limited pinching and scrolling
Larger, finger-friendly buttons
Loading time of 5 seconds or less
Quick and easy access to contact information
One direction scrolling – vertical or horizontal – not both
- No explanation videos
Videos are a powerful tool and provide your user with quick and easy information in an effective and digestible format. Ask yourself this – if a picture is worth a thousand words, how may words is a video worth?
- No clear value proposition
A value proposition is a clear statement that explains how your product solves your viewer’s problem or improves their situation, how you product delivers specific benefits and why they should buy from you. Your value proposition should be the very first thing seen on your website as well as all major entry points of your site.
- Terrible stock images
Using cheesy stock images will do nothing for your reputation with your potential customers. Where possible, use unique professional photography or if that’s not within your budget, take some high-quality photos on your SLR or smartphone. Using your own imagery will serve to add to the authenticity and trust between you and your target audience.
- No calls-to-action
You don’t want viewers leaving your website without having done anything – at the very least you will want to capture their contact information in order to follow up with them. Examples of great calls-to-actions are:
- Download an eBook
- Arrange a free consultation/quote
- Talk to our team
- Request a demo
If your website is currently failing in any of these areas then you may have pinpointed the reason behind why people aren’t buying from you. Arrange for Website Design Centre to work through these issues, correcting them in order to increase the buying on your website.
