There are always issues that can come up with your website.
Most people look at their business website as something that is a project. You launch it and leave it alone.
This can lead to issues and if you’re looking to avoid those issues you’ll have to make it a habit to compare your site to others.
I’ve fallen into this trap myself and here are some things that have appeared over the years while I was too busy to pay attention to my own website.
1. Broken Internal Search
I run into this one all the time. It’s something I’ve had issue with on my own site – Ghost Blog Writers. The folks at Sarah Lynn Design have been working on it as they’ve developed the updated design.
Internal search is important for certain sections of business websites. For GBW, that section is the blog. There are more than 500 blog posts and it’s difficult to make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.
People go to the search bar and expect to find relevant content. Having an effective internal search is key to making sure your visitors get what they want and stay on your website while continuing to move down the sales funnel.
2. Unclear Service Description
I can’t tell you how many business websites I come across that don’t communicate what they do. It seems simple, but it can actually be something that is difficult to do.
I’ve struggled with it for GBW.
The challenge is communicating to your visitors in their language what you do.
As business owners, we have our own terms for things, but our website visitors might have no clue what those terms mean.
You’re a digital marketing service?
How does that help me?
If your visitor doesn’t understand what you can provide to them they’re going to leave your website.
3. Confusing Call To Action
Sometimes when I go to a website I get intrigued by the content on the home page or internal page. The only issue is I’m not sure what I should do next. The page just kind of ends and it leaves me hanging. I may look around a little bit, but usually I’ll just lose interest and leave the site.
This often happens on service pages or about pages.
Every page should have a call to action of some kind. It might not be the contact call to action or the buy now call to action, but it should be something to keep the visitor moving through your website and your sales funnel so they stay interest and involved in the process.
4. No Email Signup
One of the biggest assets a business can build with a website is an email program. It takes extra work each month to create a business newsletter, but for many businesses it’s a great way to increase sales.
The only trouble is that businesses don’t include an email signup on appropriate pages on their website. As a result, they don’t get subscribers and they feel it’s not worth it to have an email program.
You have to start somewhere.
5. No Contact Link
This one drives me crazy. Sometimes I want to reach out to a company, but it’s impossible to find the contact information on their website.
That’s the point of the website for nearly all businesses, but sometimes I just can’t seem to find a contact link where I can fill out a form or send an email.
It’s crazy, but it does happen.
Please make sure you have one of these and make sure it’s easy to find from all pages on your site in most cases.
Conclusion
Hopefully these things will help you see where you can make improvements to your business website. The goal is to always be improving your website. It may never be perfect, but if you keep adding little tweaks here and there you’ll make it a better sales engine for your company.
