Are people bouncing off your website? The top five reasons why your old website could be losing you sales, according to Sharon Lewin, owner of web design company Hive of Design
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nfortunately, just as your computer becomes outdated and behind the times with technology, your website does too. Changing technology, browsers and website user trends can all contribute to lost sales. Here’s the top five problems that could be causing your customers to bounce to a competitor, particularly if your website is more than three years old. Not only will the following cause problems when people do find your website, but because Google search hates most of these things too, it will stop potential customers finding you in the first place.
No opportunity to buy online Consumers are more demanding now than ever, so avoid losing sales by giving prospects the option to book something or commit to purchasing straight away, without talking to anyone. It’s not just B2C businesses that can sell online, B2B companies can benefit from improving their online sales process.
have visitors losing patience and going elsewhere. Is your website easy for you to update? If not, it’s likely you’ll be putting it at the bottom of your task list. Modern CMS (content management system) websites such as WordPress can easily be edited by yourself or your team.
Visitors can’t find what they want
Have you ever landed on a website and become irritated that you can’t find what you want? We’ve all been there. If it isn’t immediately obvious how you are the best company to solve their problem or deliver the product they want, you’ll lose their custom the moment you lose their interest.
BECAUSE GOOGLE SEARCH HATES MOST OF THESE THINGS TOO, IT WILL STOP POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS FINDING YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE
Not secure!
A few years ago, Google Chrome and other browsers decided to alert website users if they visit a website without an SSL certificate. It verifies ownership of a website and keeps data secure when someone fills in a form on your site. If your website doesn’t load with ‘https’ at the beginning, it’s easy to fix. Contact your web developer and ask them to add an SSL certificate. It doesn’t take long, so won’t cost too much. The increase in Google searches will provide a return on investment.
Not mobile friendly
If customers are having to pinch and zoom or scroll sideways to view your website, they’ll leave and find a site that they can read easily. Some of the earlier ‘mobile-friendly’ technologies are not actually that friendly, compared with the high-quality responsive website layouts available today.
Out of date content
Businesses change over time and, considering the challenges of the last 18 months, many business owners have been forced to diversify. If your website no longer accurately represents what you do, it certainly won’t generate the right enquiries. Are there broken links on your website that don’t lead anywhere? This will definitely NICHE | 63
