- Have you ever asked yourself,
"what is wrong with my website?"
I mean, you spent loads of time and loads of money
getting it developed but it's not performing
as you expected it to.
It's not sending you sales and maybe, maybe you're getting
lots of traffic to your website, but not enough
of the people who visit are turning into customers.
What could be wrong?
In this video, I'm going to go through some of the
most common mistakes I see on websites
and I'll give you some tips on how you might fix them.
But first, if you would like a digital marketing lesson
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Back to the website mistakes.
Mistake number one, it's not clear what you actually do,
what you're actually selling.
People visit your website but they leave because
they just can't work out what it is that you do
and how you can help them.
Yes, it's obvious to you, but that's because
you built the site.
So what can you do, how can you find out?
Is this a problem?
Well, I recommend a tool code user UserBob
which gets a bunch of strangers to have a look at your site
and tell you what it is they think you offer.
I made a video that shows you how UserBob works,
but don't go and view it now.
I've also left a link in the description below
so you can have a look at it afterwards.
Mistake number two is no call to action.
People have visited your website, you've been smart,
you've told them what it is that you do in simple terms,
but they don't know what to do next.
They don't know how to progress.
Make it clear what you want people to do next
from the homepage and from other pages.
Maybe you want to get them to visit a service page
so they can find out more about the service
they want that you offer.
Or maybe you want them to request a quote or book a call
or buy something from the shop.
Just make sure it's really clear, a big old button
that people will see immediately and they can click
to take the next step towards being a customer.
Number three is that you haven't created a service page
for each service that you offer.
People visit your website.
They know they want what it is that you do.
So they click into the service page and woof,
there's just so much choice.
They get confused, they don't know which service
they want and they leave.
You need to create an individual service page
for each service that you offer just like an online shop
will have a product page for every single product
that they offer.
A service page will give you space, space to write
a fuller explanation of your service, who it's for,
what the benefits are, some testimonials,
what steps people need to take next.
Plus, as you're writing more text, you can optimise
each service page for search engine optimization
which means people will find it in their search results
as well as being able to navigate to it
from any page on your website.
Plus you can use your service page as a landing page
for the ads that you might run on search or on social media.
Mistake number four is no about page.
Customers only buy from you when they trust you.
And that means they want to find out
a little bit more about you.
And that's what your about page is for.
In fact, about pages tend to be one of the most
visited pages on your website.
Use your about page to tell people a little bit more
about who you're for, what you offer, a little bit about you
and why you are the right person to do business with.
Mistake number five is using stock images.
Wait, what's wrong with stock images?
I mean, they're good photos.
There's one for everything that you
could possibly need it for.
Why shouldn't you use them?
Your website needs to build trust.
I know, I know I talked about that already
and it also needs to be memorably you.
The problem with stock images because they look
like stock images.
They detract from your business brand and they're so generic
that your website ends up looking like
everyone else's website.
So instead of using stock images, get your own set
of photographs taken, get photos of you, your team,
your premises, your surroundings,
anything that makes it memorably you.
And the thing is people will remember those images.
They'll remember that yours was the website
with that photo of, and because these photographs are real,
they are real people and real places connecting
to your business that helps you build your trust.
Mistake number six, is not installing Google Analytics.
How many people are visiting your website?
How many people who visit your website
are turning into customers?
Where are the people who visit your website coming from?
Without Google analytics or some other measurement programme,
you'll never know.
You'll never know if your website is successful.
You'll never know what the conversion rate
of your website is and how you can improve that.
You'll never know if your online marketing is working.
So if you haven't installed Google Analytics yet,
get it sorted, like, now.
Mistake number seven is that your website
is just way too slow.
A customer finds out about your business,
they find your website, they click and they wait
and wait and wait.
And finally the site loads.
Who am I kidding?
Nobody's gonna hang around that long to wait
for your website to load.
If your website is slow loading it will affect
its search-engine rankings, which means people won't be able
to find your site.
And it also means that even if someone really wants to buy
from you you may lose them before your website even loads.
Use the Google speed test tool to check out your website
to see how long is it taking to load.
And it will also give you recommendations on how
you can speed that up.
Mistake number eight is no search engine optimization.
You don't have to pay and you don't have to beg
the social media algorithm gods
to send traffic to your website.
If you work on your search engine optimization
you can get people who are interested in what you do
visiting your website from search engines for free.
And yes, search engine optimization can seem complex
but if you work on it a little bit at a time
you'll soon be tapping into that free traffic
that search engines like Google can send you.
That's the eight most common website mistakes that I see
when I'm working with clients.
But what am I missing?
What would you add to my list?
I'd love you to let me know in the comments.