Do visitors spend less time on your website than they do looking for your website?
Buyers pre-qualify vendors partly on their online presence. Every second spent navigating, reading your copy, or clicking on images helps them grade you. So your website can only do one of two things: pull prospects into your funnel or cause them to click away.
How do you know when your website is repelling potential customers and stripping your bottom line?
1. Your page descriptions tell a lie
Have you ever looked forward to trying a new product, only to be disappointed after you’d opened the box? We all have.
For online users, a meta description represents that box that holds everything they’re hoping for. Much like the packaging, content and images on the box, it offers a promise of what to expect if a user clicks on it.
Surprising users with a headline, copy, and call-to-action that don’t jibe with the meta description can frustrate them and chase them away.
Writing effective meta page descriptions takes two steps:
- Review each of your site’s pages.
- Summarize the page’s objective in 155 words. Inject a keyword or phrase, a call-to-action, your brand or product name, an order line phone number, or an action-oriented statement.
When your meta descriptions perfectly match the content they’re leading to, you’ll drive higher engagement and increase your conversion rate.
2. Your pages load too slowly
Online buyers are purpose driven. Few things annoy more than waiting for slow loading pages.
Image-heavy websites don’t only discourage buyers, they drag down performance and search rankings. And while Google’s recent announcement that it will resize Web images to help shorten load times, the onus is still on the marketer to optimize each page for maximum performance.
Before you add more images, scripts, or fancy multimedia to your website, test each page for speed. Does each element support your value proposition? If not, discard needless elements.
With only seconds to decide, your visitor’s time online is precarious. Make the best use of his or her time and consistently deliver fast loading pages to shorten the path to conversions.
Related Class: How to Convert More Website Visitors Into Customers: Best Practices for Usability and Analytics
3. You’re playing hide and seek
A first time visitor’s top question is “Who is this company and what can they do for me?” Yet, reams of marketers still hide basic company information, thinking that it’s the user’s job to seek them out.
Big mistake.
According to KoMarketing’s recent usability survey, 58 percent of B2B buyers feel that a company’s address and contact information is “critically important” in moving forward with a request for a proposal.
About Us and Contact pages can help build trust and credibility, reinforce your core message, and move buyers to the next step.
Make it easy for users to learn more about you. Use logical menu titles and navigation that display your company information within two to three clicks.
The faster a visitor finds what she’s looking for, the more likely she’ll stay on your site to learn more.
4. You don’t connect with visitors
The top reason prospects visit your website is for research. That’s why every aspect of it should say “Mr. Prospect, here’s why we’re the right vendor.”
- Weave your USP or value proposition throughout your copy to reinforce a consistent message and theme.
- Use headlines to orientate your visitor. Whether your prospect came through a PPC ad, an organic search, or a newsletter link, he needs to instantly connect with the headline. Ask a question, offer a unique benefit or make a bold statement with your headlines. Then, deliver on that promise in your copy.
- Show them who you are. Many marketers use generic stock images to depict business situations or even their staff. By not showing prospects their true colors, they can cast doubt and cause them to backpedal.
Here’s how MicroAge introduces their team:
Their Experts page displays a crew of IT professionals who come to life when you click on a photo. Each member shares expertise, certifications, contact info, blog posts they’ve contributed, as well as interesting non-professional tidbits and aspirations. Their visitors not only see a face with a name,they also leave the website with a deeper sense of what the organization is about and who they’ll be working with.
- Support your features with unique benefits your visitors can’t find elsewhere. Communicating your benefits cements the buyer’s impression that yours is the best solution.
- Use FAQ pages to answer commonly asked questions and provide more details, terminology, etc.
- Make your website responsive and easy to read and navigate on any type of device.
Catering to your visitors’ needs and challenges drives a deeper connection and shuts down any distrust that can cost you a sale.
5. You ask too much
How much information do marketers really need?
In the same usability survey, 82 percent of users named excessive form requirements as their top deterrent to filling out a form for a free white paper, webinar, case study, etc.
Clearly, asking prospects to fill out job titles, company size, annual sales, and other highly detailed information can stop them in their tracks. Remember, online users are goal oriented and after driving them successfully to a landing page or contact form only to lose them isn’t a risk worth taking.
Speed things up and keep visitors on your good side with short and easy forms. Once they’re in your funnel, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to ask for more information and broaden your understanding of who they are and what they need.
Each visit to your website is an opportunity to show that you’re truly aligned with your prospect. Use these tips to sharpen your focus onto your visitors, drive engagement, and eventually reap more sales.