Is your website turning people away? Here are 10 reasons it could be happening to you:
- I’m on the Go: Your site doesn’t work on a mobile platform. 25% of smartphone users in the US use their device to research local business in order to make an in-store purchase. If your site is not mobile-friendly, you could be losing business.
- Spam! Spam! No, Thank You, Ma’am:If you collect an email address, use it judiciously. Make it easy to unsubscribe. Offer choices to the user on how often they would like to be contacted and for what type of content. Too many emails to your potential or existing customers and you go from partner to pest.
- Clutter: If the user cannot find what they are looking for, they are not coming back. Don’t clutter up your website with animations, widgets, fancy scripts and other nonsense. Keep it simple. Deliver your message. Have a call to action.
- Ssshhh!: The fastest way to get me to leave your page is sound effects. Background music, speaking avatars, auto-play videos…. yuck! Worse yet, is when I cannot find the source of the noise to turn it off. If your website audibly announces itself, it could lead to an embarrassing situation for your vistor.
- Do I Know You?: Who are you and what do you do? If I have to search through a products and services link to only find generic business jargon, you have not established any credibility. Tell me up-front about what you do and why I need to do business with you.
- Please Let Me Have It: Don’t make it hard for me to buy your stuff. I LOVE e-commerce sites that offer me the ability to check out as guest or with very minimal information. No long-term commitment is required, I am cool with just being friends. Having to jump through a million hoops to place an order makes me think that it would be easier to just drive down to a brick and mortar.
- Lions, and Tigers, and Ads Oh My: Ads may be a necessary evil for your business revenue, but to your website visitor, they are just evil. Especially when they pop-up as a welcome screen, interrupt the article I was just reading, or simply won’t go away.
- Insecurity is Never Attractive: If you are collecting personal and/or financial information – make sure you have put the proper security measures in place. Everyone gets hacked – do not take my data security too lightly and we can be friends for a long time.
- Help Me!: If I have an account with you and forget my username and password, have a system that is quick to help. If you must send me an email to reset my password, do it quickly. Help me help myself whenever possible.
- Those Pesky Scripts and Forms: Make sure your scripts are working…and if they fail, give useful error messages. Test your scripts on multiple browsers to make sure they work across platforms. If a browser version is incompatible and you are not going to fix it – tell me up-front before I waste any time. If I miss a field on a form, do not make me fill out the entire form again. If I mis-entered data, tell me exactly which field to fix, don’t make me guess.
To make sure your website is not a total turn-off to your customers, you may have to ask for opinions, and be prepared for brutal honesty. Once you have your site up, don’t let it stagnate. Continue to incorporate feedback, review your site frequently, and keep up to date with latest browser versions and technology.
-Candice
