5 Reasons People Dislike Your Website

by Ryan McMullen

We’re past the point in local marketing where business owners believe that if they put up a website, it will magically start generating business. We all know you have to promote your website for it to be a revenue-generating asset for you. The next step in this equation is ensuring that your customers are having a great experience on your website and that it’s turning visitors into business.  

Here are the most common website problems that are literally costing you money:

1. Your site is not optimized for mobile devices. If you haven’t upgraded your site yet, your competitors are beating the pants off of you online. Over 60% of local searches for businesses are done from a phone or tablet, and if your site is not optimized for these devices, over 80% of visitors will click away in the first five seconds. Do you have the patience to squint at tiny print or continuously try to zoom in? Neither do your customers.

2. You have no calls to action. A call to action (CTA) is a simple instruction like “call us,” “click here” or “request a quote.” Since I am also a person, it’s OK for me to say this: People ain’t so smart sometimes. Unless we tell our visitors exactly what to do, they aren’t going to do anything. It seems like a very simple thing, but we’ve seen increases in conversions of over 25% just because CTAs were added in the headers of websites.

3. You have an unorthodox layout. When you get into a new car, you expect the steering wheel to be in a certain place, the gas pedal to be on the right and the brake to be on the left. Users have also come to expect that websites have a standard arrangement. For example, your navigation menu, logo and call to action should all be in the header. If your site looks unfamiliar, users will click away. Until Apple creates a new standard and reconditions everyone to accept it, stick to the basics.   

4. You have too much stock photography. Authenticity goes a very long way with customers, so investing in professional photos is well worth it. Your business/brand has its own story to tell, and using stock photos can’t tell it. People can see right through it.  This is the equivalent of going to Target, buying a bunch of frames, leaving the photos of the models in the frames and putting them around your house. Does that tell the story of your family?  

5. You have too much text. People don’t have the patience to read a lot anymore. As much great stuff as you have to say, save it for your sales pitch. Your site needs to contain lots and lots of pictures and videos.
We spend a lot of time, effort and money getting people to our websites, so following the best practices and giving our customers a great experience is ultimately going to ensure that our visitors turn into more business.

Ryan McMullen (ryan@stlouismarketinglab.com) is the owner of St. Louis Marketing Lab.