Deep guttural sobs emerge from the mouth of a young woman who is so completely frustrated with your website that she’s ready to tear her eyes out. Her head is throbbing and she can’t remember how to get to your store to pick up her favorite herbal remedy. The one that ALWAYS works.
She has been sitting in her car, staring at her phone, trying to navigate your website to find directions. Unfortunately, your contact info is buried so deeply in the caverns of your site that it’s taking her WAY longer than it should. She wades through pages and pages of superfluous information and recipes she’ll never use and finally finds the address she’s been looking for.
You can count yourself lucky because this poor lady was already a faithful customer. She was determined to push through for a few more minutes because she knew that your product would be worth it in the end. But what about all of those cold leads who happen upon your website? If they experience a fraction of the frustration our headache lady did, you’d better believe they’d be out of there quicker than you can snap your fingers. This is where hosting services such as ssd vps hosting plans can also be helpful in converting web traffic to foot traffic.
Here’s how to avoid the Ugly Cry:
1. Know Your Call To Action – What is the purpose of your site? E-commerce? Brand awareness? Lead Generation using a b2b lead generation agency? Whatever the mission, your website should function to optimize your goal. Climb inside the head of your users and figure out their pain points. Then, make sure the call to action is apparent on every page of your site and clearly lead them to the pages that will solve their problem.
2. Keep it Simple – Since when did it become a “thing” to make website navigation as complicated as possible? Is it some sick way to seem more sophisticated? We don’t think so. Your website visitors should always know what the next step is–no matter where they are on your site. Keep the number of pages to a minimum and don’t go crazy with paragraphs of hard to read content. Clean designs and uncluttered copy are sure-fire ways to keep your website user calm and engaged.
3. Be Mobile Friendly – Nothing is more frustrating than trying to get information out of a mobile website that isn’t optimized for mobile. Nine times out of ten, a mobile user is accessing your site because they are out and need information quickly. If you can engage them in their moment of need, you might have scored another faithful customer. Not only did you solve their problem, you solved it in the midst of a mini-crisis. Go you!
4. Reiterate the Important Stuff – Are you a brick and mortar? Put your contact information and location in the header, footer, and on a Contact Us page. You can also intersperse links to the Contact Us page throughout the site. That way, no matter which page they land on, they can always figure out how to call, email, or visit. Do you have an e-commerce function? Link to the Shop page in product feature banners, sliders, and sidebars throughout the site. Never let a user leave your site because they can’t find what they’re looking for.
5. Include Social Media Links – We live in a social media crazed society that is ever changing. Though you may be overwhelmed at first, create a social media strategy and then insert the links in both the header and footer of your website. Your customers want to feel like they are part of your community, and the more you can be involved in the conversation that’s already happening out there, the better.
At Caledon Virtual, we get a kick out of website design. Need help with yours? Give us a call.
