B2B Articles
September 13, 2021
By:Ironpaper

5 Reasons Your Website May Be Failing

Your company website is often the visitor's first impression of your business, so it must work to grab their attention and convince them to take action. If your site is not generating leads, driving sales, and increasing conversions, it's not doing its job. Figuring out why your website is not working is the first step.

5 Reasons Your Website May Be Failing - Bad website design

Read five common reasons your company website may be failing – and what you can do about it.

1. Lack of data and analytics

If you do not measure your website's performance, you have no way of knowing if it's succeeding or failing. You also can't know which issues need to be fixed or areas that are performing well that can be optimized. Solid metrics give you insights to overcome this challenge by using data to indicate precisely where you need to make website improvements. It's important to measure specific metrics to understand success:

  • Conversion rate
  • Marketing-qualified leads
  • Sales-qualified leads

Other metrics such as call-to-action click-through rates, landing page conversion rates, unique visitors, and exit pages can also help.

Use all of this data to understand which components of your website are performing well – and which ones are not. For example, suppose you learn that many people exit your website from a particular page. In that case, you can figure out why by running A/B testing to determine if different messaging, layouts, and calls-to-action that convert better.

2. Too much autobiographical content 

Your website should not resemble a static online brochure. Instead, it should offer high-level resources that move visitors through the conversion process. Avoid posting general information about your products, services, and company history. While it's your site, it should stay buyer-focused. Create an interactive experience that engages your visitors and keeps them active on your site. To start, draft relevant and educational content that speaks directly to your audience and solves their unique problems. Position this content front and center on your website so visitors can easily find and engage with it.

3. Forgets about marketing automation

Marketing automation is software that automates time-consuming sales and marketing activities, so your company can efficiently reach customers. For example, let's say a prospect visits your website and downloads an eBook. Using a tool like HubSpot, the prospect could then go into your marketing and sales funnel. Set up a workflow that then nurtures this visitor by offering them additional content that adds value to them. Without marketing automation, you may be losing prospects.

Read more: What is Marketing Automation?

4. Not mobile responsive

Back in May 2015, Google announced that more searches now take place on mobile than desktop in ten countries, including the U.S. Plus, 90% of smartphone shoppers use their phones to comparison shop, and mobile email opens have grown over 180% in the past three years. In June 2021, Google made another update that ranks mobile-ready websites even higher, which means unoptimized sites were degraded on the search engine.

Given the growing prevalence of people visiting websites on the go, it's critical that your site is mobile-friendly or you risk alienating users visiting from these devices. To that end, we recommend adopting responsive design – a way of designing a website, so the content, images, and site structure provide an optimal and seamless viewing experience across a wide variety of devices, including tablets, mobile phones, and desktops.

Related: The Importance of a Mobile Responsive Website

5. Poor user experience

According to HubSpot research, over 75% of respondents indicated that the most important website factor is how easy it is to find the information they need. If the information they want is hard to find, confusing to understand, or too cumbersome to access, you'll drive your customers away. They'll leave your site and find a competitor that's easier to use. To improve your user experience, try the following:

  • Make sure your pages load quickly
  • Use attractive calls-to-action
  • Try bullets rather than large blocks of text
  • Leverage well-designed headlines that use messaging that resonates with buyers
  • Make it easy for customers to find what they need – and your website's performance will undoubtedly improve.

Sources

  • https://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-for-next-moment.html
  • https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/peteschauer/2015-08-09/importance-mobile-marketing-2015-infographic
  • https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/peteschauer/2015-08-09/importance-mobile-marketing-2015-infographic

 

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