5 warning signs your website is underperforming

Your website is live, and you are waiting for the traffic to come, but according to your Google Analytics the stream of traffic that you are receiving is underwhelming to say the least. You were expecting a lot more people to come to your website in search of what you offer. What went wrong?

Reason: poor SEO

Somewhere along the line the importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has been overlooked. You could have the best-looking website in the world, but if it’s not optimised for search engines, nobody will find it and you will experience low traffic and low sales as a result.

So, you’ve rectified the SEO issue and traffic is now coming in, but some of the enquiries you are getting aren’t really aligned to what you are offering. People seem to have misunderstood your business or are looking for something you simply don’t offer. If just feels like you are attracting the wrong audience. Why is this? 

Reason: irrelevant or low-quality content

It may be that your website contains irrelevant content that is bringing people to your site but once they arrive, they realise that you aren’t providing the solution they are looking for after all. If your content doesn’t match their search intent, they won’t stick around for long. Even if your content is what they are looking for, if it isn’t high-quality content you will lose their trust.

A 'bounce' is a visitor that comes to your website and leaves shortly after arriving without visiting any other pages. A high bounce rate can be an indicator that your website is underperforming. But what causes people to bounce away so quickly?

Reason: it’s not clear what you sell/offer

If it isn’t immediately clear what it is that you offer or sell people will leave quickly. Furthermore, if they come to your website under the impression that they will find something specific, but you don’t actually offer that, they will potentially feel miss-sold to. 

Reason: website is slow to load

People are impatient. According to research on website load time, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less and 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Faster page loading reduces bounce rate, increases page views, leading to better conversion rates. 

Reason: unclear or cluttered navigation

If the navigation of your site is unclear, too complicated, or too cluttered people may be put off from exploring other pages. Simplicity is a key web design principle for delivering a great user experience.

Reason: not responsive

As of March 2023, 60.67% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, so make sure your website is mobile-friendly and responsive. If users land on your site from their mobile and it doesn’t display correctly, they will simply bounce away.

It may be that people are landing on your website and not immediately bouncing away, but they aren’t clicking through to other pages on your website either and are not clicking that all important ‘buy’, ‘book’ or ‘contact’ button as you’d hoped. Why not?

Reason: no clear calls to action

Having a clear ‘Call to Action’ on your website is vital. They help the user work out what the next action that they need to take is. It may seem obvious to you, but often website visitors need to be clearly signposted otherwise they may leave without taking the desired action.

E-Commerce sites can suffer from a high number of abandoned carts. This is when website visitors add an item to their shopping basket, but they don’t actually finish the checkout process and purchase the goods.

Reason: poor checkout page design

It is clear to your customers what they have to do to complete their purchase? Does it look trustworthy?

Reason: unexpected costs, information or tasks to complete

High shipping fees, long delivery times or an inadequate returns policy are some of the reasons that could be off-putting to a potential customer. Revealing 'bad' news at the checkout will lead to customer dissatisfaction. Being upfront about costs and delays will reduce abandonment, and lead to longer term trust. 

Can your customers make guest purchases or do they have to create an account? Both methods have pros and cons. If customers do need to create an account make them aware early in the checkout process. When a customer is poised to click the 'buy now' button that last thing you want to do is distract them with another form to fill in!

If you have noticed any of these warning signs with your website, it might be a good reason to consider a website redesign.  We Make Media is a Devon-based web design company. We’ve been helping small businesses grow in the West Country since 2010. If you’re interested in a website design for your business, we would be happy to discuss what you’re looking for and how we can help. Book your free discovery call.

For more information about our web design services: wemakemedia.co.uk/web-design/

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