I found myself experiencing a bit of déjà vu a few days ago—which is something I’m getting more and more often these days.
I was reviewing a new client’s existing website, and something was off.
See, the website looked great. It had slick graphics, cool animations, fast load speeds—everything you’d typically want in a website.
But when I put myself in the shoes of the company’s target audience, I realized I didn’t have a clue what the website wanted me to do.
How could the website possibly turn site visitors into happy customers if they couldn’t even figure out what to do once they got there?
All Flash, No Substances
Unfortunately, this is a fairly common occurrence. Tons of companies have websites that are visually appealing but lack the functionality to drive meaningful business results, such as:
- Form Completions
- Phone Calls
- Purchases
Many times, companies simply hire a developer to make things look nice, but they never put in the hard work of focusing on navigation and functionality to generate a significant ROI from their website—a powerful marketing asset that serves as an extra salesperson even when your office is closed.
How to Evaluate Your Website In 5 Minutes Or Less
Here’s a quick checklist to get an idea of just how impactful your website really is to your bottom line.
1. What Does the Data Tell You?
You can learn a lot about your website and its users through GA4 (which is one of the reasons we offer Data Analysis as one of our services). Some things I check:
1. What’s the Bounce Rate?
Your Bounce Rate is a measure of how many people leave your website before taking a meaningful action, like visiting your contact page or adding an item to their cart.
How low your bounce rate should be varies based on industry, target audience, and page type, but you should aim to keep it as low as possible.
2. How Long Are Users Spending On A Page?
If users spend an average of 90 seconds or more on a Service or Product page, that could be a dead giveaway that they’re confused.
Take another look at your copy, supporting videos, page layout, and other content to ensure the page is as direct and effective as possible.
3. How Many Clicks Do Users Need to Reach What They Want Or Need?
In web design, we pay attention to something called “click-through rate decay,” which is the percentage of users you lose every time they need to click on a link to continue moving down the sales funnel.
To help illustrate, here’s the drop-off you can expect to see (on average):
- First Link Click – 10%-20% drop-off rate
- Second Link Click – 30%-50% drop-off rate
- Third Link Click – 60%-70% drop-off rate
The lesson: Make your website easy to navigate, and ensure users can find what they need as quickly as possible—tasks we follow in our BLOSSOM program.
2. Does the Website Fulfill Your User’s Needs?
Beware emails or phone calls from site users that say:
I couldn’t figure this out on your website, so I’m emailing/calling you for help.
This is problematic for two distinct but important reasons:
- It shows you have bad site user experience, as it doesn’t offer all of the information your audience wants or needs.
- You risk upsetting or even losing your audience. Every company has competitors, and if your company upsets site visitors, there’s nothing stopping them from looking for the same information from one of your competitors.
3. How Is Your Site Laid Out?
Take a fresh look at your site. Is it arranged based on your unique users or by the unique services and products you provide?
If you serve multiple distinct target audiences, you may want to arrange your site based on users.
But if you offer a variety of unique products and services, you may want to arrange your site based on those offerings.
And if you’re serving multiple audiences with multiple products and services, you may require an extra-focused web build.
Squeeze Additional Value From Your Website
To get even more from your website, contact us. We specialize in making websites that are both beautiful and functional, resulting in outstanding user experience and superior business results.
Don't Branch Out Alone
We know that your time is limited but taking your website to the next level is essential. Don’t branch out alone. Tap into our team of experts to keep your site ahead of the curve.
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