A lot of marketers get just about everything right, and yet their conversion rates struggle. These marketers have right offer at the right price in front of the right audience—so, what’s the problem?
In many cases, the conversion rates are plummeting due to design and usability problems of their website. That’s why you’ll want to read over the common mistakes below to ensure you’re not making any of them…
Mistake #1: Bad Links
If a prospect clicks on a link and the link returns a 404 “Page Not Found” error, that’s problem. It’s a huge problem if the link is supposed to go someplace important, such as to your customer service help desk or to a sales page. Even if the link isn’t overly important, it’s still going to look bad if you’ve got broken links (or links leading to the wrong page). This leads to frustration and a lack of credibility and trust.
There are scripts you can run to be sure you don’t have any broken links on your site. However, it’s a good idea to check your links manually from time to time too, as sometimes a link might send visitors to a page, but it’s the wrong page. And the only way for you to uncover these sorts of links is by manually clicking on them yourself.
Here’s a related point…
Mistake #2: Broken Scripts/Forms
Here’s another instance where you might frustrate your prospect or even outright stop a sale. Obviously, this is especially true if it’s your order form that’s broken. But it’s also pretty important for you to check other scripts and forms, such as:
- Your help desk forms.
- Your opt-in forms.
- Any registration forms (e.g., webinar registration).
- Account-creation forms (such as for getting an account on a membership site).
- Search scripts.
…And any other forms or scripts you have running on your site.
Mistake #3: Poor Design
We’ve talked about this elsewhere, so we’ll just cover it briefly here. The bottom line is that if your site has a very amateurish design, then your prospects are going to assume your products are amateurish or sub-par too. That’s why you’ll want to be sure your website looks polished and professional.
Here are your options:
- Do it yourself if you have the skills.
- Start with a template. If you’re using WordPress, just search for WordPress themes (e.g., StudioPress.com).
- Outsource this task. You can hire someone to create a design from scratch, or you can hire someone to tweak a template.
If you outsource, you can go to a freelancing site such as upwork.com and post a project. Be sure to do your due diligence by thoroughly researching anyone before you hire them. That way, you can be confident you’re hiring a professional who’ll produce good work for you.
Here’s the next mistake…
Mistake #4: Unreadable Fonts
Sometimes business owners try to make their site look “cool,” and one way to do that is by using different fonts. Unfortunately, some of these fonts are too small or otherwise very difficult to read.
Point is, if someone lands on your sales page and they see a bunch of text that requires effort to read, they’re probably not going to put forth that effort. And that means you’ll lose a sale.
This is easy to fix, of course: just stick with normal-size, readable fonts. These include Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, and similar fonts.
Here’s another mistake…
Mistake #5: Design That’s Not Mobile-Friendly
There are a significant number of people who are going to visit your site on their phones, tablets or other devices. If you don’t have a responsive design that looks great across all these devices, you can bet your conversion rate will suffer.
Naturally, the fix is to get a responsive (mobile-friendly) design. If you’re using WordPress or another platform where you’re looking for themes or templates, then include the word “responsive” in your search. And if you outsource your design, then be sure your designer creates a responsive theme.
TIP: Even though it seems like all designs and templates should be responsive, they’re not. Sure, the vast majority are, but not all of them. That’s why you need to be clear about what you need, rather than assuming the template you purchased is responsive or that your designer knows to create a responsive theme.
Next…
Mistake #6: Page Loads Slowly
Another design error that can impact your conversion rate is if your pages load too slowly. Visitors typically give your page just a few seconds to load, and if it doesn’t then they’ll bail on your site.
To that end, keep these tips in mind:
- Optimize your images so they load fast.
- Be sure your coding is clean.
- Be sure scripts aren’t unnecessarily running in the background.
- Don’t auto-play videos.
Next…
Mistake #7: Design That’s Not User-Friendly
Finally, you need to be sure your site is user-friendly in general.
For example, your navigation should be clearly labeled so that there’s no question about where a link leads.
One way to check if you have this problem is to look at your visitor logs. If you see people abandoning their shopping carts, using the search function often (because your navigation isn’t intuitive) or even bouncing off the site soon after arriving, you may have a usability problem.
The fix? Do some usability testing. Get three or so members of your target market to perform common tasks on your site, such as opting into a list, finding a page, asking a question at your help desk and making a purchase. Then ask for feedback from your users to see how you could improve these processes and make your site more user friendly.
Now let’s wrap things up…
Your Turn
Your assignment for this secret is to comb through your site and check if you have any of the usability or design problems listed. Specifically:
- Any broken links?
- Any broken forms?
- Does the design look professional?
- Is the font readable?
- Is the site accessible on phones and other devices?
- Is the design user-friendly?
If you detect any problems, then be sure to fix them right away.
Meanwhile, I’ll see you in the next secret…
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