Part Two: Your Website Content is Seriously Lacking
In part one of this two-part series, we covered the first 6 most common symptoms that your website design is showing its age and warrants a facelift in order to attract, convert and retain more customers. And because website content is just as important as website design, following are the remaining 6 most common signs and symptoms that your website content needs anything from a minor adjustment, to a complete overhaul in order to attract and convert more leads.
Sign and Symptom #7 | Sales Copy That’s as Cliché and Cheesy as the Music Played at Your Brother’s Wedding:
After 3 years of chiro bills, your brother’s best man regrets doing the worm to Funky Cold Medina. Albeit, it was an epic moment that no one will forget.
If you want your website to stand out and be remembered by customers, you don’t need to pull out any fancy moves. Just make sure your website content speaks to your customers’ wants and needs, using their language.
Replace any overly formal or cliché sales script on your website with content that is written in a more genuine, informative, and conversational tone.
No one likes to be sold to, but everyone appreciates good service. Your website content should achieve a purpose for your prospective customers, such as providing product information, answering their questions, helping them make a decision, and guiding them through the next steps you want them to take.
Sign and Symptom #8 | Missing CTAs and Lead Capture Tools:
CTAs:
Does your website content need CTA enhancements? Every page of your website should contain strategically placed calls-to-action that serve as subconscious cues, guiding your visitors to read more, add to cart, save to wishlist, subscribe to newsletter, or contact us. Without them, each page of copy reads like a conversation that abruptly ends.
There’s a reason why we still prompt people to leave a voicemail message. If you don’t believe me, remove your voicemail greeting and listen to the confused babble you’ll get from callers who aren’t sure whether their message for you is being recorded. CTAs are like your voicemail greeting, prompting callers to leave a message for you so that you can return their call.
Lead Capture Tools:
You’ve likely visited a website that piqued your interest by offering you a free template, ebook or guide in exchange for your name and email address. Or maybe you’ve subscribed to a few industry newsletters. Both are examples of lead capture tools that allow businesses you’ve already shown interest in to keep in contact with you through their emails and newsletters.
And while you probably don’t open everything they send you, whether you realize it or not, their emails popping up in your inbox is still a very effective tactic for building TOPA (top of mind awareness) so when you come in to need for something they offer, you’re more likely to think of them first.
If you want your website content to convert more leads, well placed calls-to-action and lead capture tools are a must. Learn more about how to capture more leads using gated content.
Sign and Symptom #9 | Missing Sections of Website Content:
Depending on your business, and the desired function of your website, certain sections of website content should never be left out.
Service providers:
Should always feature an About section, complete with profiles about the people performing the services.
Online retailers:
Should always have a QandA, Billing and Shipping Information section that outlines shipping costs, delivery times, how returns and refunds are handled, and how billing information is stored—upfront; not after a client enters their billing information.
SaaS providers:
Should have a section that outlines features, with imagery and examples, as well as a section that features pricing, compatible 3rd party extensions and API information. And don’t forget to include these easy onboarding and lead generation tactics:
- If you want to attract more end-users: offer a free trial in exchange for their name and email address (without demanding their credit card information first).
- If you want to attract more enterprise users: offer a free trial in exchange for their name, company website URL, and email address (without demanding their credit card information first), as well as offering to arrange a personalized orientation session.
Manufacturing companies:
Should have an area of their website where customers and distributors can reference and download info sheets, product care and warranty details.
Sign and Symptom #10 | Absent or Easy to Miss Share Buttons:
Too many websites treat both their social media follow icons, and their social media share icons as an afterthought, hiding them in their sitemap, or too far above or below their website content.
Social media Share buttons:
Should be included immediately above, below, or alongside each piece of content or product listing on your website so that visitors can share pieces of interest with their friends on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or via email. If your website features detailed information or instructions, consider including icons that allow your visitors to download and print each piece of content. And consider preceding your social media share icons with text such as “Share This” or “Share Me”.
Your social media Follow Us icons:
Should also be conspicuously displayed, but not easily confused with your share icons. Make them bigger and display them a little further away from website content. Certainly, include them in your website’s sitemap, but also feature them somewhere near the top of each webpage. You should feature an icon for each social media platform your business is active on, and consider preceding your social media platform icons with text such as “Follow Us” or “Keep In Touch”.
Sign and Symptom #11 | Your Website Contains Broken links and 404’s:
More common that you think. This can happen when you move or rename a page of website content, but forget to reflect the change in the page URL, or when a link from one of your blog posts leads to a 3rd party website page that is no longer available.
Make a monthly habit of checking your website for crawl errors using tools such as Google Search Console or SEMrush Site Audit Tool.
If you delete a product page or post from your website, it’s a good idea to just redirect the URL to another page. This reduces the risk of a revisiting customer who bookmarked your page to get a 404. And don’t forget to update your sitemap when you delete a page. Here’s a good list of other 404 causes and how to resolve them.
Sign and Symptom #12 | Your Website has More Bounce than Beyonce:
You’ve probably already heard about bounce rate. Every site has bounce, but some have far more than others. According to this bounce rate trends analysis by RocketFuel, a bounce rate between 41-55% is average. A bounce rate between 56-70% is considered high, but may be acceptable depending upon the website. And, generally speaking, a bounce rate of 70% or higher is cause for concern. And not all bounce is equal:
Good Bounce:
Occurs when a potential client visits your landing page and your CTAs effectively direct them to another page of your website where your newly captured lead spends more time. This is good bounce because instead of bouncing off your site, your lead is bouncing further into your site.
Bad Bounce:
Typically occurs when someone visits your site expecting it to be something it is not, or quickly realizes that your website does not immediately appeal to what they’re actively looking for. Two very easy and inadvertent ways business owners increase their bounce rate is by incorrect keyword use, and by creating blog posts and website content that isn’t focused or relevant to what your website offers.
For example, let’s pretend your website sells accounting software, but you write a blog post raving about your new Apple Watch. People shopping for an Apple Watch see your post in their search results, click—quickly realize your site doesn’t actually sell Apple Watches—and leave. Your traffic may briefly spike, but you’ve attracted unqualified visitors (people who are looking for Apple Watches; not accounting software).
Here are 10 other causes of high bounce rates. The good news is that Google can tell the difference between good versus bad bounce. And a web development team with a focus on increasing your client conversion rates will help you determine what content to place where, and how to optimize your website to reduce bad bounce rates and attract more relevant visitors.
Choosing the Right Website Content and Conversion Specialists:
Using your website to effectively attract, convert and retain more leads requires a strategic approach to both design and content. If you have concerns about your own website’s appeal and performance, and want your website to be a far more effective lead generation tool, contact our team of online marketing experts at McAllister Marketing.
Our team includes marketing and conversion strategists, website content writers, web developers and designers, and SEO specialists all working together to offer comprehensive online marketing services that deliver ROI and help you grow your business.