Almost everyone, it seems is doing it. If you are smart, you have been engaging in a search engine optimization program to get your website found. But what happenns when you succeed with that? What sort of experience are visitors likely to find once they land on your site? Is your website design what it needs to be?
What you may be forgetting
Oddly enough, what marketers know to be true, and what they actually are doing don’t always match up. Survey data from a Demand Base and Focus.com National Website Demand Generation Study shows the top source for leads are websites, but 80% of marketers believe they aren’t maximizing their efforts there. It seems there is a disconnect between what’s being generated and what consumers are looking for. So let’s look at what viewers expect. Aside from an eye catching, but easy to navigate page, they are looking for:
- Speed. Visitors expect your site to load in 2-3 seconds. After that, some 40% of them abandon the page.
- Error free. cmswire.com says A Stanford University “Web Credibility Study” from a few years ago found that “typographical errors have roughly the same negative impact on a website’s credibility as a company’s legal or financial trouble.”
- Simple registration or contact fields. Registration form length that’s far too long – as many as 8 or more fields discourages readers, as does a contact form that requires too much personal information.
Keep in mind
- Quality over quantity. While there is a point to generating new content on a regular basis, remember what you put out is going to be as important, or more so, than how much, and the level of professionalism factors in greatly. The quality of posting can also impact your SEO. It also matters when it comes to the impression you’re making on visitors.
- Being in tune. You need to poll visitors – assess their behaviors and what leads to gaining attention, and to getting conversion.
- A website is not a stand alone tool. Nielsen Wire says there are 113 million mobile web users, Having a mobile friendly web design will mean that the growing numbers of consumers on those devices will have something they can sink their teeth into as well.
- Put yourself in their shoes. Build a site that offers consumers what they want, not what executives in your company want. Get to know your prospects and customers and determine their preferences and what motivates them.
Having a solid website design will make all of your other online marketing efforts worthwhile. Think about it, a prospect reads something on a social site about you, then visits your website. You have only a moment convince them that their journey there will yield something of value to them. Don’t waste their time, or your efforts, with a sloppy, outdated, or difficult to navigate site.
For more on developing an effective website, contact us today.
