Customers are judging your website. Here’s how to make sure you measure up.
Here’s your cheerful news for the week: Your customers are judging your business based on your website.
That’s right. No matter how great your product, your sales team, or your offline customer experience, if your website doesn’t measure up, you are losing customers.
But don’t take our word for it. The proof is in the numbers:
75% of web users say your credibility is tied directly to your site. 95% say they’ve left a website because of a frustrating experience. And 57% won’t recommend your business if your mobile site sucks.
Which means, if your website isn’t up to snuff, it’s time to get it there—and fast.
How? Here are three big-impact changes you can make right away:
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Marie Kondo your content.
If you haven’t heard of Marie Kondo, her philosophy is this: If it doesn’t spark joy, ditch it.
Now Marie’s working with homes and offices. She’s helping people de-clutter their lives.
But when it comes to websites, the philosophy still holds its own. What are most companies if not hoarders of old, stale, outdated, embarrassing content? And what is a de-cluttered website if not a beautiful, easy-to-navigate space designed to delight?
In Marie’s world, clients hold each item in their home and ask themselves “does this spark joy?” If the answer is yes, it stays. If the answer is no, it goes.
In the web world, we recommend going to every single page on your site and asking:
Does this meet a customer need?
Does this serve a business goal?
Does this 10-year-old press release for a product we no longer offer meet a customer need or serve a business goal? How about these 10 bio pages for donors who haven’t been involved in the business for over a year? What about that how-to blog post that is absolutely no longer correct?
Anytime the answer is a clear no, it’s time to ditch or replace that content. In the case of the how-to blog post, an update may be in order. In the case of the ancient press release, it’s probably a case of delete, delete, delete.
And if you’re worried about your SEO? Don’t be. Purging old, irrelevant content is good for your rankings. The more relevant your site, the better it’ll do. And the quicker you ditch that old content? The quicker you become relevant again.
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Breathe new life into your design.
If it’s been more than 12 months since your last redesign, it’s probably time for an update.
Why so often?
Well, experts recommend updating anywhere from every six months to every three years. But in our experience, 12 months is about when things start to look dated or stale, no longer match up with your business goals and latest campaigns, and start to fall behind best practices for user experience, web speed, and responsiveness.
(If that sounds daunting, never fear. At Catalyst, we’ve got a tried-and-true, no-stress process for giving your website that yearly facelift. Ask us about it.)
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Prioritize user experience.
If you’re looking for big wins for your website, user experience is one of the best places to find them.
In fact, one in three people will abandon an online purchase because they can’t find the right information. 88% will leave your website and never return after a bad user experience. And for B2B companies (and B2C, for that matter), websites are one of the top three most valuable lead sources.
So if you’re driving people away with your site? The consequences are pretty huge.
Now, those stats feel rather scary. But here’s the good news: there are probably some quick and easy ways to improve visitor engagement and satisfaction right away.
Things like adding calls to action in the right places (70% of small businesses get this one wrong), making sure information is easy to find, improving page speed, and cleaning up your content so it’s easier to understand.
And if you just don’t have the time or in-house skills to take this on yourself? You don’t have to go it alone. We’d be happy to chat about how we can help.
