YOUR HOME SERVICE-BUSINESS WEBSITE ISN’T CONVERTING: HERE’S WHY
You have a beautiful new website that you just spent thousands of dollars building. You flip the switch and … nothing happens — crickets! The website company told you that this site would convert more leads than your old site, it would be more search-engine friendly, and it was time to upgrade, even though your last one was only 12 months old. I’ve heard this story many times before. The problem is that most website companies have no idea how to build a website for conversion. They put up pretty stock pictures, cool graphics, and tell you that it’s revolutionary. Here are the top three reasons your website doesn’t convert and how to fix them. Many home service-businesses display excessive information on their homepages. They list too many specifics about every service they offer, include a three-paragraph story of how the company got started, and go into too much detail that customers don’t take the time or care to read. People have a very short attention span in today’s REASON NO. 1: IT’S NOT SIMPLE ENOUGH.
digital world (6–7 seconds to be more exact). Knowing this, it’s imperative to capture their attention as quickly as possible to have them take action immediately. If there is too much content or too many options on the homepage of a website, people are not sure what to do and will leave, get distracted, or ultimately do something that is not in line with your objective. Here’s how to fix this: Get crystal clear on the top 1–3 actions that you want someone to take when they come to your website. Is it to request service? Download coupons? Make a phone call? Look at customer testimonials? Whatever these top 1–3 objectives are, they should be clearly stated and prominent throughout the homepage of the website and very easy for people to see and complete the action. In our research and with our existing clients, we find that the schedule service online, download coupons, click to call, reviews and testimonials, and service area sections or pages are the most commonly viewed. When building websites for new clients, we challenge them to cut out 50 percent of the information that is on their home page that isn’t relevant to accomplishing their top 1–3 objectives. Once they have cut 50 percent of the content, we challenge them to then cut 50 percent of the remaining content. Most of the time it’s not possible to cut another 50 percent, however, through that exercise, we cut out the remaining fluff that isn’t necessary.
easily identify what actions customers are or are not taking so that you can adjust the layout of your site in its entirety. Are they clicking on coupons? Are they clicking on an image that does not currently go anywhere? You must make sure that you have tracking data collected on your website. Either you or your marketing company must be monitoring this data and making intelligent changes that are not based on assumptions of what people want when they come to your website. “IF THERE IS TOO MUCH CONTENT OR TOO MANY OPTIONS ON THE HOMEPAGE OF A WEBSITE, PEOPLE ARE NOT SURE WHAT TO DO AND WILL LEAVE, GET DISTRACTED, OR ULTIMATELY DO SOMETHING THAT IS NOT IN LINE WITH YOUR OBJECTIVE.” Here’s how to fix this: Be sure to install Google Analytics on your website and understand how to read the basic data or get consistent reporting from your online marketing company and know how to read it. A free heat-mapping tool that we use is SeeVolution.com. By installing this, you will be able to determine missed opportunities on your website. When studying Google Analytics data, some of the important items to track are Continued on page 7 ...
REASON NO. 2: LACK OF TRACKING
You wouldn’t make decisions in other areas of your business without proper tracking data, so why would you do this on your website? By using tools like Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and heat mapping, you can
WWW.CEOWARRIOR.COM | 2
Made with FlippingBook Annual report