Is Your Website Losing Customers?

by Barry Harrison

Published on this site: June 8th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Every site can perform better. Smart business people understand that a website is a work in progress, but they don't always know what changes to make. That's why a regular web evaluation is so important. Think of it as an annual check-up to make sure your site is self-explanatory, easy to use, and up-to-date.

If your site has been online for more than a year, you need an objective evaluation. It's the single most important thing you can do to improve your site, because a web evaluation identifies problems that affect your conversion rate.

Whether you want visitors to make a purchase, submit a form, or pick up the phone and schedule a consultation, even a small improvement in your conversion rate will pay for an evaluation many times over.

The goal of an evaluation is to come up with specific steps to fix the most significant problems affecting your site. Typically, these fall into four categories: copywriting, navigation, layout, and currency.

Either visitors

• don't understand what you're saying
  
• can't find what they want
  
• become confused by too many choices, or
  
• find information that's outdated

More than design flaws, the biggest problem we see in web evaluations relates to the copy. Web copy frequently fails to convey the most important benefits or connect with your visitors on an emotional level. Often, there's far too much of it, and too few compelling "calls-to-action."

Although a do-it-yourself evaluation is better than nothing, for best results you should get an objective evaluation. You and your web developers know your site too well to see it from your visitors' perspective. Links that may seem perfectly obvious to you may be invisible to most people. Copy that clearly explains your products or services may not be getting your message across-- assuming people read it (which they rarely do).

A good evaluation is customized for your site, your audience, and your business goals. A cookie cutter evaluation may be helpful, but a custom evaluation is likely to identify the most serious problems and biggest opportunities. It should include specific recommendations to address the problems that are uncovered.

At the very least, review your site on an annual basis. Make sure it doesn't have any broken links, and your client list, portfolio, and copyright is current. And keep in mind that changes in your business need to be reflected in your site.

 Barry Harrison is the author of "REDiTIPS" eMarketing Newsletter and a partner in Resolve Digital, Web Strategy for the Real World.
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