With all the talk today about the importance of social media to the success of businesses, I still see many that are missing the most important aspect of internet marketing: their website.
All the fans and followers in the world will not generate increased revenue if your website doesn’t impress them and provide answers to their questions and problems. Your website is where you close the deal with all those fans and followers yet I continue to come across websites that truly irritate me: navigation that confuses the reader, dated layouts and pop-ups that aggravate me. Many have text that was written with a search engines in mind rather than customers. All of these can lead to customers quickly clicking off the site and looking elsewhere. I’m certain that you have all had the same experience and what was your response?
Your website is your store! If you walk into a store that looks like it came from the 1960’s, old products laying on the shelves, no employees ready to assist you and no idea where to find the product you are looking for, you may never come back. If you had to fill out a 20 question survey just to get information or check out would you ever return? How would you feel about having someone jump out in the aisle suddenly to tell you all about some product you aren’t even shopping for? Your website should be designed and laid out to avoid all of these problems. Navigation should be simple and intuitive; the site should look new and fresh and should direct the reader to the answer to their problems easily. Avoid irritating pop-ups and make checkout simple and fast by requesting only the information absolutely necessary. Lastly remember that your website is designed to sell to customers and not search engines.
Don’t Let Your Website Drive Away Customers
Remember that you only get one shot at a new customer. If their experience is not a good one they will be on your competitor’s website before you can blink. Take the time to give your website a critical review. Is your navigation simple to someone that does not know your site? Do you have a bunch of those irritating pop-ups and ads. Do you incorporate some of the newest design features and make use of eye catching images and video? Do your descriptions do justice to the products? Try to put yourself in your customers mind and provide the answers they are looking for and you will be successful. Make their visit memorable, interesting and fun and give them the solutions to their problems at a fair price and they will be back.
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