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4 Website Mistakes That Are Killing Your Conversions · Marketing For Tradies

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a website that converts, you need to have a strong call to action.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your prospect is on your website because they want or need something, not because they want to contact you.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to copywriting, less is more, and honestly, people don't care.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: You need to remember why your prospects are there and they're on your site for a reason.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a website that converts, you're going to have your own photos and invest in some photography.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone that's going to a website has these main questions.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Websites That Convert, the podcast where your website stops being a liability and transforms into your greatest asset.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Shannon, and I'm going to guide you through the strategies and insights you need to build a website that not only attracts but converts.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to another episode of the Websites That Convert podcast.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are talking about website conversions.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most important topics when it comes to websites.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, this podcast is called the Websites That Convert podcast.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's one of our main and most important topics.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of people have websites that just do not convert.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And every single time I see one, and it literally kills me when I see a website or a business that has so much potential and they're just not using their website effectively.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost worse to have a website that doesn't convert than a website that does.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you have people going to your website and they leave without converting, that is a lost sale.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: You've lost that client, you've lost that customer, and they're probably not coming back.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Going to your competitor that has a website that actually converts, they're becoming a lead and then they're becoming a client for your competitor.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So you're essentially serving this client on a silver platter to your competitor just because they've gone to your website and it hasn't been optimized for conversions.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So in this episode, I'm going to give you four big mistakes that are killing your website conversions.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And these are very common things that I see when clients come to us, but they are fairly easy to fix if you know what to look out for.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the first mistake that is killing your website conversions is that you use contact or get in touch as your only call to action.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Calls to action are the actions that you want your visitor to take when they land on your site.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is what distinguishes them from just being a visitor into a lead.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the most important thing that is going to be on your website because it's what links someone from just viewing your page to becoming a lead.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want a website that converts, you need to have a strong call to action.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's three things that we look for when we choose a call to action for a website, and it's clarity, relevance, and performance.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: The problem with contact us is that it's super vague.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: It gives no context whatsoever as to what the prospect is getting themselves into or what happens next.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to stand out either because it's super irrelevant.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to stand out at all.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there is absolutely no incentive for your visitor to take action.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your prospect is on your website because they want or need something, not because they want to contact you.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: The calls to action have to be super simple and easy for your customer to understand what they're getting themselves into and what action they're actually taking.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it should be clear and consistent across your entire site and also relevant to that next step in the buyer's journey.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: When you're choosing a call to action, like I said, just keep it really clear, relevant, and focused on performance.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: When I say make it clear, just keep it simple.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Make it really easy for your visitor to understand and to use.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this could be something like get a quote, make a booking, book a free assessment, book a call, just like an actual action that they're going to take.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're stuck on what this may be or look like, think about your buyer's journey.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a lead contact you through your website, like let's say that you do generate an inquiry through your site and it's just on the contact page, what happens next?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So usually there is a sales process that you're gonna take that prospect through.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you might get the inquiry and then you might offer them a free quote, or you're gonna offer them a free call or a free assessment or whatever that is.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of having the call to action being the contact, and then you have to then go back and forth on emails to then get them to the next step of the buyer's journey.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can actually shorten that process just by taking what's already in your sales process and having it on your website instead.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not to say like you won't have a contact page, it just means that you have a more valuable action for people to take if they're ready to take it.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to get more conversions from that because it sets clear expectations of what they're getting and they're actually getting something in return rather than just submitting a contact form and they're just waiting for you to get back to them, which again just expands that amount of time it takes to convert a lead into a sale.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you always want to be shortening that process.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because the majority of websites that we work on are redesigns of sites that aren't converting at the moment.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the biggest and most common things we see.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: If a website's been created without any strategy in mind, often it will just be get in touch or contact us as the primary action that they want the visitor to take.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: But as you can understand now, it's just not effective in converting traffic.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we've seen it time and time again on sites that we've worked on, where we've obviously completely redesigned the website, but that call to action, especially going from get in touch to something like get a quote, make a booking, get a free assessment, for example, we've seen it double conversions on websites with the same amount of traffic.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So before we've even worked on increasing the traffic to these websites, the conversions have changed dramatically just because the call to action gets changed from something vague and irrelevant like get in touch to something like get a quote or free assessment or online booking.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: The second mistake that is killing your website conversions is that you have too much text or information on your website.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to copywriting, less is more.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, people don't care.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have the time.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: All of this excessive text decreases engagement, and less engagement on your site is going to decrease the amount of conversions.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: You need to remember why your prospects are there and they're on your site for a reason.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know it can seem tempting to want to put all of your information on the website.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You want to educate the visitor on why your industry is so relevant and why you're the best, and these are your values, and this is your mission statement and team members and like all of those stuff.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is valuable, but honestly, people want the information that they've come for, which, in my experience, everyone that's going to a website has these main questions.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who do you help?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: What do you offer?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I trust you?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And how do I get it?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you can answer those questions for your visitor as fast as possible and get them through that decision-making process of understanding all of those questions and to the point of how do I get it and how do I take action, which goes back to your call to action, you're going to convert more people by convincing them that you're the no-brainer solution to the problem that they have.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So having industry insights and news and using the main website pages as a blog, which I see a lot in terms of the amount of information that's written on the page, or just talking about yourself the entire time, is definitely a big mistake that I see killing conversion.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So keep your copy concise, minimize it to the least amount of words as possible while also answering those key questions that your visitor is going to have.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because we want to get those visitors to the how I can get how can I get it question as fast as possible.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say that you went to the supermarket or hardware and you are looking for a specific product or something that you need.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, you're going to go in and follow the signs or look at the aisles to find out what area the thing that you need is in.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to follow that and find what you need.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty simple.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But imagine that you arrived in the store, everything was locked in cabinets, you didn't know where anything was, and you had to read through a document about how to find the tool or the food that you were searching for.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: More than likely, you're going to get frustrated, you're going to feel exhausted, and probably be pretty confused.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: You'll leave and go next door to the store that has the clear signage on the aisles and the items displayed clearly.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's exactly the same on your website.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: You want to have the signage for people to know exactly where they want to go without giving them all of this work and information to wade through to find what they need.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: The third mistake that's killing your website conversions is using free stock images.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: The problem with this is that using photos that can be found for free across the internet impacts your trust and credibility.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Brand authority is a huge factor when it comes to conversions and it's going to stop you from standing out from your competitors because they're often using the same images.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: While it's okay to use some stock images if you have to, ideally, if you want a website that converts, you're going to have your own photos and invest in some photography that's custom to you.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's also helpful to actually show your behind the scenes of your business or serving actual clients and who you are, especially if you're the one out there serving them and they become almost familiar with who you are and seeing your face.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so it makes them more comfortable and trust you and again more likely to convert.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So ideally, you would invest in some professional photography for your website, but also these images can be used for any other marketing, collateral and social media, for example.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going to increase your brand authority, the professionalism of your brand, the authenticity of your brand, help people trust you, and all of those factors come in when you're wanting to convert more people with your website and your marketing in general.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Mistake number four that is killing your website conversions is that you have a lack of quality traffic.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Most people don't have enough traffic in general to get a significant amount of conversions.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, without enough traffic, conversions are impossible.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: If like if you don't have enough people viewing your website, then based on like average conversion rates, you're not gonna see the results that you want to see because a conversion rate is still a small percentage of the total number of people that are viewing your site.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason why I call this point quality traffic is because something I have seen a lot of people do is launch their own advertising campaigns, whether that's on Google or social media, and it's not hard to do.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone can jump in and just create an ad.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't have the right targeting, the right keywords, the right strategy behind the campaign that you're creating, you may get thousands of people viewing your site.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if they're not the right people that have the right intentions and that are at the right stage of their buyer's journey, that it's still not going to convert.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So majority of people don't have enough traffic at all, but there also is a lot of people that are creating campaigns to get thousands of visitors to their site, but they're the wrong people.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I wanted to get the point that you need to have quality traffic come into your website.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can you get traffic?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's only two ways that you can get traffic, and that is to either buy it.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So create an advertising campaign either on social media or search engines, like Google, obviously.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: The strategy that you choose is really based on your budget and the amount of time that you want to put into it.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anything that you're building is going to take time.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Anything that you're buying is going to take money.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, what I recommend, and this can be a whole episode in itself, is to have a combination of both, but it is a decision that you have to make for your business of how you're going to attract or get traffic to your site, either to buy it through paid ads or to build it organically through social media or search engines, which I'm referring to SEO in that instance.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I've taken you through the most common website mistakes that are killing your conversions.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: The first one was using contact or get in touch as your call to action.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: The second mistake was using too much text and having too much information on your website.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Third is using stock images.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you get some professional images done because that's going to help with your trust and brand credibility.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the fourth is not having enough quality traffic.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So decide whether you're going to build traffic, buy traffic, or a combination of both, ideally.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: So these are some of the most common mistakes that I see and what I see to be the most valuable things when it comes to creating a website that converts.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's obviously a lot of other things that go into it, but these four are definitely those big factor items that make a huge difference.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Websites That Convert.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you found value in this episode, please give us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Follow us on all social media.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a service based business owner that's looking to double their website conversions, book a call with my team using the link below.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.