These 4 Common Website Mistakes Might Be Costing You Sales
Your website is your brand’s online home, and first impressions are important. You want your website to be as tidy and professional as possible, so you can build trust and make that sale.
Today we’re going over the 4 common website mistakes I see all the time that will keep you from selling what you do. But don’t worry—I’ll let you know how to fix them too!
Let’s get started.
1. No Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
A call to action is a request designed to get an immediate response from the reader/listener. Examples include: buy now, schedule an appointment, or call today
I see so many sites that have NO direct call to action visible when the homepage loads and before you scroll (the area known as “above the fold”). And I think this is especially true in the female entrepreneur world, where we hesitate to “sound too salesy”. I know I do.
But here’s the deal: The people who land on your website need to be guided somewhere, and that’s your job. You have to tell people very clearly what you want them to do—whether that’s to schedule a call, buy your product, etc. And you need to make it easy to do.
If someone finds your website, decides they love whatever it is you do, but can’t figure out how to get your services/book you/buy from you, you’re going to lose that sale.
The fix:
Add a button to your homepage that appears right when the page loads and can be seen without having to scroll at all. Make sure the wording is clear, direct, and action-oriented (ex: buy now, book now, etc). I promise, you’ll see major changes if you implement this.
2. TMI
One of the most common things I see on my clients’ websites before we start working together is an overwhelming amount of text or too much information.
You have about 15 seconds to capture someone’s attention on your site before they leave. There’s 3 things they’re looking for that will decide whether they stay:
What you do
How it helps them or solves their problem
What to do next (that CTA we just talked about!)
That’s it! That’s really all that needs to be above the fold on your site.
Of course, you can have more text as people scroll, but honestly you should keep that to a minimum too. The text on your homepage should only have to do with your business and be a small amount of information that intrigues them to learn more. Remember, your website has other pages—you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) cram everything on the homepage!
I’m gonna be real with you, because I care and want your business to thrive. It’s awesome that your husband’s your biggest cheerleader, you live in Oklahoma with 2.5 kids and a dog, and that you love having margs with your gf’s on the weekends. But that info doesn’t belong on your homepage, and it’s not what’s going to sell whatever it is you do. Some of this can totally go on your About page to build trust with your audience, but try to keep your about page to a minimum too. The bottom line here: people don’t like to read.
The fix:
Cut down the text on your homepage. Then, when you thinks it’s done, cut it down again.
Have 1 major statement about what you do and how it solves people’s problems, then further down the page keep your words to a barem= minimum. This will reduce the overwhelm and bring you more sales.
3. Too many fonts
Okay, this one isn’t related to brand messaging or functionality like the last two… but it’s a HUGE design no-no that makes me cringe and immediately lose trust with a brand.
Your website should have 1-3 fonts on it. Max. The end. That’s it.
If you go through your website and can count more than that, it’s time for a change.
Why? Because it’s overwhelming, can appear cluttered, and doesn’t look professional—all of which can lose trust.
You want to build trust with your audience, not lose it. But having a space that looks professionally designed (even if you DIY’d that thing with one of our pre-built websites!) is going to land you more sales in the long run. And also the short run too.
The fix:
Whatever your body font is (like the text you’re reading now), make sure that’s the body font on your whole site. Then also use that font as one of your heading fonts.
Then choose 1 more font (*sigh* or 2) for other headings that’s different than your body text. And I mean, like really different. Otherwise the similar-but-close font will look a bit strange.
Boom, you’ve narrowed it down to 1-3 fonts!
4. Not Optimized for Mobile
In 2020, it’s a problem if your site isn’t mobile-friendly. Not only for visitors on mobile devices—it’ll also hurt your SEO pretty badly.
On my site, 53% of my traffic comes from desktop and 46% comes from a mobile device. That’s almost a 50/50 split!
If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, there’s a high chance you’ll lose visitors and sales.
Google actually has a resource to test your website’s mobile-friendliness! All you do is enter your URL and test. So go ahead and test out your URL to see if this problem is costing you sales.
The fix:
Honestly, you might need to hire a designer for this one. Different website builders have different ways of editing mobile sites, and some can be difficult to work with.
The good news is, if you use Squarespace (like we do here! 🎉), your website’s automatically mobile friendly! We highly suggest the Squarespace platform for many reasons, but “mobile optimization without having to worry about it for a second” is a pretty good one.
There’s more common mistakes we could talk about, but starting out with these 4 fixes will help your site tremendously!
