In the digital age of business and commerce, every brand needs a website. There are over 300 MM people on the internet in North America alone and over 4 Bn worldwide. If those online users are to become your customers, business partners, or new hires, then they need a place they can go to check out your brand, products, offers, and the story behind your business. So it’s no wonder that thousands of new websites are being created, optimized, and improved every day.
Of course, the quality of your website matters just as much as the quality of your product. Of those 300 million people, over 80% check online before making an important decision. Your leads are not only looking at products and deals; they will unconsciously determine how dedicated you are to service based on their online experience with your site.
How Web Design Can Improve a Business
Even the simplest aspects of website design done well can make an incredible difference in a variety of use cases. In generating leads, good website design guides leads through the conversion process to a satisfying purchase. High-quality SEO and page design increase your visibility on search engines. Potential new hires will see that your company is sleek and appealing. Service members will enjoy their integrated portal experience, coming back to shop again and again.
Tracking Your Website Performance is Key
The key to improving your website performance is tracking it’s current performance stats. How can you know if your marketing spend is being used effectively unless you can measure the impact each service or asset is having? You will want to track how your customers interact with the business, the path they take through the website, what they click, what they look at, and how long they stay to craft a better and more productive user experience. After all, “If it’s not measured, it’s not improved.” You can even compare your stats to competitors and make beating their success your mid-way goal to excellence.
5 Signs Your Website Could Be Performing Better
1) Low Click-Through Rate
Your advertising assets, either on-site or off-site just aren’t cutting the mustard. Potential leads who see your content aren’t tempted or swayed by your advertising methods or, perhaps, just the design of your marketing content.
Low click-through rate means that users are not clicking through to whatever landing page or conversion sale you’d like them to follow.
2) High Bounce Rate
High bounce-rate is the next problem in the chain. Your marketing assets are working and leads click to your landing page, homepage, or content page, but they immediately click away. This is known as a “bounce.” Every site has a bounce-rate, often consisting of accidental clicks or leads who can quickly disqualify themselves (which can be a good thing).
However, a high bounce rate means that your website is somehow turning leads off immediately. This is usually the result of poor website design or content targeting. It can be anything from too many pop-ups to an uncomfortable font choice.
3) Low Number of Lead Contacts
Lead contacts occur when a website visitor who came for the blog or to browse your product pages decides to take the next step. They may submit an email address for gated content, make an account, request a demo, or engage in live chat just to name a few contact types your website can provide.
However, if very few of your website visitors are making overt contact, your website design is failing to guide them along the conversion funnel from click-through to conversion.
4) Decreased Web Traffic
With a well-built website and appealing brand, your web traffic should increase over time as more users discover the site and come back as repeat customers or content consumers. You know something has gone wrong with your website design if you are experiencing a decrease in web traffic instead.
Web traffic can be measured in many different ways, including visitors, on-site activity, and even page-load latency.
5) Low Repeat-Visitor-Rate
RVR in web traffic lingo stands for repeat visitor rate. If your website is powerful and appealing, visitors will come back time and time again. Leads will return to continue the conversion process, and customers will come back to become regular shoppers.
If your website is underperforming on RVR, then something has gone wrong, and it’s time to redesign.
3 Free Analytics Tools for Website Performance
Hotjar
Hotjar is a great free tool that provides heatmapping, which is a special way to track exactly how activity flows through your website. If you want to see what users are clicking, how fast they are clicking, how far they scroll down an article, and even the individual movements of their mouse as they explore your website, heatmapping is the way to optimize every aspect of your website user experience.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most useful free tools on the market, and it shows you most of the basics about page performance that you need to know to make improvements. In particular, it highlights bounce rate and pages that have been most effective at drawing in users and keeping them on-site.
Google Console
Google Console is another way to interact with the analytics tools that Google can provide. This not only reveals click-through rates, but it can also show you how your site is performing in search results, keywords you should be focusing on, and how accessible your content is to the web-crawlers that determine search result supremacy.
Conclusion
Your business website is the single most powerful marketing, selling, and even recruiting tool in your arsenal and web design has never mattered more. It is vital to have a website that not only aptly conveys your brand and products, but one that guides users through a curated online experience guaranteed to lead them to the answers, purchases, and satisfaction they came for. Tracking your business’s website stats now can tell you how close you are to that goal and give you a definitive direction for improving your online experience and critical results. Contact us today to find out more about how to improve your website through greater security, SEO, and optimization strategies.
