Visitors are the most important assets for any online company since they are potential customers. Hence, you should try to impress them with your site and your offering as soon as possible to encourage them to convert. But how can you satisfy them? Is there any particular thing they want to see or get? The following points can help guide you to meeting the expectations of your visitors.
Are the Visitors Getting What They Have Come for?
Your visitors come from somewhere to get a solution to a problem. They could be just seeking information or going right to your product and service offerings. You need to make the most important parts of your website easy to access. This is more than just the buy button, especially if you have a physical storefront. If you’ve ever experienced the frustration of hunting for a business’ hours online, you know why it’s crucial to have what your customers want to find right up front.
This is especially important for landing pages. Most people hit landing pages after clicking on an ad. If your landing page doesn’t deliver on the promise of the ad, you’ll leave a negative impression.
Different businesses will have different things they need to present upfront. You’ll need to do your research to discover what is most important. But at a minimum, a visitor should understand what you offer within the first 5 seconds of looking at your homepage.
Are You Forcing Visitors to Sign up too early?
Many website owners force their visitors to provide information before they can get what they came for. Are you doing this? If the answer is “Yes”, we would recommend you to quit it as soon as possible because it can really turn off your visitors.
There is a time and a place to have subscription forms to collect information, like with the download of an informational product designed to draw visitors down the sales funnel. However, some sites demand a sign-up before you can even see the offer! That is too soon in the buying process and will drive people away. Use your best judgment on how much content your visitor will need to see before they feel comfortable turning over information.
Does Your Website Have a Simple Navigation?
Navigation is another most important thing to consider for any website. Your visitors should be able to see your main navigation bar as soon as they hit your site. Any navigation bar worth its salt needs to be straightforward as well. Even complicated sites like Amazon hide much of the complexity behind dropdowns to keep the core navigation bar clean.
Strive to have no more than 4-5 main navigation points with short titles that clearly explain what each option does. There’s great power in a simple bar with home, about, contact, products, and FAQ as options. Don’t be deceived by simple when it comes to navigation bars.
Does Your Website Have a Clean Design?
Our eyes often register the design of a website before we register the content. A cluttered and confusing site design can turn off a visitor even before your offering is presented. If you don’t know the principles of clean web design it’s good to hire a web designer to examine your site for flaws.
Another important part of web design is the technology behind it. Websites must be fully functional and adjust automatically to different screen sizes. Links should go where they are expected to go and must not be broken. Navigation bars, like we talked about, must make sense. All of these factors play into a clean design and a good user experience.
Now your job is to implement these things with a view to turning your incoming visitors into leads and customers. Remember, the more you understand your customers, the better you can do with your business. Give your potential customers what they are looking for on your site. And if you don’t know what they want, ask!
