People avoid websites. You do it and probably don’t even realize it.
Here are some examples of ways you avoid and leave websites before getting what you want:
You go to a website and can’t find what you are looking in the first twenty seconds.
You land on a web page and it hurts your eyes, so you quickly hit the back button and click on the next option.
You hunt for minutes on a website trying to find a way to call or email them.
…The list goes on and on.
Do you remember Pigpen, one of the characters in the old Charlie Brown cartoons? Pigpen was the kid who had a cloud of dust around him – the kid most of the other kids avoided. It’s possible that your website is a “Pigpen” that’s running people off and losing you more business and more money than you realize.
Now, I happen to enjoy retro and vintage things. I love my old Duncan Phyfe drop leaf table. It is so easy to use. When I need more table, I pull up a side and BAM! I have twice the table. My grandma had a couple of these and I was lucky enough to inherit one of them (thank you Grandma C!).
While vintage and retro enhance our lives in the real world, they do not serve us well in the web world. People are turned off by old, clunky websites. In the last week, I’ve visited with three business owners from three different industries who all had websites that hadn’t been edited or refreshed in more than six years. In the beginning, they had all received considerable business from their websites…now they were struggling to get any traffic at all. One look at their websites told me why.
- Their sites weren’t mobile-responsive; their landing pages weren’t readable on my phone screen without stretching
- I couldn’t touch the phone number to call them directly or click the email addresses to email them directly
- There were no call to action buttons on the home pages
- There wasn’t a logical “flow-to-know” to tell me what their main products were
Social media sites and well-funded brands have shaped our expectations for what to expect when we visit a business’ website. When your website fails to meet the minimum, assumptions are made about your business – including assumptions about your service, reliability, relevance, and product quality. It’s not fair but it’s true. Don’t take my word for it. Check out some for yourself. Here are comments I’ve heard from others about older sites:
“That site is old, are they still in business?”
“O what happened…they are so old now”
“I don’t want to even call them, they look like they might go out of business”
“I went to the site you recommended, it looked old, so I googled someone else and called them instead”
There are whole websites that show off really bad and out of date websites. If you’re curious, check them out:
https://www.branded3.com/blog/top-10-worst-websites/
https://blog.rankingbyseo.com/bad-websites/
The point today is this: don’t be afraid of website upgrade. Clients tell you what they need and want, make sure you’re listening, says my business coach Ursula Mentjes, so if you know you need to do it, get to it! Not sure how your website is performing? Send me the link to your website and I will give it the a free quick five point audit.
When you work with people you trust, it will be virtually painless and your future clients will thank you by buying from you AND by passing your name along to others.