What Does Your Website Really Say About You?

Websites cost a lot of money, but an effective website should be making money. If you’ve been struggling with an underperforming website, chances are high that you’re focusing on the wrong element(s) and neglecting some of the more important points.

The biggest mistake you can make is to look only at your website from your perspective, focusing on what you want it to do for you. Instead, try looking at it from the point of view of one of your best customers and cater to what they are expecting.

So from the perspective of a visitor, here’s what you might be overlooking about what your website really says about you:

Long Form Sales Letter / Sales Landing Pages

Immediate first impression = SPAM!
(Check your bounce rate.)

Free Site Template / Branded Website

Nobody is going to take you seriously if you’ve clearly not committed to a self-hosted, custom website. There is no trust in yoursite.thirdparty.com or branded headers/footers.

Custom Web Design

There’s a big difference between custom design and customizing a generic template. One is unique, the other is generic.

Ads

Peppering your site with PPC ads or ads for “sponsors” is a great way to make extra money from your website, and it’s also a great way to turn off visitors. There are better ways to generate extra profit from your website if needed, but they require more effort and class

Web Page Content

Believe it or not, web page content is also an important part of your web design, visually. If the formatting is lengthy and cluttered, this is too intimidating.

Beyond that, great content is something that visitors will genuinely enjoy reading. If you feel like you’ve passed all other tests but your bounce rate is still high, it is probably because your web content sucks instead of sucking people in.

Blog

Okay, somebody has made it this far– to actually look at your blog. If your articles are optimized for search engines instead of people… this is going to be your biggest downfall. An effective article stands on a strong topic, has an intriguing headline, and does not disappoint. A waste of space are the articles based on keywords that lack in substance.