If you or your marketing team are unsure whether your web design and development is working, this article is for you! After being called numerous times to fix our client’s website problems, we noticed common trends among dysfunctional sites. Look for these six signs that indicate your business website isn’t working and it’s time for an update.
1. Your Website Doesn’t Show up on Search Results
Not ranking on SERPs is a prominent issue that requires all hands on deck and must be addressed immediately. Your website’s purpose is to communicate your brand to customers, and it must be searchable on the web. If customers can’t find you online, all the time and resources you’ve spent on your website are wasted!
While this is a major problem, you may find that you did nothing wrong. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a significant component that affects your position in search results. For instance:
- Being listed on the 100th page might be acceptable if your site was just launched.
- However, if your website has been around for decades and is still on the 100th search page, you’re probably not getting the most out of it.
Remember that your SEO efforts take roughly three to six months to propagate on search engines. So, it could very well be a timing issue.
Beyond timing, you can control other components, such as no indexing, website configurations, and compliance with search engine requirements. Get these right because one wrong setting can penalize or even remove your website from SERPs! If you’re unsure what the problem could be, we can help! Schedule a free consultation to discover the root cause of your website listing.
2. Your Bounce Rate is High
Google defines bounce rate as the number of visitors who leave your website within the first 5 seconds. A high bounce rate indicates your website isn’t hitting the mark with customers. In other words, customers are unimpressed or feel misled after clicking on your website on the SERPs because what’s advertised on the SERPs doesn’t match what’s on your page. Guess what a high bounce rate does to your search ranking? It drops! Search engines assume your website performs worse than others with a lower bounce rate for the same search terms.
To combat high bounce rates, you must create a compelling headline that customers see first. You may also need to rework your web design to better support the story your website tells. Finally, don’t forget about marketing to the next generation of decision-makers, the young digital buyers. Their digital expectations are different from those of previous generations.
3. Your Traffic is Healthy, but You Face Conversion Issues
If you have decent web traffic, the next problematic area may be website conversions. As your digital front, your website must align on all pistons to communicate how you can solve your customers’ pain points. That means you must get the web design, copywriting, and overall customer journey right. Additionally, CTAs are important and impact your buyer’s final decision, so be thoughtful in your word selections.
You may also need to rework your product offerings, pricing, and other workflows to optimize website conversions. Conversions encompass everything from when your customer first interacts with your brand to when your sales team closes the deal. Therefore, low conversion events, such as form submissions or meeting bookings, may indicate poor web design. Check with your web development team for issues around conversions.
4. Your Website is Underwhelming
We use “underwhelming” because customers will have different digital expectations. Some may want x, while others demand y. You can’t satisfy everyone, but you should do your best to satisfy the bare minimum for web design. Below are a few underwhelming issues that can turn off customers:
- A website that doesn’t solve their problem.
- A website that feels gimmicky.
- A website that offers something too good to be true.
- A website that requires a heavy commitment before anything else is done.
- A website design that feels dated for the generation buying from it.
To understand whether your website is underwhelming, ask your existing customers what they think about your website. Better yet, catch the customers who tell you no and ask why they went with a competitor! This insight will uncover why you fell short for your customers and to your competitors, and what you can do to address your web design shortcomings.
5. You Aren’t Capturing Website Data
In today’s age, every website has considered or already uses website analytics. Analytics help you uncover insights to make data-informed decisions about your business. Outside of asking your customers for their opinions, analytics will tell you what’s working and what’s not on your website. Now, if you’re using analytics, like Google Analytics, and notice that data isn’t being collected, it’s time to involve your web design team. Who knows how long analytics has been down? Have your web design team get it back up as soon as possible.
There are several reasons why your data collection fails. It could be a conflict with your website CMS or a plugin that you’re using, or it could be that your website setup and configurations are wrong. Whatever the reason, you’ll need to know the root cause, which a web design team can help you isolate and fix. If you find yourself doing this often, it’s time to consider web design changes.
6. Your Website is Unstable
An unstable website can sneak up on you because you may not even know these issues exist! Customers interacting with your website may have already left after a bad experience. Their digital expectations weren’t met, causing them to waste time on an unstable website.
You may also encounter a situation where an update or action on a CMS causes the web server to crash. A down website is a terrible sign for customers and significantly impacts your customer journey. The only way to prevent unstable websites is to monitor them and fix issues ASAP. So, ensure your web design team is doing so to allow your website to work.
The Bottom Line / TLDR
Look for signs to see whether your web designs are working. Check your search ranks, bounce rate, conversions, customers’ expectations, analytics, and website stability. If you’re falling short on any of these, it’s time to revisit your web designs with your web design team!
Need help confirming the effectiveness of your web design? Contact Uplancer today! We can guide you through your existing website and identify areas for improvement.
