Every modern business owner knows how important it is to have a website. But it’s not just a matter of throwing up any kind of website and expecting your revenue to increase. Your website users will be looking for information, engagement and a reflection of your philosophy and values.

It’s not just about making a site “pretty.” A successful website will be primarily about the user’s experience. Make sure that your website is doing the most for you business and has a strategy in place to capture audiences on every level.  Here at Voltage, we have prepared a list of signs that your website may be driving potential customers away.

Read on and if any of these signs sounds familiar to you, feel free to reach out to Voltage for a professional assessment by calling us at 303.664.1687 or emailing us at info@voltagead.com.

1. Your site looks outdated

You’re probably thinking, “Well, how do I know if my website looks outdated?” It’s true that web design trends and best practices change often. Your site might have looked like the trendiest four years ago, but now it looks painfully out place.

If you have an outdated-looking website, customers may perceive your company as anything but innovative and decide to shop somewhere with a brand-feel worthy of their business. Voltage has professional designers, developers and writers that pro-actively stay up to date on the latest trends and can provide you with guidance and mock ups for your website overhaul.

2. The site is not optimized for mobile visitors

Around 2013 and 2014, mobile devices started exceeding desktop devices connecting to the internet for the first time. Mobile device usage is still trending up over desktop devices. In 2015, there were an estimated 1.9 billion people using mobile devices and only 1.7 billion people using desktop devices.

Just to put that into perspective, in 2007 there were only around 400 million people using mobile devices and 1.1 billion people on desktop devices. As mobile devices are becoming the primary or only device for accessing the web, your website must be optimized for mobile traffic. If it’s not, it’s time to stop letting your website live under a rock and bring it into the modern eComm market.

3. Not capturing leads

Back in the day, most websites would just have a small link in the footer or sidebar saying “Subscribe to our newsletter” and be done with it. It was apparent even then how powerful an email list was and the value of being able to contact your interested customers directly.

The power of an email list is even more important today for marketing to and communicating with your audience. If your website does not feature a newsletter signup form in a prominent place, you should jump on getting one right away. There are many services, like MailChimp, that can be added to your website to reliably collect email addresses and send out newsletters promoting your brand and products.

4. Poor search engine ranking

Search engines drive much of the online traffic to your website and are likely a major component to your marketing strategy. You know that in order to keep your website alive, you have to constantly keep up with SEO ( search engine optimization ). One indicator that your site is driving away customers is a long-term decline in search engine ranking. The rules of SEO change often, and the optimization on your site gets updated to current best practices when you do a website redesign.

5. Pop-up disasters

Remember the early days of the internet when a plethora of pop-up dialog boxes would appear everywhere and were almost impossible to get rid of? You’d close one down and another one would pop-up. You might even find one hidden behind your browser when you closed it down.

This is likely where our mistrust of pop-ups came from. Many marketers and website owners abandoned pop-ups all together for many years, but nowadays most websites are using subtle pop-ups in a mature fashion. If your website uses pop-ups all over the place for advertising or non-functional parts, then you may be annoying visitors and driving customers away from your site.

So what can you do? Keep your pop-ups unobtrusive. Your user hasn’t come to your site to be bombarded with them. If you do use pop-ups, make sure there is a clear and easy way for the user to close the pop-up.  Bearing these things in mind, integrate only beneficial pop-ups onto your site that come with minimal user-experience disruption.

6. Bad grammar and spelling

Bad grammar is bad for business. Any business presenting themselves online should make every effort possible to look and sound professional.

“Woulld you by some thin from a sight that Looks like this? L0ok out! When a website has pooridge spelling and grammer, who knows what else they don’t take seriosly.” Studies by the communications experts Global Lingo reported that they found 74% of website users notice the quality of the spelling and grammar on websites. 59% of those polled said that bad grammar and spelling errors would make them abandon the site and purchase goods elsewhere. You only have a a short amount of time to make an impression on your website users. If your content is riddled with grammatical or spelling errors, it’s going to be viewed unfavorably.

7. Grainy images

Just like you want to make sure your site has proper grammar and spelling, you don’t want shoddy images ruining your website’s professional presence. It’s important that your images look stunning when presenting products or services online. This is important for any website, big or small,  and especially for eCommerce websites. Many people will steer clear of buying something that looks shoddy in the image.

8. Hard to navigate

When someone lands on your site, they want to find what they are looking for fast. If your site makes users go through several levels of pages — or close repeated pop-ups like discussed above — before they find what they need, then your site is too hard to navigate and is not functioning as well as it should.

Websites should be intuitive and fast to navigate. Your landing pages should lead visitors to individual areas that are of interest to them. Websites with too many items in the navigation links, drop-down menu after drop-down menu or display links that don’t have a standard style make it hard for the user. They may decide to leave your site altogether rather than negotiate a cumbersome UX.

9. User traffic has been declining

If your site’s bounce rate is increasing, the decline in traffic could mean it’s no longer as attractive as it used to be or your site may be riddled with errors and broken links. If you’re concerned about declining traffic, have your site professionally audited. Be sure the audit includes an assessment of the common problems discussed above.

Wrap-up

If your website has declining sales, looks outdated or is just not performing like you want it to, let Voltage be your digital partner. Since 2008 VOLTAGE has designed and produced high-performing interactive campaigns, e-commerce websites and mobile solutions for some of the most progressive companies in the nation, including adidas, Reebok, Chipotle, Crocs, Smartwool, Smashburger, ClearChoice Dental, Fjallraven, Intel, Xcel Energy, Life is Good, Centura Health, and many more.

Getting a new site or site redesign can make a big difference for your website traffic and conversion rate. Check out some of our case studies by clicking here. Contact Voltage for more information by calling 303.664.1687 or emailing us at info@voltagead.com.