You’ve spent time and money making your website. But is it actually doing its job? Too often I see amazing looking websites that are actually really difficult for their customers to use. Don’t let your website be the reason your customers aren’t buying what you sell.
Conduct your own quick website audit using the same list that I use with my clients. When a customer lands on your site, can they tell within 5 seconds what you sell?Is your offering above the fold (as in, you don’t need to scroll to find it)? If your customer has to scroll to figure out what you sell, you’re wasting valuable space and time.
Is there a call to action above the fold? Again, it’s best to make things very clear and to put it right at the top of your website. Your call-to-action could be a ‘buy now’ button, a ‘learn more’ button, or a mailing list form. Whatever it is, make sure your customers know how to take action.
Can your customer read your website’s text? Sometimes we choose color combinations that make the text hard to read for people who have low vision or colorblindness. You can use
this fun tool to see if the colors pass a ratio test. You’ll type in the color codes of your website branding and then below it will say if the combination passes or fails the accessibility test.
Is the top navigation bar simple and easy to use? The last thing we want is 10 items in our top nav bar and submenus for every one of them. The simpler your navigation, the easier it will be for your customers to find what they’re looking for. If you feel like you have a ton of pages, consider putting some of the less-important page links in the footer.
Is there a mailing list sign-up form on your homepage? If your customer lands on your page but isn’t quite ready to buy, you still want to capture their info. That way you can hopefully turn them into a paying customer at a later date. If you let all your customers go after landing on your website, you’re relying on them to remember to come back later. Place a mailing list sign-up form somewhere on your homepage, whether as a pop-in, a section of the page, or in the footer.
Ensuring your website fulfills this list won’t magically solve your business problems, but it’s a really good place to start.
You can download this list via Dropbox
HERE.