Is the reason sales are flat, or the rate of visitors decreased, or the rate of bounces increased due to your website design?
No amount of internet marketing strategies in the world are going to help sagging sales if the website itself is actually the problem. There comes a time when the best way to drive sales may be to look at a website redesign.
Clues To Poor Website Design
Take a look at your website statistics to get a clearer picture of what going on. Is the bounce rate particularly high? This could indicate that visitors are getting to your site expecting something different than what they found.
What about entry/exit pages? Are visitors going to the pages where items are available for sale or leaving without taking a good look around? This might mean that navigation is not easy or the link to the buy pages is not readily apparent. Conversely, those pages that receive the most hits are the ones you want to emulate elsewhere on the site.
Examine the keywords visitors are using to access your site. If they do not relate to the content, then it could be your meta tags are not optimised or that your online content is not applicable to the items you are trying to sell.
Tips For Effective Website Redesign
Make a detailed profile of your target market – topics they are interested in, where they live, their hobbies, likes and dislikes, age, gender, marital status. The information you gain from this exercise will give you a deeper insight into what type of content needs to be included on your website and how it should be designed to attract new customers.
Consider whether or not your website brands your company appropriately. For instance, are you using a comic-style font, cartoon character graphics, and humorous posts to market funeral planning services? Obviously this is an extreme example, but too often internet business owners design their site as they would a personal page instead of one that effectively showcases their company.
A great-looking website design full of flashy graphics is not necessarily the best to induce visitors to make a sale. Usability is key to increasing profits. Try this tip: have an older person who is not particularly computer savvy go through the process of buying a product on your site. If they have difficulty, chances are you will lose customers because they cannot find the information they are seeking.
Perform a critical review of your e-commerce website as it is now. Does it look old-fashioned or utilise older-style website design elements? “Grunge graphics” and dark colours complemented by lighter hued details are big right now. If your site is targeting young people, consider redesigning your site to look fresh and trendy. Remember that younger visitors are more likely to enjoy alternate forms of content, such as online videos or audio, so be sure to include these elements in your website redesign process as well.
Was your website created in an era when 15 inch monitors were the norm? If so, it probably shows a lot of unused space when viewed on today’s typically larger monitors and screens. Conversely, for those using a portable media device, the design may need to be optimised for mobile search.
Website redesign is one of those necessary evils that needs to be considered every few years or so. Yes, it is a major undertaking, but it could also make a huge difference in your rate of online sales and the amount of profits on your bottom line.
About Sean Rasmussen
Indeed, in most instances too flashy a design can repel visitors. It depends on the niche. The key is to do quick triage right on the home page. Get the wholesale and retail customers to go to the right information. Let people find what they want based on how they want to search (by brand, by usage, be style, by location – whatever parameters might be relevant for various clients).
I agree David, people need to be able to find what they are looking for easily. They will be out of there quick smart if they can’t find what they want.
Regards – Sean
Sean
What would consider a high bounce rate?
I generally get 50-60%
Hi Gee
I believe I asked that question in the YOTA forum once. From what I know, I would suggest 50-60% is high. Then again, for a new blog, supposedly it isn’t such a big deal. Look at the traffic source which should give you a clue about whether the bounce rate from that source is concerning. I hope Sean sees this question and answers it. Otherwise, there’s always the trusty and reliable YOTA forum!
Lina
That’s one of the great things about WordPress blogs. There are hundreds of designs which means you can get an instant design makeover within seconds. Sooo cool!
What a welcome wake up call.
I had not thought about trying to improve my perfect website design
.
I will go look at it now and try to make sure that it doesn’t suggest either my age or outlook, but rather my update will suggest a muscular Adonis kind of nice person who will only rob the rich.
Seriously you certainly are correct in that things, tastes, traditions, fads and such are constantly changing.
I think there is a lot to say for a basic classic design which may not look overly contemporary, but will stand the test of time and not have to be adjusted with each change in fad or gimmick.
In fact, again the underlying policy should be that honesty is the best of the available policies. I try to make my site look like what it is and nothing more, but as attractively as possible.
Thanks for the reminder.
Hi Sean,
I need to take a closer look at my stats to see which pages are working for me. I already know that my most popular pages are not the ones I thought they would be. Also, I should check what my visitors are clicking on because again it might give me some ideas.
I don’t think I’ve given enough thought to my target market. When I work out who that is, it might mean that I need to redesign my website. I’m definitely going to have to work on this.
Hi Sean,
I’m so pleased I’ve been made aware of website design and the need to change it after a certain time. The information is very handy.
Without reading this I could have had the same website design for years and, not realized it needed an overhaul. Also I wouldn’t have realized that an out dated website design could cause a high bounce rate and sales to drop.
Hi Sean
I really like WordPress as they have tons of designs to suit everyone. As I find out more about WordPress I am impressed with the flexibility of the templates.
A web page needs to enhance the product and not overpower it. I like a more gentle design, with a template that I can add images onto to enhance it.
I have been to really gaudy coloured websites where the text has been so hard to read I have just bypassed it, or the background colour so bright it has made me squint my eyes.