How are you judging your website’s performance?
A business owner recently told me he thought his website was ok because the people who called in seemed to like it. I’m more concerned about the people who are finding your website and not calling. Those are the people that should concern all business owners.
Do you keep track of new customers?
Of course, if someone lands on your website and thinks it looks “ok” they will probably call. Business owners should be far more concerned about the people who land on their website and never contact them. This number is hard to pin point since they aren’t contacting you.
If you get any sort of monthly website report, you can look at the number of visitors and come to some general conclusions, provided you keep track of your incoming phone calls and ask screening questions to find out how they heard about you. If you aren’t already doing this, it’s a good practice to start as it will let you know what advertising is the most effective.
Why are people leaving your website?
A good rule to follow is to not judge your website solely by the comments of people who contact you. There could be hundreds of people each month who land on your website and decide not to contact you; maybe they didn’t like the way the website looked or couldn’t find the information they want.
There are many reasons why people leave a website though the top three reasons are that it didn’t have much information, took too long to load or just didn’t look good visually, usually meaning that it did not look professional.
Compare your site to others
By only using the comments of a small percentage of people, you are sabotaging your business. I understand it’s hard to judge your own website so compare your site against others in your industry (and I’m not talking just about your competitors). Look at others across the country and compare the design, usability, the information and feel of the site.
It’s also possible that people are just being kind and don’t want to tell you what they don’t like about your site. Think of how often you tell a little white lie to friends and family about things because you don’t want to hurt their feelings. Your website often falls prey to this-employees and friends tell you it looks good because they think that’s what you want to hear.
In conclusion, don’t judge your website by the opinions of family, friends and a small portion of customers. Be brave enough to seek out the truth about your site; you’ll be glad you did.
