Consider what it would do for your business if you increased your conversion from just 1% to 2%. You could double your leads, double your opt-ins, double your sales… all from just tweaking your site with some simple little techniques!
As you may know, this month is Conversion Optimisation month here at Web123 HQ and last week I asked you if you’d like bravely volunteer your website for a critique. One lucky website owner has been successful in a personal critique by yours truly and this post is the result!
I just want to say before we dive into the critique that conversion is so damn important for your website. It’s the cheese in your ham and cheese sanga. Last month was about SEO and getting more traffic and in my opinion, traffic & conversion are the two most important things when it comes to your website. You could call it the ham and cheese to your toasted sanga!
And that’s what this website critique video is all about. Watch it to learn some of the simple techniques you can apply to your website right now to increase your conversion rate. Just one of these techniques saw our own Web123 newsletter opt-ins increase by a whopping 3600% and our overall website conversion doubled literally overnight. What could it do to yours?
>> Spend 13 minutes inside a web expert’s head now <<
We were bombarded with requests from people who wanted a web expert to cast an eagle eye over their site for free. It was tough choosing, but in the end there can be only one!
Even if your website wasn’t chosen, you can still learn heaps from this video. There were lots of common mistakes that you’re probably suffering from too. From having an unclear offer on the homepage offer, no calls to action, and basic design mistakes and more. These are common website mistakes that will lose you business. I talk about easy fixes for these things too… so click on the video and spend 13 minutes inside my web geek head right now. Bet you’ll discover all kinds of tricks and tips for your own website!
Website Critique for Concierge Connections (My Notes)
Here’s a screen capture of the home page for http://conciergeconnections.com.au/
So, first impressions are not too bad. I’ve seen A LOT worse, that’s for sure. It’s great to see a picture of Layla herself adding personality to the site, some good quality imagery too. It’s definitely got the right bones of a great website.
But, there are a lot of things that we can work on to improve this site’s conversion rates. For example:
- Site Speed: I tested this on two locations, and it was pretty slow each time. Site speed is a big factor as to whether someone hangs around to read your content or not, so you need to improve it. If that means paying your web host to give you more bandwidth juice, do it! In this case you can also better optimise (reduce the file size) of the banner images that load as part of the banner gallery. They’re chewing up over 2MB so can easily be reduced by your web developer to speed up the load time.
- Choice of site colours: This site uses red as its main splash of colour. Obviously this is because your logo is red, but it’s a little overpowering and, in most countries, red is a negative colour. Since you’re talking to executives I’d suggest changing your logo colour to green or blue. That then allows you to work with a ‘safer’ more sales-converting colour scheme.
- Logo quality matters: looks a little bit clip-art-ish, too large a graphic compared to the type size, and could be improved. It’s all about balance.
- Branding & Graphics: Being that you’re a concierge to executives, I assume you’d be targeting a pretty top-end clientele and I’d expect a polished first impression through the branding and graphics, There’s definitely room to improve here.
- Contrasting colours are best: White text on banners is always hard to read. When you lose visual clarity, you lose message clarity. Choose another colour combo, or find another way to make it pop, so your important messages aren’t completely lost.
- Space is good, but not too much: Blank white space at the top of your page is a little too much. Don’t make people scroll more than they have to.
- Where’s the welcome mat? There’s no real greeting or friendly ‘hello’ when I land on the site. Like a handshake and friendly introduction. Took me a while to work out that it’s pretty much for busy executives who need a bit of research and or footwork done from time to time. What is it that you do exactly, and for who, and ‘what’s in it for me’?
- The USP is really great sitting in the top right, but my eye doesn’t go there first. Keep working with your page design until it pops out and screams for attention.
- One of your main home-page offers should be ‘never queue again’. Here’s what you could say as an attention grabbing headline on your home page for example: N
Need to get a table at the hottest spots in town?
We have access to VIP lists at exclusive restaurants and bars worldwide. - Visual placement: Those three boxes ‘Contact Us’, ‘How It Works’, and ‘Services’ appear out of place for me.
- Contact Us is saying ‘please fill in the form below’ and there’s no form. I imagine it because it’s a feature page pulling content.
- How it Works is not actually How it Works, it’s About Layla. Don’t confuse your reader with a call to action that doesn’t pay off.
- Social media. These icons would be better off as part of the site design, they move when I click on another page but they distract me rather than making me want to connect with you on Facebook or Twitter.
- Basic SEO mistakes: There’s a duplicate home page error. This means Google thinks you have two home pages. So, for all intents and purposes, you’ll be competing against yourself for the same keywords and you’ll probably get a black mark for having duplicate content.
Primary goals: What’s your big main primary goal for your site? I would say it’s to get enquiries, so, ‘contact us’, and ‘request a quote’ are the things that’s got to be your main call to action. It needs to be very obvious on every page, throughout all the content, at the bottom of pages, and everywhere!
Segment your audience: If you have two main tailored approaches like you say on your second home page then I would segment your home page into two big call-to-action buttons targeting each of those groups then maybe a secondary one promoting your Sydney packages. So then, when I land on your site, I have one of three choices. I’ll choose the one that solves my problems best. Great. Done. Next step. I don’t have to work hard to find my way around and go digging through multiple levels of pages.
Now onto Layla’s internal pages…
- Page and section title: Should be relabelled ‘About’.
- Space is good, but there’s too much at the top: Again, white space is great but too much for no real reason can be an issue for scrolling. Don’t annoy your web visitor.
- Picture position: Having a picture is awesome however move your picture to sit higher up the page.
- Call to action (CTA): There’s no CTA to direct your visitor where to go next. Long answer: You need to map out a ‘customer journey’ as you move them through your website towards contacting you. Don’t be afraid to tell them what to do next so place a clear CTA at the bottom of page. RHS of internal page layout:
- A phone number is great but not visible on the home page, I’d consider adding it to the far top right.
- Uppercase is hard to read.
- Listing an email address can get your inbox spammed like crazy!! Consider linking to the contact us page or having a quick enquiry box present on all pages at all times to increase conversions.
- Text heavy: Lots of text on this RHS column, more colourful graphics would be nice to see with an advertisement-style call to action for the gift vouchers.
- Newsletter opt-in is stuffed down the bottom and it should be pride of place right at the top.
- Give visitors a reason to opt in. Bribery is good! Consider an eBook like “Top 13 Awe-Inspiring Attractions For Busy People To Impress Your Spouse or Executive Clients.”
- Order your CTA’s. Remember we said contacting you was the most important action you wanted? Order your calls to action with that in mind. It should be ‘Get in touch’ then opt-in, then social media icons, then testimonials, then member logos, then Facebook feed.
Other overall improvements not mentioned in the video but are also a good idea TO IMPROVE:
- Test what happens when you don’t publish any pricing whatsoever, I have a feeling your audience doesn’t really care about your hourly rate as much as what you can DO for them. Presenting a price devalues your services and it could be a barrier to conversions.
- Testimonials. Scatter throughout so your clients are constantly reminding visitors how awesome you are.
- Combine your services onto one page to reduce the levels in your structure.
- Show not tell. Show a picture of your gift vouchers so people can see what they’re buying. It will make it more tangible for people.
- Welcome… back? Get rid of the welcome text on your contact page. It doesn’t need to be there.
- A blog for online success. Lastly, I would suggest replacing your “What’s On” section with a blog and then you can blog about what’s on. It’ll be a much better investment of your time and resources and it’s oh-so Google-friendly.
Thanks, Layla!
Thank you Layla for being so brave and putting your hand up for this critique for Web123’s Conversion Optimisation month. I hope you find it valuable and, more importantly, I hope you will implement my suggestions and watch your conversions skyrocket! I know you can do great things with this; you’re already well on your way with some fantastic content on there, Let me know how you go and yell out if you need a hand!
Now, are you ready to kickstart your own sales conversions?
We’re all about education here at Web123 and giving you the tools to save thousands of dollars by DIY’ing it yourself.
If you found this video helpful and if you want to give your site a web-geek makeover just like I’ve just done for Layla, then you need our easy 72-point checklist. Just head over to our education section here and download our FREE Ultimate Conversion Checklist.
This resource took me 10 years to put together and it helps you follow, step-by-step, all the things you can DIY to ensure your site has the best chance of converting traffic into cash!
Go to https://web123.com.au/conversion and grab your very own copy now.
Thanks for joining me! Tell us below what you’ve found works to improve your website conversion. Leave us a comment now.
Until next time!
Bianca