How do site visitors feel when they visit your website? Can they quickly understand what you do, along with the benefits and value you provide?
Site visitors tend to do these things when they arrive at your website:
- Start up in the upper left-hand corner, where your logo should be located, and skim your website navigation (essentially, your table of contents).
- Scan content quickly in order to determine what you do, who you do it for, and what value you provide.
- Get a sense of whether or not your site was professionally designed and the content professionally written.
- Review your client logos, client list, or client testimonials.
Site visitors may stick around if you make their job easy and if they like what they read and see. However, they may bounce right off your site if they question your credibility or if they have to work too hard to make sense of what they read and see.
How Do Site Visitors Feel When They Visit Your Site?
Some websites contain too much content or too little content. In many cases, that content is poorly written, way too generic, and hard to understand. The sites may talk to everyone and end up talking to no one. It’s often left to site visitors to figure out what the business does, who they do it for, and why anyone should care.
Site visitors assess your company’s place in the world the moment they arrive at your online home. If you say your clients include Microsoft and Facebook and your site looks like your cousin Timmy designed it in exchange for a case of beer, there’s a problem. If you’re a designer and your site looks like Timmy designed it, there’s a problem. If you’re a copywriter, content strategist, or digital marketing agency and your site looks like Timmy designed the site and wrote all the copy — wait for it — there’s a problem.
Site visitors gauge your credibility based on the site design, the quality and clarity of the content, and evidence that you’ve worked successfully with people like them or companies like theirs.
For starters, check out HubSpot’s showcase of bad website design. An important point to remember: you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
5 Key Questions You Should Be Able to Answer
- Can site visitors quickly skim your content to confirm that they’ve arrived at the right place?
- Does your site look contemporary and professional, or is the design circa 2008 or something you whipped up on Wix?
- Is it clear who you are, what your company does, who your company does it for, and how your company addresses specific pain points and solves specific problems?
- Is your content valuable enough that site visitors will take the time to read it and possibly even click on navigation options and links in order to learn more?
- Have you told site visitors what you want them to do? Do you have clear calls to action?
Two additional questions: Does your content drive conversions from both prospects entering at the top of the funnel and prospects who enter at the middle or bottom of the funnel? And is your content optimized for search engines?
Fast Wins + Zero Fluff = Game Changer
I show businesses how to avoid common (and costly) marketing mistakes and get out of their “random acts of marketing” rut.
Not sure where to start? Check out the free resources on my site, including my free, high-converting home page blueprint.
