As a website owner, nothing thrills me more than to see people showing interest in my online pages. I remember the first time when I launched a website quite well. Built through a partnership with the Xfinity Internet Plans project, it was only three pages long. And when it went live, I waited feverishly for the first line of visitors to pour in. After 24 hours, only one person did. A visitor from Hawaii, who wasn’t even part of the website’s target audience. But the experience was something else! I felt like an artist who had just been discovered. A painter whose portraits had been shown in a gallery. And at the time, this ‘feeling’ was all that mattered to me.
A Word on My Own Website Launch Experience
But then the bombs dropped on my head!
Because it wasn’t long before I got quite a beating from a senior company manager. It turned out that the website had only managed to make 6 sales within the first month of its going live. With the worst part being that these sales didn’t even justify the expenses of setting it up. And to tell you the truth, I was heartbroken. I felt like a schoolboy who had been scolded by his favorite teacher. Reprimanded for not doing a good enough job.
It was after I got over my mini-state of depression that I started to see things more clearly. A marketing colleague at work advised me to look at my website through the eyes of a customer. And he asked me to question myself on a number of points.
As a customer, would I like to visit the website again?
Would I be interested in reading its content?
And most importantly, would I recommend it to other people?
I tried to answer all three of these questions honestly. And afterward, I understood the problem – which was staring at me right in the face!
Why My Website Really Sucked…
To put it simply, my website sucked!
It sucked because its written content wasn’t good. It read more like a college thesis and was difficult to understand. The graphics were even worse. They resembled goofy cartoon sketches more than what normally goes on a company’s product/service pages. And I knew that I needed to do some major fixing. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to retain customers long enough to make even an average level of sales.
Technically, a website’s ‘bounce rate’ tells you how much interest visitors show in its pages. A low bounce rate means that they spend more time reading through it. A higher figure, of course, would mean the opposite. And so it is important for every website owner to improve on this metric.
For the most part, this can be done by bettering the website’s content.
Website and page loading speeds also play a role to some extent. People these days are impatient, and always in a hurry. And so they can’t wait around for a website that takes ages to show on their devices. They would much rather go to a competitor’s page that offers a better user experience. And in the world of the internet, this is really all that matters from a business’s viewpoint. The cutthroat competition in designing more appealing websites occupies companies’ attention greatly. Because customers make a business’s world go round.
Quite literally.
For Businesses, Everything Depends on the Website Experience
Let me word this point out a little more clearly.
A good website experience attracts more visitors. These visitors can show the potential to turn into customers. More customers mean more revenue. And higher revenues mean higher profits.
It’s all quite simple, really.
Do You Want to Attract More Visitors to Your Site?
From launching my first website back in 1996, today I have 650 websites running to my credit. I learned from my mistakes and made a lot of effort to improve on them. And today my websites boast some of the lowest bounce rates in the entire North American region.
Based on my website launch experiences, I’ve compiled a series of points which all website owners should focus on. And particularly if they want to keep visitors from leaving their pages quickly. Most of these are quite obvious. But you’d be amazed to know how often even some experienced webmasters (myself included) manage to ignore them.
These go as follows:
- Website written content should be readable (preferably of the 7th U.S Grade Level),
- Graphics should be light, attractive and written content-related,
- Aim for one-liners that sum-up entire paragraphs,
- Include customer-feedback/live chat boxes,
- Offer a 24/7 customer helpline service alongside (ideally),
- Take visitor feedback seriously, and use it as an ‘improvement guide’,
- Seek website design and content inspiration from competitor sites
In my opinion, if you focus on constantly making improvements along these lines – you’ll notice a steady increase in your website traffic. And it won’t be long before you’re making record sales. And, of course, keeping your bosses happy!
Recently, my digital firm launched a website to promote Xfinity Double Play Offers. I entrusted a newly-hired junior assistant to this task. Along with the above-mentioned website improvement guide. And after only a month’s time, the website reported a whopping 663 successful sales figure. Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier. The satisfaction of a job well-done does that!
