Many small business owners wonder what they’re doing wrong with their website to get such little traffic and sales. But with so many variables, it can be a challenge to find out exactly what’s happening with your site and what things are standing in your way from having the success you so desperately want. Luckily, there are certain metrics as well as user interface problems that you can uncover and address easily enough. By doing so, you should be able to see progress in a positive direction financially. To show you how, here are three things you can fix today that will help you start making more money from your website.
Replace Drop-Down Menus
The way your website is laid out can have a huge impact on how many sales you get through this platform. If your visitors can’t easily navigate through your pages or find what they’re looking for, the chances of you closing a sale are pretty slim. To help with this, Zach Bulygo, a contributor to KISSmetrics.com, recommends replacing any drop-down menus you have with product overview pages. In this replacement, you should be switching out all-text navigation with image-based navigation. When you use more images in conjunction with a small amount of text, your visitors will be able to digest the information much easier. This could result in a huge spike in sales and conversions.
Average Time Visitors Spend On Your Pages
One big indicator for whether or not your pages are successful is the average amount of time your visitors spend looking at your pages. If a page is meant to be used to convert your visitors but they’re only spending a short amount of time on that page before navigating away, you can use this information to help you figure out how to make this page better achieve your desired conversion. But keep in mind, not all pages should have a certain amount of time spent on them. In fact, Neil Patel of QuickSprout.com shares that if the page is short, expect only a short amount of time spent there. It’s when a page is long and you want time spend there that there would be a problem if not much time is spent. But by increasing this metric, you increase the chances of conversions taking place.
Returning Customers and Clients
To have a successful online business, you’re going to want both new customers and returning customers. If your analytics show that you’re not getting many returning customers, Dave Lavinsky, a contributor to Entrepreneur.com, writes that you’re missing out on a huge potential for earnings. To get more customers returning, you may want to step up your outreach game or focus more energy on email marketing as well.
If your website isn’t performing how you’d like it to, use the tips mentioned above to find areas you can improve and make those changes today.