Five Reasons Your Website Sucks

Here are 5 reasons why your solopreneur website never delivers the results you expected.

Reason 1 -Your Website Only Talks About You

Your website is 100% focused on what services you offer, what things you do, and not on what the visitor wants – which is the answer to their problems or questions. Think about what problems your visitors have, and put an answer for them on your website. Nobody needs a consultant, designer, or any other ‘job title’. What they need is your expertise and your ability to help them solve an issue that’s on their minds.

My clients don’t need me … what they need is more sales. So my website should be telling them how their business can make more sales. It should not be about me, and the tasks and things that I do. You have to remember that when someone is visiting your website for the first time, they’re trying to get a sense of how you might be able to help them solve their problems. You don’t need to go into the details of your services.

Reason Two -You Use a Lot of Words But Say Nothing

“We use a systematic approach to diagnose your complex data acquisition requirements …” (huh?) Look, dump the jargon, the fluff, and the hyperbole, and speak your customer’s language. Believe me … nobody has ever said “I have a complex data acquisition requirement … please help me.”  What words, phrases, or questions does your target audience use to locate people like you? Too often, we assume we know how our clients are searching. But often when talking to them, we might find they are using completely different words, phrases, or questions.

I once had a client who was obsessed with her Google rankings on a specific set of keywords. However, when we did some research, we noticed that there were very few searches for those keywords. Her prospects were not using industry jargon in their searches. Instead, we found they would use two or three key phrases when searching for someone like her. Once she understood this, it was just a matter of making sure she used those keywords in as many places on her website as made sense. It also made sense for her to create blog posts and articles that contained the questions that her prospects were asking.

Reason Three -You Left Content Creation Up to Your Web Developer

I know creating content for a website is hard work, but you can’t abdicate your responsibility to someone who doesn’t really know your industry. Do you ever wonder why most websites in specific industries look the same? Let me give you an example: I once spoke at a bookkeepers’ conference and, before I went, I decided to review as many websites as I could in preparation for one of my sessions. I can tell you that I reviewed over 50 websites. Those 50 websites all looked the same, and all said the same things using slightly different words. A year after that review, I remember only one organization’s name – and that’s because their website was so radically different from the other sites. The language was different, the graphics were different, and from what I could tell, their approach looked different. What I really liked about their site was that it was written for small business owners, and it talked about “our concerns / our questions” and put them into a context that made sense to a small business owner.

Reason Four -You Have Zero Calls to Action

You need to tell visitors [prospects] what the next step is, and how to take it. Let them know how they can buy your service, or order your product, or set up a meeting with you. One client I work with added a simple ‘purchase now’ button on his website, and sales of his online product went up 319%! Every page on your website should tell the visitor what to do next.

Reason Five: You Make It Tough For Visitors to Contact You

Give visitors multiple ways to contact you. There is nothing more frustrating than being on a website and finding that the only way to contact someone is through a generic “contact us” form. Give me different options, like a telephone number, email address, or chat. I know it’s a huge imposition, but having a phone number that actually gets answered seems like a no-brainer to me. I was once sitting in a meeting and a phone kept ringing. I asked the owner if he needed to answer it, and he said no – he just let all calls go to voicemail. I asked what if it were a customer? He told me that often when he called people back, he would just get voicemail and then they wouldn’t return his call. He seemed to think people were just rude. I commented that his caller likely just went on to the next website and called someone else who actually answered their phone, so why would they bother to call him back?

Statistics show us that the probability of closing a sale go down dramatically 15 minutes after the first contact. “The average response time to a fresh, newly-generated lead inquiry is between 40 and 60 hours—even though key industry research shows that the best time to respond is in 15 minutes or less”You can’t control whether a prospect buys from you. You can influence it, but you don’t control it. However, one thing that is 100% in your control is how quickly you respond to inquiries.

Your Solopreneur Website

Your website is not for you – it’s for your prospects and your customers. Make it be for them, view it through their eyes, and make every page be a resource that helps them solve their problems.  Your website can be a great sales asset that allows you to demonstrate your expertise, and then compels your visitor to find out if you’re the person who can help them.

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