How Your Website Can Impact Your Bottom Line

You know you need a website, and you want it to look nice and professional.

You also want your website to help you make more money, but you might question how much your website can truly impact your bottom line.

I mean, as long as you have a website that shares information about you and your services, does it really matter how it’s set-up or what it looks like?

Yes, it does matter. And here’s why…

Do you know that on average, 60-70% of people who land on a website LEAVE before taking any action?

This means that 60-70% of people leave without clicking to another page, without joining your list, and without scheduling a consultation.

This means that if you have 1,000 people visit your site, on average 600-700 of those people will leave without doing anything.

That’s the average, so it could be even higher. For many sites, 90% of their website visitors leave without doing anything.

These numbers startled me when I first heard them. And it points to a huge problem that exists (but is rarely talked about) when it comes to websites.

If people leave your website without joining your list or scheduling a consultation, they’ll likely never return. And now, you have no way to reach out to them via email.

But WHY does this happen?

Most websites aren’t designed to QUICKLY engage visitors.

Let’s face it. We’re all like kids in a candy shop. We have short attention spans, especially in the online world.

Once people land on your site, you have a precious few seconds (yes, seconds!) to get their attention.

If your website isn’t immediately grabbing people’s attention, you’re losing potential clients every day.

What we want to do is increase the number of people taking action when they get to your site.

Let’s look at a before and after scenario.

BEFORE:

Let’s say, hypothetically, right now you have 100 people visiting your site each month. And you’re getting 30 people taking action. Some of these people are contacting you for a consultation, some are joining your list, and some are simply clicking to another page of your site to learn more about you and what you do.

AFTER:

Now let’s look at an after scenario. Let’s say you make your site more effective. You still have 100 people visiting your site each month (no new traffic) – but NOW you have 60 people taking action.

How EXACTLY does this impact your revenue?

BEFORE:

In the “before” scenario, you have 30 people taking some sort of action on your site. Five of those people schedule an initial consultation with you. Out of those 5 people, you sign 3 of them on as clients. If you’re charging $1,000 for your program, you’ve made $3,000.

AFTER:

In the “after” scenario you’re able to get twice as many people taking action on your site, and this leads to twice as many people scheduling an initial consultation with you. So you now have 10 initial consultations each month, and you sign 6 people on as clients. You can see that you’ve doubled your revenue – all without doing additional marketing – AND without driving more people to your site.

How can you get more people taking action on your site?

You can grab your website visitor’s attention by removing distractions.

Having a website with a simple, straightforward structure will allow you to more effectively guide your website visitors on the path you’d like them to take.

Think of your website as a simple roadmap with just a few options of where to go, when to stop, and when to make the next turn.

If your website it too busy, it’s likely that people will arrive on your home page (or any page of your site) and leave without taking any action.

3 Ways to create a website that brings in
more revenue

1. Each web page should have ONE main action you want people to take.

On your home page (and actually every page of your site) – there should be one main action you want people to take. This action might be to opt-in for your free gift, to schedule an initial consultation, purchase a program, or to go to another page of your site to learn more.

If you bombard your visitors with several steps or actions to take, they’ll get overwhelmed. This typically results in them leaving your site without doing anything.

The other thing that can happen if your website visitors are faced with too many options is that they end up aimlessly clicking around your website, getting off track, and then leaving before taking the actions YOU want them to take (joining your list, scheduling a consultation, or purchasing something).

2. Use static images instead of sliders

A slider is a slideshow is where you have rotating images. Many templated sites come with a slider set-up on the home page. And while they often look pretty, slideshows are distracting.

Studies show that visitors find them annoying and that they result in low click through and conversion rates.

Here’s why… Sliders don’t give you control of what your audience sees. Because they are constantly cycling through different images and messages, you’re not able to keep the most important message front and center. If a visitor sees a message they resonate with, before they know it, the slider has changed to a new image and message. And, if your visitor doesn’t immediately see a message they connect with, they’ll click away from the page.

3. Remove columns or sidebars

Many websites include a column (also called a sidebar) going down the right or left side of all pages. This seems like a good idea, because it’s another place to include information, graphics, and links to different programs or areas of your site.

But when it comes to websites, less is more. Remember, like I shared above, if you bombard your visitors with several steps or actions to take, they’ll get overwhelmed – resulting in them leaving your site without doing anything.

Columns are distracting. By removing them, you’re allowing your visitors to focus solely on the main content – giving it the attention it deserves.

Side note: While I strongly recommend removing columns from most of your web pages, I do recommend including one on your blog. This is because you’ll likely get organic traffic (from social media or people searching on the topic of your blog post) to your blog.

This means that people who don’t YET know you will be landing on your blog and you want to use a simple sidebar to include key content to grow your list and build the know, like, and trust factor with you.

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!
Post your thoughts and questions about creating a website that boosts your bottom line.