Your website is ugly. ??

Every day I'm contacted by people with what can only be described as 'website train crashes.'

... You know what I'm talking about.

They have these monstrous, massive ugly buttons,

... Or bright red banners with animated gifs,

Or italic, san script, unreadable fonts.

... Can somebody put me out of this misery already?

But then the real shock sets in when we take a look at their website analytics only to find out they're getting thousands of visitors to their website each month (THOUSANDS!) but the phone still isn't ringing or people still aren't emailing ...

So my immediate thought is ... 

You have thousands of visitors a month, your conversion ratio on your site is like 1%, and you're confused why your business is struggling?

... You have eyes right? ??

So this brings me to the point of this post. 

... Your website is ugly. ??

... You are wasting your life with your ugly website. ??

Let's get some website conversion optimisation happening right now! ???♂?

So without further adieu with 15 of my best tips that are going to start making your phone ring and rescue your business.

1.) Every single page on your website needs to have ONE very clear and succinct call to action. 

To get started, it needs to be either of the following three. 

a.) Call us. 

b.) Email us. 

c.) Download our document and start reading our stuff.

2.) Phone numbers need to be displayed in the header of your website, throughout the page content and down the bottom of the page.

** always use a 1300 XXX XXX or 1800 XXX XXX number too, they make you look more professional and like a bigger, national company.

Pro tip: Use a 1300 and never a mobile.

3.) Don't talk about yourself too much. Nobody cares about you. Instead, do the following:

a.) Talk about how you can help the person visiting your website. 

b.) Tell them how you're going to move them from point a to point b.

c.) Tell them how you're going to transform their business.

4.) Your aim should be to keep people on the page as long as possible because this helpswith search engine optimisation, it helps with user experience, it helps establish you as an authority, and it helps put money in your bank. 

You can keep people on your site longer by having AT LEAST 1500 words on each page. Throw in a video with you talking about the magical things you're going to do for them. Include infographics, include case studies, include testimonials, be transparent with pricing. 

Throw it all on there. Don't hold out by making would be clients ask for that information. 

If someone takes the time to read all your stuff, watches your videos and then they call you, you can bet they're pretty pre-qualified by that point so you're not wasting your time with tyre kickers.

5.) Grammar matters. Spelling matters. Check it twice.

6.) Keep stuff simple.

Despite what all the gurus would have you believe, you don't need to be split testing your web pages using the latest version of funnelfakers, or unbounce. Having a nice landing page is a simple formula of a+b+c+d+e+f. Use the right colours, with the right message, and offer the right solution, at the right time, and you'll win the race.

7.) Put Drift or Intercom livechat on your site.

I can't stress this one enough. Everyone loves a chat and website visitors are no different. People don't want to use the phone anymore, especially whilst they're out researching where to buy their new purple unicorn online, (especially whilst doing so on the bosses time). 

They sneakily chat with their friends and family all day long at work via Facebook, and WhatAapp, and insert-text-app-name-here, and blah blah, so let them talk to you using the same method.

Pro tip: use Drift - it's free.

8.) Industry associations and certifications. 

If you're an accountant, a lawyer, a doctor, or any kind of professional services provider, make sure you use all those fancy icons that you pay meg bucks for. 

If you're an accountant, use those Xero logo's, etc, or use those logos that add weight to your business.

9.) Write content in the same style that I've written the above content. 

People want to be reading personality in their text they read. They don't just want vanilla, boring content that doesn't get them excited. No one buys from unexciting experiences. 

10.) Use real photos, not stock photos! Again, people want to see REAL stuff. People buy from people they like and people they perceive they can trust.

Pro tip: Joining a photographers Facebook group and hire some young guy/girl to take your headshots.

11.) ... I'm starting to run out of ideas now, as like I said, this stuff is simple, you don't need to over complicate it.

12.) Your site needs to be FAST.

I recently looked at a clients website, and his site was loading in 14 seconds. 

14 WHOLE SECONDS. 

Your website should be loading in maximum of 2-3 seconds. 

Use testing tools like Google speed test, or pingdom to check this out. 

Install some caching plugins (I recommend wp rocket, imajify for WordPress), and I recommend Panthur web hosting in Australia. They're cheap at like $20 a month.

... Sing out if you need any help here.

Pro tip: Please don't be a tight arse that pays $5 for hosting and has the worlds slowest website. 

Just don't do it.

13.) Ask your friends, family, peers, what they think of your website. Chances are if they truly care about you and your business, they will tell you the truth.

Pro tip: If any of them tell you your website is ugly, then it more than likely is. 

It takes a lot for people to openly tell you-you're not doing great at something, and when people do this, it's because they care. 

So don't be disrespectful and keep that terrible website of yours up and running.

... Burn it, with fire!

14.) Make sure you have some kind of conversion tracking installed on each page you are running traffic at.

a.) Use a thank you page with conversion tracking code (install Adwords and Facebook pixels on it).

b.) Use a 1300 number, which can be tracked (I recommend an Aussie company called Call Dynamics for this). You want to be able to track: "Google Search -> "Second Hand Unicorn" -> "Phone Rang" - because then you can scale, and sell more!

c.) Use LuckyOrage, and Drift, so you can watch what people are doing on your site. One is free, one is like $20 a month.

15.) If you want more tips, send me an email to [email protected] with your website address and I'll personally give you 5 things you can do to your very own ugly website.

All the best.

Cheers,

Paul.