At RooSites Web Development, we’ve reviewed hundreds of websites for businesses throughout Boston and Massachusetts. One pattern appears again and again: businesses are losing customers before they ever have a chance to start a conversation.
Here are some of the most common reasons why.
Research consistently shows that visitors form an opinion about a website within just a few seconds.
If your site appears outdated, cluttered, or difficult to navigate, many visitors assume the business itself is outdated.
Trust-building elements include:
Your website should immediately answer one question: “Why should I trust this business?”
Speed matters.
A website that takes several seconds to load often loses visitors before they even see your content.
Slow websites also tend to rank lower in Google search results, creating a double disadvantage.
Improving website performance includes:
Every second counts.
Most local searches now happen on smartphones.
Whether someone searches for:
…they expect a fast, mobile-friendly experience.
If visitors need to zoom, scroll sideways, or struggle to click buttons, they’ll often move on to another company.
Many websites overwhelm visitors with too much information.
Instead, your navigation should make it easy to find:
Simple websites often convert better than complicated ones.
Many websites explain what they do—but never clearly tell visitors what to do next.
Every important page should include clear calls-to-action like:
Don’t make visitors guess.
Nothing hurts credibility faster than outdated content.
Examples include:
An actively maintained website sends a powerful message that your business is active and engaged.
People searching for local businesses want reassurance that they’re dealing with someone nearby.
Your website should clearly highlight:
Strong local signals help both customers and search engines.
Today’s consumers trust other customers.
Include:
Social proof reduces hesitation and builds confidence.
A website isn’t something you build once and forget.
Successful websites receive ongoing attention through:
Regular website management keeps your site performing at its best while helping it remain competitive in search results.
The hardest part is that you’ll never know how many customers leave your website without contacting you.
They simply click the back button and visit another business.
A professional website should work as your best salesperson—building trust, answering questions, and encouraging visitors to take the next step.
Your website often creates the first impression of your business. If it loads quickly, looks professional, provides helpful information, and makes it easy for visitors to contact you, you’re far more likely to earn their business.
At RooSites Web Development, we specialize in Boston Web Design, website development, SEO, hosting, and ongoing website management. We believe a successful website is never truly finished. It should continually evolve to meet customer expectations, support your marketing goals, and strengthen your online presence.
If your website isn’t generating the leads you expect, now is the perfect time for a fresh evaluation.
Contact RooSites today for a complimentary website review and discover how small improvements can lead to more visitors, more inquiries, and more customers.
Over and above everything we do in web design and web development, the call to action is by far the most important. Others would point to search engine optimization. This of course is important, as you need to get them to your website. BUT, if f they get to your site and you have no clear call to action, your site will flounder.
So what is a call to action? Dictionary.com defines it as: “the implicit or explicit suggestion contained in a marketer’s content in an advertising banner or Web site copy”. In the early day of the internet, this was usually, a “Click Here” link. We have gotten away from that a bit, though click here is still pretty common and clients often still like to use the phrase. Now good call to actions can be in the form of a graphical element, (button, banner, graphic), a link, or other ways to get visitors to take the desired next step. This could be to make a purchase (if this is a product) , call you (as with service providers), or click on a link to be contacted or to get you to the page they need you to see.
Now, in this particular case, the call to action is designed to get visitors to fill out a form for a free review. The program which is guaranteed to save restaurants money is a good one, but if no one signs up, no one reaps the benefit and the company fails. My design team came up with a great strategy, where your eye is drawn to the call to action. The main graphical element, which will be a jquey fade between 4 slides will end with a powerful message urging them to fill out the form and pointing them below to the form. Below the image fade is a quick explanation of the program, which is actually a “challenge”. To the right of that is the actual form. Now even the header image background in the explanation is actually an arrow pointing you to the form. So all the elements work in concert to get the visitor to the call to action. (When this launches, I will add a link here to illustrate my point).
