Websites have come a long way in the past 20 years. Website designs have improved significantly, content is getting better, many websites have robust resource sections and great images and videos.
This is great progress and, of course, there is room for improvement.
Let’s take a look at seven often overlooked areas where websites can improve. These website updates will add value to the visitor experience and also improve your digital marketing results.
Interactive Call-to-Actions (CTAs) Submission Forms
Well thought-out, interactive submission forms allow website users to answer a series of questions as they complete and submit a contact form. These forms are great for users because it gives them the opportunity to select from a group of options and communicate what is most important to them.
They are also great for your company because you get a qualified inquiry who has taken the time to clarify their needs before engaging with your sales team.
There are many examples of how these forms work and when done well the forms can improve conversion rates because they are often better at engaging users than the standard contact form. These interactive forms can also be used for mid-funnel, lead generation as well.
Check out the interactive form on this page to see how it works:
https://www.taxaudit.com/tax-debt-relief-assistance
Here is another example:
https://apply.rocketmortgage.com/purchase/welcome-guest
Book a Meeting CTAs
People are impatient and want fast results. The Internet has helped change our culture in how we expect to get information and interact with companies. People don’t want to wait for a response, they want it now. This is true for scheduling appointments.
Rather than submitting a form, sending an email or leaving a voicemail, why not offer people the option to schedule a meeting directly on your website?
Let website visitors know by booking an appointment they will speak directly with an expert and make Zoom an option for the meeting. COVID tremendously accelerated the growth of Zoom and it has become the standard for meetings and follow-up.
Webinars and eBooks
Most websites must have these two mid-funnel CTA options, especially for service companies in B2B markets.
Webinars are more popular than ever and are great for capturing email addresses and nurturing sales leads. eBooks also work well to capture email addresses and help the online researcher. Webinars and eBooks also work well as CTAs in social media posts.
Getting an email address is more important than ever as online privacy rules get more strict over time. These are two fantastic ways to get email addresses you can then use to nurture a relationship over time with your prospects and customers.
Live Chat
Website visitors use live chat and it can be so much more than online chatting. Live chat can be used to capture email addresses and engage with users anytime of the day or night.
HubSpot’s AI chat feature offers communication with visitors and additional reporting so you better understand the needs of the website user.
It’s time all websites have live chat available for users. This ensures your website is not just an online brochure, but an interactive tool for your target market.
Heat Mapping
Heat mapping is not seen by website users. However, the data gathered from heat mapping allows you to observe users as they interact with your website and online with content.
This data gives you insights needed to update your website and better provide users what they desire. Stop guessing about what people want from your website and your key website landing pages. Get started with heath mapping and actually see user activity. Two excellent heat mapping tools are CrazyEgg or HotJar.
Geolocation Targeting
We know website researchers want location information because of the massive amount of searches with the words “near me” in the keyword search phrase.
Your company locations and the location of your website visitors does not have to be unknown. Geolocation tools on your website allow for people to easily find your locations and for you to know where your website visitors are coming from.
Have you ever been on a website trying to figure out where the company is located?
Make your company locations clear to users and help them find a location near them. Allow people to interact based on where they are located.
Customized Landing Pages by Channel and User Intent
You may remember the phrase “content is king.” Times have changed and a new and better phrase is “user intent is king.”
Your website landing pages will only perform well if they match user intent.
People are likely to leave websites if they don’t see what they want on the page they are visiting. This is why dedicated landing pages are so important for Google Ads and social media marketing success.
A growing trend we see in our client’s Google Analytics reports is Website visitors wanting to get information from a single landing page. They are adverse to clicking on the navigation menus and want to get value from the page they are reviewing.
The high use of mobile impacts this behavior because it is difficult to visit multiple website pages on mobile devices.
This trend makes it necessary for web pages to be very well matched to user intent by having solid benefits statements and a wealth of content to engage people, drive conversions or motivate them to dig deeper into website content.
Conclusion
Your website is never done! It must be constantly evolving and improving. Websites not implementing these seven tactics are missing opportunities for growth. Take an action item to implement all seven over the next three months. Implement these seven key areas and start improving results from your website and digital marketing efforts.
