What I’d tell you about your website if I wasn’t afraid of hurting your feelings

Is your website turning off your clients before you’ve even met them?

The slightly worrying answer is: Maybe.

I hope we can be friends. I want us to get along and for you to trust me and to like me and to feel you can be completely yourself. I’d like to nurture an atmosphere of support and collaboration that inspires us both to be the best we can be. I understand the pain of criticism: I’m still struggling emotionally with the sense of disappointment and shame from last year’s Roast my Strava tool, so I promise you, I get it.

All that being said, if your website has any of the following, please let me help you!

Here are a selection of top website customer turn offs.

You don’t tell me what you do
Makes me click away
Sometimes when we’re so close to something, we start to lose sight of it, or to assume that everyone is as familiar with it as we are. So is it any wonder that when it comes to building our website, the shop window to the world for our business, we often think that everyone is up to date with what we’re about.
If you’re not outlining your offering in the broadest, clearest terms at the top of your home page, you’re leaving it to chance that someone will like your logo enough to scroll down and find out whether you have what they want. It’s actually not unheard of to find websites that don’t even feature the business’ name. What a missed opportunity.
Your last blog was written in 2018
Makes me think you don’t have anything interesting to say
Out of date information, pop ups announcing offers that have now finished, blogs that haven’t been updated recently, all tell a depressing story. If you’re a hospitality business, make sure your seasonal menu is current. No one wants to be looking at a Christmas Day menu in April (unless they’re really organised!), or to be staring at a reminder to book in your table for Valentine’s Day on 31st March.
When it comes to blogs, I do understand. It can feel better not to say anything if you don’t feel there is anything interesting to tell your readers. But if you are a fully functioning business, taking on the challenges of your industry, interacting with clients and suppliers on a regular basis, I bet you do have some pearls of wisdom to share.
Some blog ideas
Come up with a list of questions your clients often ask and answer them.
Take a look at new developments in your industry that you find interesting and translate into what that means for your clients and your services.
Talk about buying trends you’ve noticed and what you’re doing to accommodate them.
Shine a light on a recent project you’re especially proud of. Why did it work and what was it that only you could have done?
If you don’t have the internal resource to keep this up to date, I think you’d probably be better to hide your blog page until you’ve got some more up to date content (or employ the services of a skilled copywriter. Hi! 👋).
An out-of-date blog makes it look like there’s no one home, while the impression you want to give is that your business is a hive of exciting activity that your prospective client would love to be part of.

3. Bad spelling, poor grammar and ‘Mystery capital Letters’

Makes me think you don’t care enough to get it right (and Google will judge you too)

I’m not saying that you’ll lose sales because of a stray apostrophe or a misspelling or two. But your website is doing the talking for you before your clients even pick up the phone to get in touch.

If it’s littered with typos, Random Capital Letters and misused words (be honest, are you SURE you know when to use ‘less’ or ‘fewer’?), it looks like you don’t take care with things that matter, which chips away at the trust and confidence you’re hoping to inspire in your clients.

This is especially difficult because it isn’t about intelligence, it’s often a case of being too close to your work to be able to spot the mistakes any more.

You also need to be mindful of the picture you’re painting to Google. You want Google to scan your website and give it a shiny gold star for professionalism so that you’re appearing high on searches. What you don’t want is for silly errors to count against you and limit your visibility to prospective clients.

So make sure you’re up to date and spell checked to the hilt!

4. You talk about yourself more than your customer

Makes me think you’re not aligned with your customer’s needs

A lot of sites (LinkedIn posts are especially guilty of this) will say things along the lines of:

‘We are passionate about what we do.’

‘We have years of experience.’

‘We pride ourselves on our delivery/quality/creativity (delete as appropriate).’

That’s great to hear, but also a bit like talking to someone at a party who never asks you anything about yourself.

Your ideal customers have come to you in search of how they are going to benefit from your services or products. Sometimes when I tell people this, they get a bit defensive - ‘how can I tell people what I do if you don’t want me to talk about what I do?’ Rather than asking your readers to come into your world, flip the focus and show how you fit into theirs and how you can improve it.

Talk about your clients’ goals, challenges and sticking points, then how you fit into that picture.

Rather than: “I offer personalised fitness programmes”, you could say: “Feel stronger, fitter and more confident in just a few weeks”.

Instead of “We serve artisan coffee and home cooked food”, try “Kickstart your day with coffee you’ll actually look forward to”.

5. You sound like everyone else

You will be gone from my brain in 5 minutes’ time

If your website could belong to any of your competitors by switching the logo, you’re not using your most powerful tool: you!

This is especially relevant for marketing small, local businesses. You need to sound like a real person and allow your clients to begin their relationship with you at the Home Page. Talk like a real person, who’s excited to work with them, rather than a faceless corporate bot.

Find your USP and make sure your clients and prospects know about it. Are you the only café in town that opens before 9? Let the commuters know! Did you work in interior design before you sold antiques? Let the buyers know you understand their needs. Does your wedding venue have a later license than most? Get those brides dancing down the aisles!

I help businesses find a tone of voice that feels confident, warm and specific, so that people remember you and not just what you sell.

6. Your site works on laptops but not on mobiles (or the other way around)

Makes you look unprofessional (sorry!)

I don’t think it’s too much of a generalisation for me to say that we all build our websites on our monitors, but the fact is that most of your visitors are probably on their phones, walking the dog, having a coffee, waiting for the bus. If your text is tiny, your layout is on the wonk or your buttons are too difficult to tap, then you’re already annoying your potential clients before they’ve even met you.

Make it as easy as possible for your customers to contact you. People’s attention span is famously getting shorter, so you need to work with them to make the online experience smooth and easy.

What I’d tell you about your website if I wasn’t afraid of hurting your feelings

You don’t tell me what you do

Your last blog was written in 2018

3. Bad spelling, poor grammar and ‘Mystery capital Letters’

4. You talk about yourself more than your customer

5. You sound like everyone else

6. Your site works on laptops but not on mobiles (or the other way around)

Are you thinking “Oh no! My site does all those things!”?

7 quick tips to help your potential clients find you