{"id":496,"date":"2020-04-28T23:02:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T23:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theokellogroup.com\/?page_id=496"},"modified":"2020-05-12T15:56:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T15:56:03","slug":"failing-website-the-real-reason-your-website-isnt-getting-traffic","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/theokellogroup.com\/failing-website-the-real-reason-your-website-isnt-getting-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"Failing website: The real reason your website isn’t getting traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The real reason your website is failing is that you don’t know what to do with it\u2026 There, I said it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getting\nwebsites turned around will always require a \u2018ripping off plaster\u2019 moment.\nThere is that epiphany that draws a line in the sand that everything needs to\nbe different and a new approach has to be taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have\nbeen developing websites for the past 15 years using a range of platforms from\nstraight HTML and CSS to WordPress, Magento, Shopify and my personal (not)\nfavourite\u2026 Wix. We have been tasked to \u2018fix\u2019 websites too along the way but\nmore often than not, its easier to rebuild from scratch and migrate the good\nstuff over to the new site\u2026 If there is<\/em> any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, I will stop being mean about your beloved site\u2026 Well, no I won’t, I will talk to you less about the problem and more about the solution, How about that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here goes…<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\nbuilt your site, you were focused on what you wanted it to look like, now,\nthere is nothing wrong with your taste, but there is a wrong way to build a\nsite. That way is anyway other than with a 100% focus on the wide range of\nusers that will be coming to your site. User Experience or UX is a major thing\nwith Google now, and you will be ranked lower for having a site that is distracting\nand especially hard to navigate. There an old rule where your site visitors\nhave to be able to find their target info or item in 3 clicks or less, this is\na good rule to go by. What experience will you target users have when they\narrive? Are you so user-focussed that you will be the answer to their Google\nprayers (or search query)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have\nto start with a brilliant concept I came across years ago called \u2018DMMT\u2019 or\n\u2018Don’t Make Me Think\u2019. Simply put, you don’t want your users \u2018thinking\u2019 and making\nthem try to figure out your site. It should be super simple to figure out with\neasy flows of text, images that make sense (not just what you want to promote\nstraight away). The best way to approach this is to treat you users like they\nare dumb (at the risk of offending more people than you, my wonderful reader).\nTreat them like a 5 year old who has just discovered the internet and make no\nassumption that they will be able to find a product or article with ease unless\nyou help them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal\nof having the best user experience is definitely to create the best chance to\nconvert visitors into customers. The other value is that you get great SEO out\nof it which in turn generates more traffic for your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For some,\nit’s simply what they are offering to their target demographic or a mismatch in\nwho they want to sell to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are\ntimes where us entrepreneurs are so eager to create something of value, we\nactually create problems so we can solve them\u2026 The idea of a TV embedded in a\ncoffee table that was pitched in Dragon\u2019s Den comes to mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\n\u2018inventor\u2019 could not be discouraged, but half the dragons had seen this\n\u2018innovation\u2019 before and had the research to back their decision that is was a\nbad invention that hurt peoples necks after watching for ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It could\nbe the case where you haven’t profiled your target demographic correctly. One\nthing I have been sharing with entrepreneurs and digital marketing clients is\nthat you need to have such a specific description of your key customer that you\nfeel like you know them as a friend. You will know the TV shows they watch,\nwhere they should, their age, their job, their favourite foods and even more\ngranular information that allows you to find them easily online, speak their\nlanguage AND address their needs, merely converting sales is not enough. We as\nbusiness creatives need to truly offer something of value in exchange for\npeoples hard-earned cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I touched\non this earlier; bad optimisation means Google and all the other search engines\npeople use have got your website on page 78 where it will never see the light\nof day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You MUST\nuse long-tail keywords in your content and website as supposed to just\nshort-tail keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat is this longtail keyword\u201d<\/em> thing you speak of, I hear you say – Well its is just what you need to focus on when creating content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, let\nme take that back, great content is what you need to focus on, and then\noptimise it beautifully using natural phrases that people are searching for\nwithin your sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For\nexample; a short tail keyword for a dentist is \u2018dentist\u2019 or \u2018London Dentist\u2019. A\nlong-tail keyword for a dentist is \u2018highest rated dentist in south London\u2019. Can\nyou see how the second option may well not be used by the leading SEO\u2019d dentist\nwho has spent \u00a310,000 getting a professional to SEO the crap out of his or her\nsite?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best\npart of this is, Google, and possible the other search engines also will rank\nthe second, longtail keyword, better because it’s more specific and as such\nhighly likely to be a better quality website with better more suited\ninformation for the searcher. It doesn’t matter is Amazon is the best dentist\nwith the best short-tail SEO ranking, the longtail ranking takes preference and\nwill be list on page one, most likely at the top of the page!<\/p>\n\n\n\n SEO\nbasics include the below checklist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more\nyou post that is well written (yes Google can read AND tell the difference\nbetween a well-penned article and recycled, re-spun garbled junk that you got a\nrandom AI bot to rejig online). Keywords must be naturally used and need to fit\nthe sentence, you CAN overdo keywords by having too much keyword density.\nGoogle knows when you are trying to game the system and it will blow up in your\nface like a sulfuric fart!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is\nby far one of the most common mistakes I see and in large amounts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A product\npage is just that, an info sheet on your product. its the final confirmation\nthat your prospect wants to buy and he or she should have been convinced\nfurther up in the sales funnel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just so\nwe\u2019re all on the same page, a sale funnel is a journey that you take your\nprospects on that feeds them information step by step while they make their\nbuying decision. It’s a great way to build the internal confirmation that the\nprospect needs the item of value you ave on offer and weeds out the time-wasters.\nIt also lends itself as a great place to build your email list\u200a\u2014\u200awhich, by the\nway, its YOUR GOLD DUST! Marketing to an email list that has subscribed to you\nAND given you permission to market to them (all in line with GDPR of course) is\nfirst of all free for the most part and historically gets the best result and\nbest ROI, but that’s for another article altogether, let’s get back to the\nchapter at hand\u200a\u2014\u200aLanding pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A landing\npage is a stripped down, very focus page that you drive campaign traffic to. It\nhas one job; To convince your prospect to buy\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does\nit do this?, I hear you sheepishly ask<\/p>\n\n\n\n All this page contains is; <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Absolutely\neverything on a landing page is geared to driving one action from your prospect\nwhile dealing with all their possible objections and building trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The buy\nnow button takes them to the product page\u200a\u2014\u200aonly if your landing page can\u2019t\ncomplete the transaction, if it can complete the transaction then great, that\nmakes the sales from more frictionless which is what you want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not\nhaving a payment portal on your landing page isn’t too bad, it’s more of a UX\nthing so users have very smooth buying experiences without going to too many\nstages. Google doesn’t often read landing pages cos they are usually disposable\nso you won’t be ranked down for these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So to\nsummarise landing pages, this is the customer journey:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another\nmajor reason is you don’t know how to generate paid traffic, its easy-ish but\ndefinitely not straightforward. Depending on your source of traffic; Whether\nits Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube or even TikTok you have to optimise\nthe posts for each platform properly and follow each network\u2019s conventions.\nThis comes back to quality posts which are highly relevant to your niche and\ntarget demographic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other\narea most website owners fail in is paying too little for their ads and\nexpecting miracles. spending \u00a33 a day might get about 1,000 impressions but\nremember, there is a conversion rate or percentage that is a minuscule amount\nof overall impressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Case in point, out of 3,000 impressions, you will get about 30 click-throughs, out of 30 click-throughs maybe 1 will be credible and a serious candidate for your target demographic who will likely buy IF the offer is presented well, on the good fast loading site with great UX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nreality, you want about 100 possible prospects to be likely buyers, so you need\nto up your ad spend to \u00a320-\u00a330 per day. You can\u2019t put in bicycle input and\nexpect Mercedes-Benz outcomes, we don’t live in a cartoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please do take my abrasive tone with a pinch of salt, life is too short to drink bad wine, so I like to nail a point hard; Cos there is always someone somewhere that has got a smart alec comeback with a rare unicorn scenario and puts it forward like the norm. This is the same guy who\u2019s campaigns tank but will still try to give you advice on running digital marketing<\/a> campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have\nworked with too many entrepreneurs who have burnt all too much money on bad\ninformation. This is why I write these articles is such a sharp way. I\u2019ve gotta\nget the message in a way that gives even unknowing entrepreneurs the ammunition\nto dispel half-truths and money-wasting codswallop!<\/p>\n\n\n\nUser Focus or User Experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Methodology<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
UX\nPracticals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your market offer<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bad SEO<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The\nBasics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Relying on product pages to sell instead of\nlanding pages<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Paid Traffic Fails<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n