{"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

User Focus or User Experience<\/strong><\/h2>\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

Methodology<\/strong><\/h2>\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

UX\nPracticals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  1. Firstly, build your mobile site first. and desktop version second. I can’t say this enough. Your mobile site needs to be fast, easy and clear!<\/li>
  2. Clear dummy-proof menus. You must have a clear simple menu structure that easily leads to the right locations and categories. The menu must be in the expected place with the expected options. Check the text size, check links works. Use tried and tested hamburger menu type for mobile.<\/li>
  3. Fast loading! The site must load in under 3 seconds. Or you will be ranked badly by search engines and your audience will lose patience and head back to the search engine for better user experiences. Use a CDN as well as caching if you can to speed up your site. Also, make sure that your images are compressed so they keep their quality but are small in file size. Remember, over 65% of your website traffic will be on a phone that is using 3G or 4G, more often without full reception because they are in a building somewhere. The mobile version of your site should<\/li>
  4. Make sure colours contrast properly, having yellow text on an orange background, or light brown on dark brown that are too close in shade is just common courtesy. <\/li>
  5. Create actual profiles of the key demographics that will be coming to the website, think about how tech-savvy the least savvy person in that demographic is, think about how much time they have, what their decision-making process is and what information they really want to see and place it at their fingertips.<\/li><\/ol>\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

    Your market offer<\/strong><\/h2>\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

    Bad SEO<\/strong><\/h2>\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

    The\nBasics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    SEO\nbasics include the below checklist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n