Redesigning a website can be an extremely daunting experience. You have probably had a bad experience in the past of projects taking 6 months too long, doubling in budget and ending up with something you hate. The truth is, not every website needs a total redesign. If your website still looks fresh and is responsive for mobile, then the chances are you can probably optimise it. This article will look at a few simple ways you can quickly find out what problems are preventing your visitors from converting into customers.
Not all redesigns fix the real problems of the old website
One of the main reasons why companies want to redesign their website is because they no longer like looking at it. This is understandable as you are probably looking at it alot more than any of your customers. However, is this a good enough reason to embark on a brand new project? So many web design projects spend far too much time trying to look better than the last one, that they forget to solve any of the issues with the previous one.
Find out what problems your users are having
The best way to find out what is preventing visitors to your site converting into customers is to ask them. Below are three highly effective ways to understand what is causing a problem on your website:
Add and exit-survey
This is a very subtle pop-up, from hotjar, that triggers when a visitor shows the intent to leave the website. It simply asks the question ‘Did you find what you were looking for on this page?’ If a visitor is becoming frustrated enough with your website that they are prepared to leave, they are sometimes quite happy to tell you about it.
The responses to this survey can mean adding a small amount of content to a webpage that will result in some very quick wins. Remember, you don’t need hundreds of responses to make this survey worthwhile. One edit can have a benefit for hundreds of visitors.
Add a post-sale questionnaire
Not all the visitors to your website are your ideal customers. This is quite an important factor to take into consideration when analysing any feedback you get from your user research. Sending a questionnaire to a visitor who has just become a customer improves your chances of getting data from a person who is qualified considerably.
Below are a list of the 5 golden questions that researches from Conversion Rate Experts send out to customers who have just purchased:
- Where exactly did you first hear about us?
- Please list the top three things that persuaded you to use us rather than a competitor?
- Which of our competitors, both online and offline, did you consider before choosing our [X]?
- What was your biggest challenge, frustration or problem in finding the right [X] online?
- What’s the one thing that nearly stopped you from buying from us?
These questions can be sent out as in an online survey either in a confirmation email or from the thankyou page. You can gain some very important insights about a visitor’s journey to becoming your customer.
Add a session recorder
A session recorder allows you to see a visitor using your website. FullStory is a session recorder that records every visit to your website and every action they take. That means if you want to view people using a particular element on your website, such as a contact form, you can filter all recordings that interact with that form.
This is an amazing tool for quickly helping you understand why people may be struggling to use your website.