It takes only 3 seconds to lose them.
When a customer visits your website, you have but a few fleeting seconds to grab their attention and educate them on who you are, why they should stay, if you can solve their problem, and what they should do next.
Almost no small businesses get this right. Either they’ve relied on a contract web designer to build their site and do the copywriting, or they count on someone in the business who’s never done site optimization before.
Your website is more important to your business than your strongest employee.
I don’t mean this to demean web designers (I was one) or anyone in your business. But it’s not their job to bring your website more traffic and convert it to calls and buyers. It’s yours.
Here are three things you should consider to grab your website visitor’s attention.
Make it Obvious What You Do
Specifically for small, local businesses, the “what” is usually there. Plumbing, roofing, dentist, etc. - usually pretty obvious. For worldwide internet brands, SaaS products, in particular, being very clear about your “what” is often overlooked. Often, niche language is used in the headline and above-the-fold copy that experts might understand but not their average potential customer.
If a 10-year-old wouldn’t understand it, change your copy until they do. Seriously, find a 10-year-old and explain what you do until they understand it, and then have them tell you. They’ll get much closer to what your business description should be than you will.
Where Do You Do It?
This is, surprisingly, a typical local business fail. I know you’re an AC repair company, but in 3 seconds, I have no idea if you’re in my area. So I click the back button and click the next Google link.
A user should not have to scroll or click to another page to find your location or to determine whether you can serve them.
Work your location into your headline if possible, or make it immediately clear in some other way that your visitor is on the right site.
Agitating Their Problem
Every successful business solves some sort of problem or scratches an itch that consumers have.
In some cases, the buyer knows what will scratch that itch. But even then, by agitating the problem, we can make them feel completely understood - making them more likely to stay.
Here are a couple of examples of this:
You can focus on the immediate problem your customer likely has—a plumber might say something like, “Ignoring that leak can cost you thousands.” Great—I already knew I had a leak and needed it fixed, but now I’m also worried about not getting it fixed fast enough. Help me now!
You can focus on the customer’s hesitation (if you know what they are). For instance, the auto repair industry has a reputation for not being very trustworthy. How can you start to ease that immediately? Using something in your page headline like “Where Honesty Meets Expertise” could be a good start. You’ll have to back this one-liner up further in the content of your website, but it could be the difference between a visitor leaving and choosing to stay and read more about your business.
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You spend a lot of time, energy, and money getting visitors to your website, and you have just a few seconds to keep them there to take action. As soon as they land, they should know:
- What you do
- Where you do it
- If you can solve their problem
- What action to take next
Focus on these things at the top of your home page, and you’ll see increased calls, leads, and buyers!
If you’re still relying on a contract web designer or someone at the office to know how to improve your website, you'll want to check out my Conversion Base service, where I spend some time on video walking through a top-to-bottom audit of your website.
Until next week,
Elliott
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