Slapping content onto your website isn’t enough to make leads pour into your funnel. We’ve come across countless websites clearly built with the purpose of creating leads in mind, but few are optimized for lead generation.
Below is a handful of the most common mistakes we’ve seen during website reviews. These six habits may be contributing to a lackluster website conversion rate.
Ungated premium content
This is one of the first things we look for when we review a website. After all, how well can your website conversion rate be without content that converts? It takes a lot of resources to create white papers, eBooks and webinars, yet we still find websites giving them away for free. Gating your more valuable content provides opportunities to engage your audience and generate leads. Read more about choosing what content to gate here.
Not to mention the landing pages for these gated resources also would drive their own search traffic, further extending the value of these items.
Gated case studies
Every so often we land on a site that gates every case study. Part of optimizing website conversion is knowing what content not to gate. As far as meatier content goes, case studies should usually remain ungated. Offering free case studies establishes trust, making site visitors more comfortable giving up their email for other premium content.
No CTAs in blog posts
This is one of the most common mistakes we see. Many companies that do have an active blog are still not using it to its full lead generation potential – the posts go nowhere. If your blog posts don’t have calls-to-action, then your readers may completely miss the next step you want them to take, whether it be to schedule a free demo or to download an eBook. Calls-to-action within and at the end of blog posts are great opportunities to offer timely and relevant premium content to readers. (Look out for an example at the end of this post!)
Missing resource page
This oversight is rarer, but one of the most baffling. Every so often, we come across a website that offers premium content in blog posts and on the homepage, but when we look for their entire content library, we can’t find it. It’s not in the main navigation.
If your website offers premium content, then it should also have a resource page with everything your site has to offer. A link to this resource library should be accessible from your site’s main navigation bar. If your library is extensive, then you should organize your content by format or topic so that site visitors can find the right resource more easily. Don’t lump all your content into a mile-long chronological list.
Navigation options on landing pages
Do your landing pages suffer from clutter? Even worse, does the clutter link to somewhere else?
The more navigation options available on a landing page, the more likely your visitor will leave. Cut the fluff so your visitor stays focused on the offer.
Some distractions that we’ve seen on landing pages include:
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Site navigation
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Search bar
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Links to recent blog posts
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Site log in
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Additional CTAs
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Pop-ups
While you’re doing some house cleaning, you might also want to test a “less is more” layout for your blog, with – once again – the purpose of driving visitors to your CTAs.
Your landing page copy needs work
We’ve also seen our share of landing pages that have only one sentence or large blocks of text that bury the message. Both fail to sell the offer.Prevent your selling points from getting lost by distilling your offer into these key landing page elements: an image, a headline and subhead, a bulleted list of benefits & features and a reinforcement statement. Keep your message informative but digestible. For more landing page tips, read this blog post.
This list reflects the most common and fundamental mistakes website designers can make. Even if you avoid these traps, there’s likely more opportunities to improve your site’s lead generation. Would you like an honest review of your website from a conversion rate perspective? Contact us for a complimentary inbound lead generation assessment!
