With online business making up almost 40% of all retail sales in 2022, it’s obvious that having a dedicated website for your small biz is no longer a want but a desperate need! This goes for service-businesses too, with 88% of people questioned claiming that they wouldn’t even consider working with someone they couldn’t find online.

Pretty compelling stuff, right? It’s no wonder DIY website companies like Squarespace and Wix have had such success over the last few years. These website builders offer an affordable & achievable way for small biz owners to get their much-needed websites online without forking out for an agency. But what happens once these sites are up and running?

Unfortunately, it’s not always smooth sailing. A lot of biz owners we chat with feel as though their website is just… sitting there. Not really achieving much. Not really contributing to the growth of their business. For us, this feels like an absolute tragedy! Your website should feel like a little slice of ‘you’ heaven, somewhere for your dream clients to discover you and be completely bewitched by your brand. It most definitely should not feel like some dead weight that you put together in a week and then never touched again.

We all want our websites to be lean, mean, money making machines.

In a perfect world your website would be sitting pretty at the top of search engine results, solidifying your brand as a market leader, bringing in thousands of dream customers a day & making you cash while you sleep. And this can happen, we just have to actually do the work to get there first. There are no overnight successes in web design.

Reasons your site isn’t converting

We’ve worked with a lot of creative small businesses over the years and transformed a lot of dusty & forgotten websites into invaluable, profitable biz assets. Some of the biggest issues we see with sites that aren’t converting well include:

Poor SEO. Not only do you need to set your site up for search engine success during the creation phase, you also need to be regularly updating your site with blogs, new services and other info if you ever wanna get above page 4 of Google.

No site structure. If your website’s difficult to navigate, people are gonna have no issue finding that little red x. So often websites are created without a single thought for the user. If they can’t find the information they want quickly, it’s curtains.

You haven’t told them how. This is a biggie, and something that we see so often (particularly with women in business). You want your dream customers to work with you, but haven’t told them how they can make that happen with clear calls to action? If you’re not making it easy for them to spend their money on you, you can forget about them ever doing so.

How you can improve your website conversion rate

It’s not all doom & gloom though, babe. These things are fixable - especially if you manage your own website with a web builder like Squarespace! Here are some easy fixes you can make to your website right now that will improve your search engine ranking and get more interest from your dream customers:

Break up your content into snackable chunks. Forget about literature-rich paragraphs and dense descriptions of your services for now - these are better shared face to face once those enquiries start coming in! Instead, break content up into scannable chunks of no more than 3 or 4 sentences that your users can quickly digest and act on.

Lose the jargon. Not everyone knows what you know. If the language you’re using is leaving your dream customers feeling anything but crystal-clear about your services & processes, you’re gonna have a problem. Simplify that language so your customers can see what you’re getting at.

Add a call to action to every page section. You can’t expect people to do what you want them to do without you telling them to do it. Decide a key goal for your site (gather enquiries, generate lead magnet sign ups etc) and link to this objective with text links or buttons clearly & regularly.

Shift the focus. Parroting on about yourself, your own achievements and what makes you so special is a sure-fire bounce (that means page abandonment, for the sake of jargon busting). We’ve all been on those dates right, where you can’t get a word in edgeways and feel you could just as well have propped up a mirror and gone off on your merry way? That’s how your user feels. Instead, focus your content on them, their goals, their desires & how you can help them reach them.

Pick a topic and stick to it. If you’re confused about your business model yourself, imagine how your dream customer must feel! Obvs we’re not saying you can only do one thing, but if you’re trying to be everything to everybody your website is going to be way overcomplicated. Get clear on your mission and your audience so you can streamline to perfection.

Focus on being helpful first. Offering your users valuable free resources like blog posts, downloads and tips works wonders for creating a strong brand image. Not only are you being incredibly kind and useful, you’re also gathering warm leads that you can nurture and build relationships with AND you’re giving your dream customers a test run of the way you work! It’s wins all round and will be sure to drive traffic & conversions.

If you’re ready to take your website efforts from stressed to blessed, but don’t know where to start, we have the perfect resource for you!

Our free ‘Niche Up’ interactive workbook for creative small business owners will help you create a powerful brand that’s focussed around serving specific customers in a way that highlights your strongest skills & creates an unforgettable customer experience.

Are you ready to build a powerful niche doing gratifying work for your dreamiest ever clients? Yes?! Then you need the ‘Niche Up’ guide, babe.

We hope you found this blog helpful and have taken away some actionable steps to wooing more dream clients with your website! Remember, web design (especially SEO) is a long game, but with regular updating & clear goals your website can be a high-converting machine in no time!

For more web design know-how, check out some of our other posts. You can also download exclusive free resources here or shop our template range.

Contact us for information on our bespoke web design services!

Stay creative, babe!

Naomi | Lucky Night Studio