If These 9 Signs of a Poorly Designed Website Sound Familiar to You Then You May Be Losing Out on Leads

To help, we’ve compiled this list of 9 signs of poor website design that stagnates lead conversions. Go through the list and see if you could turn around your site and your conversion numbers with these suggestions.

You have a distracting homepage

It really is possible to have too much on your homepage. The main page of your website ideally should be as simple as possible. It is not an informational page. It is a traffic director.

The only thing your homepage should do is confirm to visitors that they are in the right place and then direct them to the appropriate page of your site with the information they need.

So if you have any of the following distractions, you need to get them off your homepage ASAP:

• Picture sliders
• Popup chat sessions
• Confusing font or text alignment
• Inconsistent fonts, colors, or subheadings
• Background textures
• Lack of content structure (i.e., long unbroken paragraphs)
• Anything bright or flashy that draws the eye away from the primary content

Visitors need multiple steps to find a page

Website navigation should never be complicated. You need a header or side navigation that can take a prospective lead to the page they want to access in one click.

If you have a lot of subpages, then you may need a menu with a dropdown function for pages that fit under one group. But for most Powersports dealerships, that’s unnecessary.

Chop out anything you don’t need in your navigation menu. Make the font and colors simple and easy to read. And get your prospects to the offers in one click.

You don't have a blog

Maintaining a blog is one of the simplest ways to get information into the hands of your audience. The more informed a prospect is, the more likely they are to buy.

With information so readily accessible, most customers spend a lot of time researching before purchase. So if you can be the dealership that answers all their questions, you’re that much closer to having their trust.

You don't post on social media

Blogging and social posting kind of go together. It can be difficult to get visitors to your blog by organic search alone.

You should certainly have a plan to rank your blogs. But sharing them to social media gives you another avenue to get the information you provide in front of people who are interested in Powersports.

If your dealership doesn’t have any kind of social media account, set one up today. Focus on the one you’re most comfortable with and build a following there before trying to add another social media platform to your marketing plan.

You're not making good use of headings

First of all, you do have headings on your pages, right? If not, that needs to be remedied pronto.

Headings are how site visitors determine whether the page they are on has the information they are looking for.

Make sure the headings are tagged appropriately and are clearly distinguished from the surrounding text. Why is this so important? Because most site visitors skim the page and only read the text below relevant headings.

For search result pages on your dealer site, the heading should display the name of the vehicle.

You're prices aren't transparent

Powersports buyers want to know the price. It’s one of the biggest questions they have when they start looking for a vehicle to purchase.

And you need to give them an answer.

According to digital marketing expert Neil Patel, “you should make sure that your visitors can find pricing information with a single click.”

So just display the word “price” with the number by it on the search result pages and vehicle description pages. Display it prominently. Don’t make them look around for it. And don’t call it MSRP -- even if you’re selling for MSRP.

You don’t have clear CTAs

CTAs (calls to action) are the things on each page that tell prospects what to do next. So more than any element on your pages, they need to stand out.

Make a graphic button that states the CTA and link it to your opt-in form. This is much more effective than plain linked text.

Your CTAs don't answer the question "why?"

In addition to making your CTAs easy to find, they need to be convincing. People aren’t just going to give out their name and email address.

Most people get too much email as it is.

You have to provide them with something they really want in order to make a fair trade for their information. And that means the CTA needs to say more than just “click here”. It has to tell them what they get when they click.

You've never changed your page or performed split testing

Okay, here’s the big one. If your leads are slow, and you aren’t testing your site, then you aren’t going to find a way to boost your lead conversion.

You. Have. To. Test.

Make a change to one element at a time. Start with the list in this article. Try a different heading. Doesn’t help? Try a different heading placement. Increase your social media posts. Change the structure of your social media posts. Start adding images to your blogs. Just change something
and see if it helps.

The key to split testing is to make sure you only change one thing at a time so you’re sure the improvement isn’t from one of the other changes. And keep track of your conversion numbers so you know if you were getting better results before or after the change -- scenario A or scenario B.