Your Website’s Biggest Competitor Is the Back Button

Potential Southern Utah customers will click on a website to see if the business provides the particular service they’re looking for. Then they look at how easy they can navigate through the website. Then they look at how easy the website is to navigate.

If a potential customer doesn’t find the information within minutes, sometimes seconds, they’ll hit that back button and go on to the next business listed.

That’s all it takes for a visitor to return to Google and choose another company.

A Good Ranking Cannot Fix a Confusing Homepage

Keep in mind customers have busy lives and don’t want to be spending a lot of time searching for the right company to use.

Your homepage should be very clear. Your services should be easy to find, and clicking on one should take the customer straight to the information they need.

For instance, if there is an emergency plumbing issue in their home, they don’t want to be hunting around for your phone number and hours of operation. Or for information about emergency service. That back button comes in handy if they can’t locate the information within seconds.

You might have found a way to get a good ranking, but if your website isn’t designed for keeping the customer in mind, it won’t make a difference where you are in search results.

Visitors Want Simple Answers

Someone looking at your homepage should quickly understand what you do and who you do it for. It should clearly list information about the service areas.

If a business person is looking for a window cleaning company, that business person might want whether you clean windows on multi-story commercial buildings or only one-story homes. A homeowner that wants their windows cleaned doesn’t want to read the history of the owner as soon as they open the website. They want to quickly find the information they need about that service.

Try Your Own Back Button Test

Search Google for one of the services your business provides. Click your website just like a customer would. Give yourself 10 seconds to find the service, your phone number, and what to do next.

If you can’t do it quickly, neither can your customer.

Local Proof Matters

Some customers specifically want to hire someone local. If you say you’re local, give them something that proves it.

If a business says they provide service in St. George, a customer will look for proof of that. They notice things like your phone number, service area, local photos, and the places you mention. They notice if the photos are from the area or only of your staff. Show a recognizable landmark. Mention nearby places where you’ve actually worked. It’s comforting knowing they’re working with locals.

Make the Next Step Obvious

Make it obvious what the customer should do after deciding to use your company. Should they call, text, or fill out a form?

Look at your homepage with the eyes of a customer. Can you quickly tell what the business does, who it helps, and what to do next?
If not, fix it. Otherwise that back button comes in handy.

Bounce Rate (The Back Button) – Wikipedia – Tap here to read the entire article

Bounce rate is an Internet marketing term used in web traffic analysis. It represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave (“bounce”) rather than continuing to view other pages within the same site. Bounce rate is calculated by counting the number of single page visits and dividing that by the total visits. It is then represented as a percentage of total visits.

Bounce rate is a measure of “stickiness.” The thinking being that an effective website will engage visitors deeper into the website thus encouraging visitors to continue with their visit. It is expressed as a percentage and represents the proportion of single page visits to total visits.

What is your home page saying?