Do You Have a Homepage Problem or a Funnel Problem?

Ever feel like your website should be converting, but it’s just not? You’re not alone. A lot of business owners jump straight to redesigning their homepage when sales are slow—but that might not be the real issue. In this episode, we’re chatting about what could actually be going wrong (hint: it might be your funnel or customer journey) and how to figure out what’s really holding you back so you can stop wasting time and start seeing results.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Website Conversion Problems Introduction
• 2:13 Homepage vs Funnel Responsibilities
• 4:14 Signs of Homepage Problems
• 5:50 Signs of Funnel Problems
• 8:04 Self-Audit Your Website
• 9:54 What to Fix First and Why
• 11:42 Using Analytics to Guide Decisions

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:01

Ever feel like your website should be converting, but it's just not so. Here's the thing Not every problem with a website is a homepage problem. Sometimes it's your funnel or your journey that your customer is taking on your website, and if you're fixing the wrong thing, you may be wasting time and you may be losing sales. So let's figure out which one is actually holding you back and what to do about it. So let's get started. Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine month old my main goal to help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry, and even more than that in web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place. So sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together. Welcome back to the show.

Carrie Saunders: 1:02

Today we're talking about what you might be having problems with on your website. Is it your homepage or is it a funnel? And then I want you to keep in mind when I say the word funnel, it could mean, you know, subscribing to your newsletter, like all the steps to get there. It could be purchasing a product on your e-commerce store, or it could be purchasing a service if you're a coach or course creator. So think of a funnel as that sales process, those steps that they take to purchase, or the conversion process where they're signing up on your newsletter. But let's first talk about what's really the difference between these two the homepage and whatever funnel that you're using on your website. So, in what they're responsible for? So your homepage is actually responsible for your first impressions, your direction, where you want them to go next and your trust Unless you're having an ad goes directly to a funnel. This is what your homepage is going to do. It's going to start building that trust, giving that first impression. It's like they just met you for the first time if they're not familiar with you. So we want to make sure that it is supporting the buying journey, that it is evoking trust right away and making sure that they're comfortable with you and your business really soon and really quickly, because it only takes a few seconds for them to make a judgment.

Carrie Saunders: 2:18

And a funnel is basically talking about how it supports the buying journey and, like I gave you an example at the beginning of this little section, there are different, many different types of funnels, so I want you to keep each of those in mind. You know whichever one applies to your business as we talk through this episode, and it's critical to know what stage your visitor's in. Are they brand new to you? And then you need to support them more on the homepage. Do they know you a little bit better? And that you need to make sure that that funnel is smooth. Now, obviously you want to be doing both things, but we need to see which one do you really need to focus on at this moment.

Carrie Saunders: 2:55

So it's just like your homepage is your front store window. If you had a brick and mortar store and your homepage is your front store window if you had a brick and mortar store and your funnel is a sales process inside your shop, it's your. You know bringing them back in, whether it's signing you know signing up for the newsletter could be bringing making sure they are, feel comfortable and want to come back in, or it could be, you know, making that purchase or that sale on your store. So there are a few signs whenever we have a homepage problem. One of them is your bounce rate is high. So if you use Google Analytics as some sort of analytics software, you're going to want to see what is your bounce rate, and we want to make sure that that is decently low. And look at trends for your website too, not just a point in time. We want to be looking at trends to make sure it's getting better and it's not getting worse, and we want to make sure that people aren't confused about what you do. So you can take a poll ask some people who've never been to your website. Have them look at the homepage and give them only a few seconds and ask them what do you think I do? And see what they say, see if it compares to what you think you're telling your potential customers what you do.

Carrie Saunders: 4:07

And we want to make sure that we're building trust and credibility really fast on the homepage. We want to have those easy to read, clear call to actions. We want to have language that is trustworthy, and then we also want to have you know customer testimonials or reviews of your products or services and we want to make sure there is a clear direction on what to do next If you walk into a store, a physical store, and there is stuff everywhere and absolutely no direction on where to go. That's what we can feel like on a website that doesn't have a clear direction on what's the next step with you. So make sure you have a really good next step on your homepage. We want to be fixing clarity, we want to simplify layout, we want to add social proof and we want to make sure that our main message is above the fold.

Carrie Saunders: 4:56

Now some signs that you might have a funnel problem. Whether that's signing up for your newsletter, buying a product or service. We want to make sure that they know what to do next after visiting your homepage. So is it clear from your homepage what to do next? That's where that clear call to action comes into place. We want to make sure you're capturing leads and guiding them through a decision. So is this working? How is your lead generation doing from your website? Are you actually getting them to sign up for your newsletter? Are you getting them to start adding to their cart? If they, you have an e-commerce. Are you getting them to book a call If you're a product you know, service provider or coach? If you're not getting those, then that that means you might have a conversion problem with your funnel. And if you have a freebie or offer but no structured follow-up you don't have an email sequence to follow it up, you don't retarget them, you don't do things like that to help bring them back then you might have a funnel problem. That's a really easy way to have people fall through the cracks in a funnel because we're all getting, we're all busy. You know, we all know this it's, you know, busy times.

Carrie Saunders: 6:06

And if they get pulled away, do you have a way to bring them back to your website? You know, maybe they were in the grocery line just checking out something on their phone and they found you and they're started down your funnel, but then, oh, it's time to check out, then they might forget to come back. So do you have a way to bring them back? We want to make sure that we have a bridge between their interest in your products or services and the purchase. So we want to build or refine your funnel. We wanna make sure that you have a clear lead magnet or clear newsletter sign up or something that's a value to them, that doesn't cost them anything. You also want to have some strong nurture emails whenever they do sign up for your newsletter or something on your website, to make sure that they clearly understand who you are and who you serve, so that they know they're in the right place. And then you can also segment these you know newsletters to different paths to paid offers based upon their interactions with your website.

Carrie Saunders: 7:12

So I want to challenge you to do a quick self audit. So which one do you think it is? Do you think it's your homepage or do you think it's your funnel area, like again, whatever type of funnel you use on your website? So ask yourself do people visit but don't stay on your website very long? That is very much likely a homepage issue. They don't either feel like they're in the right place. They don't trust you. They don't feel like this is their good fit for them to keep looking further. Do people sign up but then never buy? Do they sign up for your newsletter but never buy? Do they start that checkout process but never buy?

Carrie Saunders: 7:48

You probably then have a funnel issue here. So you want to start looking at the steps of your funnel to see where there might be a disconnect or an issue or something that's confusing. Are people confused or uncertain of what you offer. That means you might need some homepage clarity. This is something that's really easy to not quite get right, and so it takes a bit of time to look at this and keep evaluating to make sure that your homepage is clear and not clever. And then do you lack next steps after the homepage? That means you have a funnel gap. You don't have a clear call to action. You don't have a clear what's next. You don't have a clear let's go down this aisle and look for this in a store type example.

Carrie Saunders: 8:31

So we want to walk through your own website and experience it as a visitor. Try to put yourself in the shoes of you don't know anything about your website. Try to pretend that you don't know anything about it and start walking through it as a visitor and see what you come up with and see where you might get stuck. And you can ask a trusted business friend to help you with this too, to see where they get stuck and where they get confused. Trusted business friend to help you with this too, to see where they get stuck and where they get confused. So then let's talk about what to fix and why we fix each one.

Carrie Saunders: 9:02

So if your homepage confuses people, that is first. You definitely want to fix this first because it is the building block, it's the foundation of your house. We like to talk about our websites as a house. It is your foundation, and they won't go to that next step, to that funnel, to that newsletter, sign up, to that service purchase, to that product purchase, if they don't feel confident on your homepage. So make sure you fix that first.

Carrie Saunders: 9:30

If your homepage confuses people and if your homepage is strong, if you feel like it's pretty strong but your sales are weak or your conversions are weak, then your funnel needs work. Make sure that each step is very clear. Make sure they understand what they're getting. Make sure it's not like just a click here. Make sure that you are telling them what they're getting whenever they click there and what's their next steps during each funnel. And so don't adjust your website in the dark.

Carrie Saunders: 9:57

Look at your analytics to guide your decision. We don't want to have this be a guessing game. There are some great free tools out there to help you analyze your website, including Google Analytics. There are Chrome extensions for Google Analytics that can also help you out. So start looking at those and seeing where you think your problem might be, whether it's your homepage or one of your funnels and adjust it a little bit. Give it some time, see how people react and then keep iterating on these adjustments.

Carrie Saunders: 10:28

We don't want to be changing too many things at once or you won't know what actually fixed the problem. So make sure you iterate through each of them, change one thing at a time, see how it works. Give it you know, depends on how often you get visitors a week or two at minimum, maybe a month if your number of visitors is low, so that you have enough data there and then adjust again and just keep repeating the process. Don't let it be overwhelming. Just take it step by step and soon you will have your homepage or your funnel back up to snuff. That's all we have for this week's episode of the e-commerce made easy podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope this was super helpful and if you would be so kind, we would love it If you rated or reviewed us on your favorite podcast player, including Apple podcasts, and we will see you next week.