Does your website feel 'off'? Here's what's missing!

Ever look at your website and think, ‘Something just feels… off’?

You’ve put in the work. The branding looks good. You’ve got your offer front and center.

 But you’re not seeing the sales, the leads, or the engagement you expected.

Here's the truth: when your website feels off, your audience feels it too, and they bounce before you ever know they were there.

After working with online business owners for over 20 years, I’ve seen exactly what creates that ‘off’ feeling—and more importantly, how to fix it.

If even one of these things is missing, it’s costing you revenue.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why Websites Feel Off to Visitors
• 1:47 Visual Hierarchy: Guiding the Eye
• 3:44 Confusing Messaging and Social Proof
• 6:34 Creating Emotional Connection with Visitors
• 8:24 Brand Consistency and Mini Website Check
• 11:58 Recap and Next Steps

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:00

Ever look at your website and think something just feels off. You put in the work, the branding looks good, you've got the offer front and center, but you're not seeing the sales, the leads or the engagement that you actually expected. But here's what can happen when your website feels off to you, your audience can feel it too, and they will leave before they do the action you want them to. And after working with online business owners for over 20 years, I've seen this. I've seen what creates an off-website feeling and, more importantly, how to fix it. So even if one of the things we're going to talk about today is missing, it could be costing you revenue. 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: 1:13

If you've ever stared at your website and wondered why isn't it working, then we're going to be discussing that and hopefully helping solve that for you today. You might think your website looks polished, you may have updated your copy recently or added something new for somebody to get for free, but there's still just a simple disconnect. You're not getting the conversions or the phone calls or the customers that you are expecting you would. So today we're going to be talking about several components that could be costing you sales in your business, and the first one is that there is no clear visual hierarchy. So your layout might be pretty, but is it guiding the eye to the next step? I have come across websites that look beautiful. Their branding is great, but it just doesn't compel you to do anything. You kind of look at it and go, oh, that's pretty and that's about it. It's kind of like one of those you know stores you might be walking by and you might see the front window. Go, oh, that's pretty, but it doesn't really pull you into the store. There's nothing compelling to make you want to see more, and people don't really read websites. They scan them similar to a scan from the storefront whenever we're shopping. We're going to evaluate that, get a first impression before we go inside, so if everything looks the same size or height, they might get overwhelmed and leave.

Carrie Saunders: 2:34

We want to create some variety, some places for their eyes to scan and want to land, and we also want to make sure we have enough white space. Sometimes I find a website's a bit too cluttered or a bit too busy and there's no places for our eyes to land. So we can do that by making clear headlines. One of the things is that clear headline. We need to really talk to who we are and who we serve and what we do right away, no matter whether you're selling products or services. And we also want to make sure we have bold call to actions. They need to be actually actionable, too, and very clear as to what they're going to get, and what I mean by bold is that the call to action should stand out from the rest of the website. It shouldn't be like eye glaring and you know it's hard to look at, but it should be something that your eye drops to right away because it's a different color than the rest of your website. It's still going to complement the rest of your website, but it needs to be like a different color and then intentional spacing to show people where to go next. That's the white space. That's what's really important is to have that intentional spacing.

Carrie Saunders: 3:38

Another thing that could be throwing things off on your website is generic or confusing messaging. If your copy, if the words on your page could be used on anyone's site, that's a really big red flag. Or even if large chunks of it maybe you've personalized something you've seen before but it still looks kind of template and generic then that could be a red flag. Visitors should instantly know what you do, who you serve and what action they need to take next to get more information or to buy your product or buy your service. So I want you to make sure that you are speaking customer-specific language. Make sure your headline answers what's in it? For me, when we're shopping, when we're browsing, when we're doing things like this, we're a bit selfish internally and we want to know why should I stay here? Our time is valuable. You need to give them a good reason to stay on your website and do the next action you want them to do Now.

Carrie Saunders: 4:35

Another thing that can also erode your website's conversion is lack of social proof. We want to make sure we have reviews. We want to make sure we have testimonials. We want to make sure we have client logos whichever of those are appropriate for your industry. Visitors will hesitate to trust you if they don't see some good social proof on your website. And now the cats are running through the office I don't know if you can hear that on here. So we will need to have a reassurance that others have gone before them and had success.

Carrie Saunders: 5:08

And if you're brand new in business, one thing you can do is you can talk about the success you had in your previous nine to five jobs. So say, you're a new business owner and you don't quite have those reviews or testimonials yet. Ask the previous people you worked with what did you love about me, what really stood out, what you know, what was I great at? How did I help? You use those words Cause I bet they're going to apply to your business, because many times we will build a business around something we already knew and already did. So I bet you can get some testimonials from that If you are new to your business, or even from a trusted friend that can give you a genuine testimonial about who you are, how you help others, et cetera, and I want you to also sprinkle the testimonials in.

Carrie Saunders: 5:53

We want to make sure that we don't have them all in one place either, because, especially if you have a longer website, you might want to sprinkle it in. You may want to have, like you know, maybe five and then some more content and then another five. If you're doing services, if you are selling physical products, then you want to have a review section on your website for each of the products and you may want to have a separate testimonials area just for your general business in general. This is something that we have on our main core website for our e-commerce customers, as we have, you know, testimonials as well as reviews of products that we've sold.

Carrie Saunders: 6:30

And then next, we want to make sure that there is an emotional connection. Many times I find business owners trying to be a bit too professional. We do it too. Sometimes it's really really easy to do, but if you're not creating that emotional connection, then you're going to be missing out on sales, because we first shop with emotion and then we validate that shopping with logic. So first you need to drill them in with some emotion. We want to have some heart to it. We want to see some personality behind it. We want to just work that in in a very natural way. It's kind of like talking to maybe your business bestie, so it would be kind of a businessly talk if that's what you feel like your vibe should be. But we're also being friendly in it as well, so you can be professionally friendly on your website. So find that right balance for your brand. You can even have a short founder story about you.

Carrie Saunders: 7:28

Some way to human, humanitize your brand. Talk about your hobbies when you're outside of the work environment, even if you sell products. Sometimes this really can help us draw into it. Now, obviously, we want to not talk about touchy subjects out there to sway people from buying from you, unless that's what you really want to do. But most of the time we don't want to talk about touchy subjects like politics and things like that or religion. But you can still humanitize yourself and make yourself feel more human, make yourself feel like a real person Because, like I said a few minutes ago, we buy with emotion first. That's our initial start into that buying process and then we finish it out with logic. So make sure you're putting that emotion in before we start putting in the logical information on the website.

Carrie Saunders: 8:18

And then, lastly, some things I find sometimes is a disjointed design or brand vibes. So think of it as you know, you might be clicking on one page of the website and then you go to the next one. It's got a little bit more different fonts and different colors. We want to make sure the fonts, colors and also the photos the photos is the one that's easier to mess up Fonts, colors and photos have them align with your brand and make sure that they are cohesive. Because if them align with your brand and make sure that they are cohesive, because if they misalign some, that can create subconscious distrust. So if you don't have the same style photos, if you don't have the same two to three fonts on your website and you change it up a lot because you think this one looks cool here and that one looks cool here, and, yes, it may look cool in different places, but we need to make sure we're consistent because that creates more trust.

Carrie Saunders: 9:08

And then your visuals should match the tone of your brand. Are you fun, are you professional, are you friendly professional, are you calming, are you bold, etc. So make sure your visual style matches your tone of your brand and there's nothing wrong with any of those tones of our brand. Sometimes brands are bold and that works for them because that's what their personality is for that brand. So don't shy away from bold if that's who you are, or don't shy away from fun if that's who you are. I know there's plenty of people who I love to buy from who actually have that fun personality that comes out.

Carrie Saunders: 9:43

I'm actually thinking about my favorite chapstick called Chop Saver. I'll give them a little shout out on the podcast the best chapstick ever. And they're always fun. He's always having fun in his emails. His pictures of himself are always fun and his words are fun in these emails. So embrace the brand, embrace who you are.

Carrie Saunders: 10:02

So do a mini check. Does your site feel like the business you want to run? So look at your website. Does it feel like and fit the business you want to run? Do that gut check today for me and see are you on the right track? Do you have a little disjointedness? Do you need to just fix some wording? Many times these fixes are just some simple wording or maybe some color or moving some things around or picking the right photos. So don't feel like this is a bit overwhelming. Take a little piece at a time, improve it, see how things go and reiterate on this regularly. So I want you today to do a quick 60 second scan of your homepage and ask, as if you were your dream client, what is the first thing, what is confusing, what doesn't feel trustworthy? And then you might want to do this with a business friend as well. Have them check your website or one of your really good friends in your personal life who you know you can trust to give you an honest opinion. So choose one of these five key areas we talked about today and give it a simple, honest refresh this week and schedule out in a few more weeks to do the next one, and I bet in no time you will have a lot better converting website. It's going to help you get more sales, be able to reinvest back in it and just really skyrocket.

Carrie Saunders: 11:24

So let's recap the different areas you want to look at when we're wanting to evaluate our website, if you think it feels off or if you just want to double check it. So, first off, visual guidance Are you guiding the visitor to the next step? Are you creating that white space? Are you creating that clear call to action. And then next, do you have clear personal messaging? Does it sound like you? Does it sound like your brand? Is it the right tone? And then do we have the proper social proof on your website? Check that next.

Carrie Saunders: 11:58

And then is there emotional resonance within the website? Does it all flow together? Does it be you? Is it not just jointed in different pages? And then we also want to make sure brand consistency like fonts, colors and our photos. We want to make sure they are cohesive and consistent. So these aren't really complicated changes, but they do require a bit of attention and intention, and when you align these pieces, that off feeling will start to disappear and your conversions will go up. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the e-commerce made easy podcast. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the information today and that it will help you with your website. And if you ever need any help auditing your website or having a second view on it, you're welcome to reach out to us at one of our social medias or you can email sales at bcsengeineeringcom and we'd be happy to do a website audit for you and give you more information on that. And that's all we have for this week and we will see you next week.