One of the most rewarding things about the job we do here at ATW is helping clients who have struggled with their online visibility and conversion rates. With an in-depth audit we can quickly identify the underlying issues with their strategy, usability, barriers to conversion, and technical problems.
Here are some examples of how we have helped clients with various issues:
New Website for a New Business – No Traffic
The Issues
This is a common scenario, a start-up business has a website designed and built, launch day comes and the business owner waits by the phone for the enquiries to come rolling in. And guess what… They don’t. Why?
- Your website is not yet visible for relevant searches in Google
- A new domain will have no ranking weight (as this aspect can only come with age).
- Google will take some time to index the pages and decide where they should rank
- Most likely you will be entering an already crowded market place with many other established businesses already taking the top spots in organic search results
- You have not yet made a plan to market the website
The new business owner needs to start to generate traffic and sales ASAP to keep the bank manager off his back.
The Audit Solution
- A full audit of the website highlighted the technical and on page issues that needed to be fixed. Extensive keyword research meant gaps in content were identified and a content strategy devised. A link strategy was planned and gradually implemented. However, these findings were a long term strategy and wouldn’t take effect for months.
- A full analysis of the competition quickly told us how they were marketing themselves across all platforms including social channels and paid advertising. As the client needed fast results for quick visibility we suggested a Google Adwords campaign which would drive traffic to his key service pages as well as targeting some less competitive niche offerings.
- Some new landing pages were required for best conversion and within a week the campaign was running. Our client was at the top of Google for his services in his specified geographical locations with the adverts.
- In addition to the above we submitted the site to Google, added analytics, created an XML sitemap, verified in search console to aid visibility and enable accurate monitoring of the site traffic going forward.
The Results
- Within one month the client was getting targeted traffic to the website. From zero visits a day to over 50 per day via paid advertising. The phone was starting to ring and the client was getting a decent amount of enquiries through the website.
- Within three months the Adwords campaign was finely tuned and delivering over 60 visits to the website per day at the same cost, all of which were producing the right kind of genuine enquiries.
- Within six months the client was starting to see the benefits of the ongoing SEO work and he was starting to get traffic via organic search. The level of enquiries had gone beyond what he was able to cope with, so we reduced the spend on Adwords whilst he recruited someone to help him with all the jobs that were flowing in.
New Website Platform on a Domain for an Existing Business – Dramatic Drop in Rankings
The Issues
Another common occurrence, an established business decides to update their tired old website to a new platform with a better CMS and better functionality. A great idea and the new website looks fabulous.
However, over the next month the search rankings nose dive and where this client enjoyed top organic positions in Google, they were now dropping below page 5 in some cases. Their traffic levels, which had been over 5000 visits per month, were dwindling.
As an established business with staff to pay, this client approached us to ask for help. Why was he losing traffic and rankings?
The Audit Solution
A full technical SEO and Migration audit was quickly carried out by the ATW team which revealed the following common migration mistakes:
- The web development company had not made any provision for the inevitable URL changes that occur when moving a website on to a new platform. They had just flicked the site over which caused thousands of the original pages which search engines had indexed to show as 404 error pages.
- Thousands of product pages had been removed during the migration, as the products were no longer to be sold. No redirection plan had been implemented to prevent more dead pages from becoming an issue to users and search engines.
- The developers had also failed to bring meta data over to the new pages from the old ones, meaning a lot of work was required to put them back.
These issues were soon corrected, a full 301 redirection plan was implemented, redirecting any user from an outdated URL to the new equivalent. Luckily for the client we were brought on board before all of the old page URLs lost their ranking weight.
The Results
- Within a couple of months rankings were improving and traffic was returning to the once busy website.
- Where rankings were slow to return, an Adwords campaign plugged the gap for a few months whilst the organic SEO issues were resolved.
An Established Website with Good Traffic – No Conversions
The Issues
This is the position that many website owners find themselves in after they have begun to drive traffic to their website whether through paid or organic search or a mix of the two. With this particular client the product pages were getting the traffic but very few sales were completed.
The client had done his competitor research and knew his prices were competitive, so why was he making no sales?
The Audit Solution
A full usability audit and user behaviour audit was completed which revealed the following issues:
- The product pages had no reviews and not enough technical information about the product specifications to make potential customers confident enough to buy.
- The images of the products were of poor quality, and when clicked on, opened in a new page with an even smaller version of the picture and no way to return to where you were.
- The checkout process was too long and required more than the basic information, which was putting people off.
- The shipping costs were not displayed till the end of the checkout process.
- There was no PayPal option for payments.
- The checkout process itself was not mobile friendly and required much ‘pinching’ and scrolling of the screen to see the next action that was to be completed.
- If a required field in the form wasn’t filled, the issue wasn’t highlighted and the form would be wiped clear leaving users frustrated at having to complete the form again.
- The returns policy was unclear.
- There was no phone number on the website for people to contact the business.
All of the above issues provide a major barrier to internet customers who research and purchase more and more from mobile phone. The technical team paused the ads campaigns whilst the issues were addressed: New imagery of the products with 360 view options, the site was made fully responsive, and the checkout was simplified and fixed.
The Results
Within a few weeks of the changes and turning the adwords back on, the client enjoyed a steady increase of purchases through the website. As the conversion rate grew and we were able to make further tweaks to the website the sales increased further. The client is currently expanding his business and introducing a wider range of products with confidence that his website is producing a good ROI (Return on Investment).
Can we help you?
The above case studies are just a few illustrations of how clients have experienced difficulties at different stages of their business growth and development. Every business encountered difficulties with marketing online or technical website issues at some time or other. If you would like to find out more about our tailored audit services please call one of the team on 01285 50 55 50.