How Do You Spell Do-Over?

We see beautiful expensive websites every day that don’t produce. By that I mean, they don’t bring in leads or sales. They do not convert.

Too many web designers still create websites that require one, two or three thousand visitors to produce a lead or make a sale.

It’s easy to  throw around the term “user friendly”.  It sounds good and helps marketing efforts.   But if the site doesn’t produce, now it’s the client’s problem.

Clients are part of the problem, too.  When they look at a web designer’s portfolio they’re not asking about conversion rates or usability. They’re focused on getting the most beautiful, the most creative, the most entertaining website they can, for the money.   It’s only when they discover that their new beautiful website hasn’t improved their conversion rate that they start asking questions.

Over the past couple of years I have spoken to the owners of dozens of web design firms. I have asked every one of them the same question. “Do you have clients whose websites convert one half of 1%, or less, of their visitors to customers”? The answer is always the same, “Yes”.

The ramifications of this could be, and should be, tremendous. Think of the money and time that could be saved if clients demanded, and designers provided, usability and conversion optimization as part of any new website or redesign project.