This morning I took a phone call from a young guy who was trying to sell me the benefits of signing up to a new website which had just been launched with registration being offered free of charge as an enticement.
The conversation was a relaxed "no hard sell" spiel inviting me to list a property I have for sale on their site. He went through some preliminary questions, invited me to have a look at the site, and asked if he could phone me back asking what I thought of their offer.
I said I would have a look, but prefaced it with me being an internet marketer, and web designer, and that to be fair I would probably be highly critical of their site. Whilst he wasn't the site owner, he was interested in hearing what I had to say, so he agreed to call back and take my comments on board.
We discussed briefly his dream of retiring at 26 (2 years away), and how my comments may help him overcome objections when pre-selling the site. He left me with the website name OnTheHouse.com.au
I always enjoy looking at other people's sites. Not only do I get new ideas, but giving a critique on a site keeps me focused on what works and what doesn't. I did mention to him I would most likely post a blog about my findings.
The first thing I did was enter the site url as a dot com. My mistake - I should have added .com.au. If I was sure I had put in the correct site same I would have closed the site pronto and not gone back.
So here's what I found (and I invite you t have a look at their web site so you can see what I was looking at). Here's what I found (in no particular order).
Mistake 1. There is already a domain with the same name - www. onthehouse.com. which is totally unrelated. For those who use the internet frequently one is more likely to put in .com than .com.au
This means the site owner is potentially loosing vistors who go to the wrong site.
Of course I would try the .au extention, but that's me. How many wouldn't?
Solution: Change the name. I know this sounds drastic, however you can't do a re-direct on the .com to point to the .com.au, so there is nothing you can do to eliminate this problem. Only aggressive branding will overcome this problem without changing the same (and they will still have people going to the .com anyway)
Mistake Number 2. - Assuming I went to the wrong site, I input into Google the site name (with the added search word of Australia), and guess what? Not to be found. Which begs the question "If people can't find your site what chance have you of getting visitors"?
Solution: Spend some money on SEO fast!
Mistake Number 3 - Home Page a disaster! Site visitors are generally pretty lazy, and if you don't have the information they are looking for right in front of them then you run the risk of loosing the visitor very quickly. Statistically, you have 4 seconds to convince a visitor to stay. What was I looking for?
The benefits of signing up. The ease of listing their property and the ease of buying property.
Did I find them? Nope.
Now one would assume the site has been set up to get people to sign up, whether it's to buy or sell a property. With that in mind I pushed on.
Mistake Number 4 - The site didn't have a tag line.
A tag-line can very quickly tell your site visitors what your site is all about, and this site (while it had the room to put one, chose instead to have a large space filled with a green striped background of nothing. Empty space on a website is like real estate without a house.
Mistake Number 5 - Not focusing on the reason they built the site.
Whilst the navigation was clean easy to use, the next mistake was obvious to any site visitor. I clicked on "Join Now", and was taken directly to the sign up page. Guess where the benefits were listed? In a link in the text.
Solution: As this is a new site the benefits of signing up should clearly be on the home page. Until this site gets the exposure it needs to pull in visitors it makes sense to maintain the homepage with the benefits and go all out for getting sign ups to increase their database of prospective buyers and sellers.
Solution: I'm scratching me head wondering why on earth they wouldn't re-iterate the benefits of sigining up by putting them right in front of your face, then adding a link to the sign up page.
Mistake Number 6 - Negative copy
"Why not join now? It's Free". Sheesh! This is negative copy. See the "not"? That reinforces
not to sign up!
Solution: Better to say "Join Now - It's Free". Short, sweet, positive reinforcement.
Mistake Number 7 - Scrolling Text Box
This site had their Terms and Conditions in a scrolling text box. It was a pain in the "a" to read, and if you did read it you probably wouldn't sign up. The Terms and Conditons were quite covert eg; consent to use your name posted on the site if you are the winner of one of their competitions, account keeping fees (not specific as to the charges) just to name two.
Solution: Hyperlink the Terms and Conditions (open in new window) so people can read them clearly and know what they are getting into by signing up.
Mistake Number 8 - Confusing Copy-writing
Here's an example: (and I quote)
"Buy or Sell your house, your way!
onthehouse.com.au makes real estate easy by allowing you to Sell your own property as well as Search for agent listings, private sales and sold data.
Use our free sold data to discover property values in your local area!
Find out more" (clickable link).
Now the first thing I'm asking myself is this... "Is this link to find out about sold property values in my local area, or am I finding out about buying or selling a home? Dunno.
Where
did this link take me to? A Resources page! I would have thought a resources page was where you would find links, hints and tips, down-loadable information, mortgage calculators, etc. To be fair there was a tab for hints and tips, just as there were 2 other tabs for "latest news" and "glossary". Problem was both these tabs contained no information.
Which leads to...
Mistake Number 9 - incomplete site.
No site should be launched unless everything is finished. If you are going to try andentice people to sign up then eeverything which "sells" the site should be completed.
Mistake Number 10 - During the launch period they are offering free sign ups. Now you would think they would put this on their home page right? Wrong! Nowhere does this site tell me the registrations are free during the launch period. On the contrary. I do see what it does cost. So... given the Terms of Service, if I did sign up where are they waiving the fees? Remember the "Why Not Join Now - It's Free?" Doesn't appear free to me. What I do know is that if I sign up I am agreeing to their terms and conditions, and as such I agree to pay them. (Which by the way is 0.5% of the sale price if you don't pay $250 up front). Seems a covert way to get extra money out of people.
Mistake Number 11 - No way to refer
Having an internet business to a large extent is about getting referrals to your site.
This site had no means to get you to refer others.
Solution: A simple "Tell-A-Friend" script would do the trick.
Look.. here's the thing. I could spend all day looking at this site and come up with better ways to do what they want.
So what's the point of doing this as someone who has an online business?
Simply by looking at your competitors sites you can evaluate them from the perspective of a site visitor and a web site owner.
Evaluating what works and what doesn't about your web site really isn't rocket science. It's about
getting the site visitor to do what you want them to do. If you want them to sign up, or take advantage of what you have to offer you need to
- Sell the benefits
- Make it easy for them to sign up
- Ensure all the information they need available to them in one place (stops them moving off your site).
- Refer others to increase the business.
It's not everything, but it's a good start.
Tags: Business Tips, Internet Marketing, Web Design by the silent avatar
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