You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

In today’s overcrowded market space, this saying rings especially true to your website – the ‘shop window’ to your business. And in most cases, the first place potential customers will check after finding out about your product or service.

Your website’s design and functionality significantly impacts on conversion rates as it determines the first impression a customer will have of your offering. To remain competitive, every interaction your customer has on your website should appear effortless.

Here are six of the most common conversion-killing mistakes to avoid on your WordPress site.

Mistake 1: Slow Page Loading

The speed at which your pages load is of particular importance when it comes to boosting conversion rates. Unoptimised images, bad hosting and poorly coded themes can slow your WordPress website down and cost your business in potential conversions. In fact, surveys reveal nearly 50% of web users expect a site to load in just 2 seconds, and will abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds.

Site loading speed is also a factor used to define whether your website is worthy of higher rankings in search engines. Slow loading times can lead to pogo-sticking which indicates to search engines that you’re not fulfilling its users’ needs.

Mistake 2: Poor Navigation

A poorly designed site navigation panel will confuse your customers, making it harder to convert them. Studies show that people scan rapidly through your site’s content and can skip important top-level pages in drop down menus leading to low visits on pages that should be getting lots of traffic.

Excessive drop-down menus can also be difficult for search engines to crawl, affecting your ability to rank for key phrases. But there’s another, bigger reason to avoid messy navigation… it can get annoying.

Mistake 3: Cluttered Homepage

Cluttering your homepage with too much text or too many images will only decrease conversion rates. Make every word and visual count otherwise they become a distraction for your visitors.

All the content that you share on your site should be readable and quick-to-scan with the images used being relevant to your content. Without this, people won’t understand the main message that you want to deliver and can feel confused with the absence of straightforward communication.

Mistake 4: Unoptimised Images

Images may speak louder than words but your message won’t get heard without the proper optimisation of visual content. If your images are too big, it will decrease your site’s loading speed, increase bandwidth and affect the browsing experience for your visitors.

The importance of optimising your images for WordPress websites should not be underestimated. When done properly, they can also have a significantly positive impact on your SEO.

Mistake 5: Neglecting Your Blog

Having a blog is a great way to bring organic traffic to your website. Google loves blogs because it provides fresh content that is still a key to beating out your competitors in search engine rankings.

Using keywords within your blog will help visitors specifically searching for your product or service to find your business, brining you more leads and, therefore, more conversions. Don’t hide your blog from your audience or leave it too long between posting as it’s an incredible tool to help connect and engage your target audience.

Mistake 6: Broken Links

When was the last time you did a website audit for broken links? If your visitors keep stumbling across a 404 page they’re unlikely to come back to your site or become your customer.

Broken links creates the impression that you don’t regularly review your content, or even worse, that you don’t care about the customer’s experience. So, whenever you add links to your website, do quick check to make sure that none of them are broken or lead to the wrong destination.

Keeping the above six pointers in mind and applying them to your WordPress site will see the desired boost of conversion rates. And if you’re looking to get professional help to improve your website, look no further than WP Tech Support.

At WP Tech Support, we have the necessary expertise to improve your WordPress website’s performance – including improving your page loading times, SEO and security. We also carry out developmental work and regular updates to your WordPress Core, Themes and Plugins to enhance the user experience and increase conversions.

Our range of monthly plans are simple to sign up for and if you’re not 100% happy with our service then we’ll refund your monthly plan payment.