What Your Firm’s Website Gets Wrong

Did you ever wonder if your website is actually doing anything for your firm? Well, I’ve got some bad news for you. There is something most websites get wrong. And I can almost guarantee there is a problem with your website that is crippling its ability to bring your firm new business.

Let me give you a scenario.

The Tale of Two Websites

Let’s say your small firm’s website gets 1,000 visitors per month. That’s 12,000 people visiting your website per year. That’s pretty good for a small to midsize firm.

And let’s assume your firm gets 10 new clients each year, all of which first learned of you by visiting your website. Again, good job.

Over 10 years, your website, in this scenario, would bring in 100 clients. Nobody is going to describe that as anything other than a success.

But your competitor’s website is a different story. They only get 84 visitors per month! That’s only 1,000 visitors per year (pathetic)!

They get 20% of their visitors to subscribe to their site (200 people per year). And each year, they covert 4% of that list to new clients (let’s round that down to 8 new clients this year).

Now for the million-dollar question. Whose website is more effective?

Your competitor’s website is! By a lot!

What?!?!?

That’s right, over ten years, your competitor would have just gained 80 new clients vs. your 100.

But here is the thing…

Over that ten-year period, they have converted .8% of their visitors to clients. In contrast, you have converted just .08% of your website visitors. That might not seem like a huge difference, but it is 960% better than your results. And in addition to that, your competitor has captured the contact information for 2,000 more potential clients than you.

Their website has a better conversion rate. They would just have to increase their traffic by 30% to bring in more clients than your website.

In contrast, let’s imagine both websites had 12,000 visitors per year. They would bring in 96 clients per year vs your 10. And you would have to increase your traffic by 960% to match their number of new clients. It’s a lot easier to increase your traffic by 30% than increase it by 960%.

Now let’s look at it from your current traffic (12,000 visitors per year). If you increased the percentage of visitors who become clients by just .1%, your number of new clients per year would jump from 10 to 22. The number of new clients would more than double with just a .1% increase in your conversion rate.

The Problem With Your Website

Everybody wants more traffic to come to their website. Why? More visitors means more potential clients.

But most A/E/C firms don’t have a traffic problem. They have a conversion problem.

I know ABC Architecture is not Amazon.com. People don’t click a “buy” button and order architecture.

So the conversion we are talking about is convincing visitors to give you their contact information and agree to receive follow up messages from you. That gives you an opportunity to give them confidence in your expertise over a period of time.

What’s Your Website’s Job?

Your website’s job is not to raise brand awareness in vertical markets blah, blah, blah.

Its job is simply to attract potential customers/influencers and give them confidence in your firm.

And that’s hard to do with only one visit.

That’s why you have to capture information about your visitors and follow up with information that builds confidence in your firm. That way, when they are ready to buy your services, they already want to hire you.

Here’s the bottom line:

Your website doesn’t have a traffic problem. It has a conversion problem!

You see…conversion is what most websites get wrong.

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