{"id":276311,"date":"2016-04-06T00:53:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T14:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.easyweddings.com\/au\/pro-education\/three-reasons-youre-getting-website-enquiries-can\/"},"modified":"2016-04-06T00:53:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T14:53:26","slug":"three-reasons-youre-getting-website-enquiries-can","status":"publish","type":"au-pro-education","link":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/pro-education\/three-reasons-youre-getting-website-enquiries-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Three reasons you’re not getting website enquiries (and what you can do about it)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"how<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately the saying “Build it and they will come<\/a>” is only true of\u00a0carving baseball diamonds into corn fields. In the case of modern-day marketing, the French proverb “Rome wasn’t built in a day” is far more applicable.\u00a0With ever changing Google Algorithm updates and rapidly evolving website design, it can be challenging to keep ahead of the digital curve, but here are three easy fixes for bringing your website into the limelight to attract more online enquiries:<\/p>\n

1. Page speed<\/span><\/h2>\n

When\u00a047% of consumers<\/a> expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, and\u00a01 second delay in load times\u00a0can result in a 7% reduction in conversions<\/a>, your website cannot afford to take its sweet load time.<\/p>\n

Not only will 44% of customers penalise you by telling their friends<\/a> of their bad online shopping experience, but Google also detests\u00a0slow load times, using site speed in web search ranking<\/a>. This means if your site loads slowly (and Google’s bots can tell!), you’re likely to be pushed further back in the organic search results behind competitors with faster load times.<\/p>\n

There are a variety of\u00a0factors affecting\u00a0load times, but one resounding\u00a0problem is unoptimised images<\/a>. As Zoompf<\/a>\u00a0explains, an unoptimised image is an image that can be reduced in size without affecting the visual experience for\u00a0your user, also referred to\u00a0as \u201clossless\u201d optimisation.<\/p>\n

There are two ways to optimise your images: manually resizing (ain’t nobody got time for that), and\u00a0using a WordPress plugin that will automatically do it for you, like\u00a0WP Smush Pro<\/a>. This clever\u00a0plugin uses advanced compression techniques to ensure the\u00a0images you’re adding to your shop, blog and other pages of your website don’t slow down page load times.<\/p>\n

\"WP<\/a>
Click to watch the WP SMUSH PRO video<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Check your website speed<\/h3>\n

To check your website’s load time, use Google’s\u00a0PageSpeed<\/a> tool. This free tool identifies load speed problems and suggests\u00a0ways to correct speed issues to make\u00a0your site faster and more mobile-friendly. Simply enter your URL here<\/a>\u00a0and let Google analyse your website to reveal a score out of 100 for speed and user experience on both mobile and desktop devices, along with issues you should<\/em> fix, things\u00a0to\u00a0consider<\/em> fixing, and the areas you’ve scored a pass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a>
Source: PageSpeed Tools<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2.\u00a0Mobile responsiveness<\/span><\/h2>\n

65% of brides now browse websites using\u00a0a mobile device. That’s not a percentage of your target market you want to upset by presenting them with an unresponsive website that doesn’t\u00a0automatically scale to the device they’re using. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015, Google began using\u00a0mobile-friendliness as a ranking criteria<\/a>\u00a0for mobile searches. In May of 2016, Google rolls out an update<\/a> to this ranking signal, which will place even greater\u00a0emphasis on mobile-friendliness to help\u00a0brides discover\u00a0more pages that are both relevant to their wedding planning and<\/em> mobile-friendly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take the test<\/h3>\n

Even though search query (the phrases\u00a0and questions people type into the search bar) is still\u00a0of great importance in the ranking of results\u00a0(meaning a non-mobile-friendly page with excellent content could still rank well), it’s not a risk worth taking. If you’re unsure if your website is mobile responsive, use Google’s mobile-friendly test tool<\/a>\u00a0to find out. If your website\u00a0fails the test, you’ll be presented with a bunch of resources to get your site mobile in no time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"mobile<\/a><\/p>\n

3. It’s too hard to browse, buy\u00a0or enquire<\/span><\/h2>\n

User experience can significantly affect conversion; use of fancy and ambiguous\u00a0icons,\u00a0high-speed sliders that are too fast to read, and hard to find contact details\u00a0can influence the time visitors spend on your website, their desire to enquire and ultimately their decision to buy.<\/p>\n

Contact forms<\/a> should strike\u00a0a delicate balance between gathering enough information for you to prepare a proposal or respond to an enquiry with sufficient\u00a0information, while providing\u00a0the lowest barrier to enquiry possible, making it fast and easy for prospects to get in touch.<\/p>\n

Form\u00a0fields NAME<\/em>, PHONE<\/em>, EMAIL<\/em>, WEDDING DATE<\/em> and MESSAGE<\/em> should be enough for most wedding vendor contact forms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Honeycomb audit<\/h3>\n

Peter Morville of Semantic Studios developed\u00a0a\u00a0user experience honeycomb<\/a>\u00a0to help his clients understand why usability is just part of a prospect’s\u00a0overall website\u00a0experience:<\/p>\n

\"User<\/a><\/p>\n