00:00hi this is Andy from orbit media Orbit's
00:03been focused on building and optimizing
00:06websites for 23 years I've been part of
00:08the planning process for more than a
00:09thousand website projects and I've seen
00:12a lot of data and I've got some points
00:14of view I'm going to share with you now
00:16a list of 13 things you should remove
00:18from your website things to get rid of
00:19immediately and I'm going to make a
00:20quick case for a bunch of stuff that I
00:22think you'll get better results if you
00:24just get rid of it ready let's jump
00:31the first thing we should remove is the
00:33vague homepage headline it's easy to fix
00:36and it's just such a big problem because
00:38the visitor can't tell what you do if
00:39you're not descriptive look at this one
00:41retuning the body what does that mean no
00:44one knows far better to make it just
00:47simple descriptive the name of the
00:48business category so that the visitor
00:49knows they're in the right place first
00:51question of every visitor to every web
00:52page am I in the right place here you
00:55can actually test yourself in a 5-second
00:57test here I've uploaded a screenshot of
00:58a mocked up homepage putting your people
01:00first what does that company do not
01:02obvious if the 5-second test that
01:04appears to a bunch of people they get
01:06the question what does this company do
01:08they can't tell how about something more
01:10specific leadership coaching and
01:11training for mid-level managers aha they
01:14can tell look it passed the 5-second
01:15test because it's specific it's
01:17descriptive and it's key phrase Rich
01:19it's search friendly that's good too
01:21right so if you have a website where the
01:23big text is pretty vague but the text
01:25down below is actually quite specific
01:27and descriptive just flip them very
01:29common easy fix next the generic
01:33navigation labels same thing the
01:35navigation labels at the top of the page
01:38if it just says like products learn
01:40companies support what I can't tell what
01:42this company does those labels don't let
01:44me accurately predict what I get if I
01:46click that's the goal of the navigation
01:48label Ty the visitors segment themselves
01:49onto pages that are more specific how
01:52about this one wholesale medical
01:53supplies hey if I click that you know a
01:56lot about me now you can talk to me more
01:58specifically that's the job so if you
02:00have something that's really generic and
02:02vague and common to millions of websites
02:04why not just make it more specific more
02:06descriptive more keyword Focus helping
02:09helping your audience jump into that
02:10content that's more relevant for them if
02:13you're curious about how your visitors
02:14are using your navigation just go into
02:15G4 the explorations and click on path
02:19exploration at the top you can click
02:21Start over and then from the starting
02:23point choose page path and Screen class
02:26and select your homepage there's the
02:29performance of your navigation that's
02:30how people are interacting with your
02:31menus that's the click through in your
02:33calls to action now you can go tune up
02:35your main navigation by improving the
02:36navigation labels adding specificity big
02:40Improvement next also a specificity
02:42problem the subheads as you scroll down
02:44the page do you see stuff like this our
02:47Solutions what who talks like that I'll
02:50give you a hint the only people that use
02:52the word Solutions are people who sell
02:53stuff visitors never use the word
02:55Solutions I've done thousands of hours
02:57of keyword research in my career and I
02:58never see the word Solutions pop pops up
03:00because that's not how people talk about
03:02stuff that's how Brands talk about it so
03:04yeah that just adds visual noise it just
03:06the pixel height just pushes down
03:07everything below it it'd be a better
03:09Pages if it didn't have that at all or
03:11if you just made it specific you know
03:13and not missed a keyword opportunity if
03:15you happen to have a SEO goal here uh
03:18then that will actually help visitors
03:19and help search engines understand what
03:21you do meaningful subhe headers very
03:23important next the homepage slideshow I
03:27know there's a lot of debate about this
03:28but the data is pretty clear
03:30especially if there's tons and tons of
03:31slides look at this slideshow 10 slides
03:34and by the way on slide eight they
03:35mentioned they're the smartest Hospital
03:37in the world wait a minute why didn't
03:39you put that at the beginning people
03:40aren't going to see any but the first
03:42slide there's a lot of research about
03:44this our friend Tom Bowen summed it all
03:46up in a post on our site uh and you can
03:49check it yourself in analytics just to
03:50see the click-through rate on calls to
03:52action on subsequent slides typically
03:54very very low next stock photos of
03:58people I it's these are just not
04:01credible sure they're polished great
04:03lighting production value right
04:06attractive models that's not what the
04:08world is like and your visitors can
04:09smell that a mile away far better to
04:12just take an authentic picture look at
04:14my team so proud of them real people
04:17it's authentic the visitor can feel a
04:19connection right that's a real person
04:21that's a real person it makes a
04:24difference so show yourself authenticity
04:28is more important to your audience than
04:31quality getting worked up next up social
04:34media icons especially when they're in
04:37the header and they're colorful they're
04:39candy colored exit signs why would you
04:41work so hard to encourage your visitors
04:43to leave traffic is hard to win and easy
04:45to lose why make giant colorful buttons
04:48the contrasting color is going to grab
04:50their their attention and if they click
04:51on that what are they going to get
04:53hundreds of their friends or headlines
04:55they want to catch up on or shoes they
04:57might want to buy or unread notification
04:59or cat videos not good not good for your
05:02for your engagement the best way to
05:04include social media icons is to put
05:06them in the footer if anyone wants them
05:07they can find them right there when they
05:09hover over ah there's the color another
05:12good thing to remove dates from your
05:14blog posts if your blog detail page the
05:17article detail page template has a
05:19built-in date so that it automatically
05:21shows the date and you have no choice of
05:23whether or not to included it's kind of
05:24a problem unless you have a news content
05:26strategy most people do not have a news
05:27content strategy news letters aren't
05:29mostly news content marketing is mostly
05:31about helpful useful articles Evergreen
05:34content most content programs are
05:36evergreen so article like this one six
05:38tips for crafting a B2B thought
05:40leadership marketing strategy probably
05:42hasn't changed that much in the wait 10
05:44years I'm not reading this article it's
05:4610 years old the date just ages your
05:49content faster if you want to include
05:51the date you certainly can just put it
05:52into the headline or the body text or
05:54the title tag next on the list long
05:57paragraphs web designers know that
05:59visitors love Whit space but writers
06:00didn't get the memo never write a
06:03paragraph longer than three lines
06:04because big Blacky paragraphs get
06:06skipped so this is not a good idea far
06:09better to break up your content simply
06:12by hitting the return key more often and
06:14never missing the opportunity to use
06:15bullet lists or numbered lists or bold
06:17or italics or subheads or multiple
06:20images or internal links or any
06:22formatting that's going to slow down
06:23your scan reader and help them know
06:25where to jump into your content we know
06:27that that readers aren't reading every
06:28word why not acknowledge that accept it
06:31and make your content highly scannable
06:33and definitely avoid those long blocky
06:38releases people are going to disagree
06:40with me I understand that please hear me
06:42out the press release was not meant for
06:44the internet just take a look at this
06:46one for immediate release what does that
06:49mean to anybody the headline that's not
06:52really aligned with any headline best
06:53practices big blocky paragraphs we just
06:55talked about no visuals no formatting no
06:58contribut Quotes no bullet list no well
07:01there is an internal link but weirdly it
07:03goes to the same website they were
07:04already on and then there's an about
07:06section but that about section's kind of
07:07weaker than the actual about page which
07:09is very detailed and has a a story and a
07:12motion and video so everything about
07:14this is is is weaker than other versions
07:16of it other places there's immediate
07:18contact but who is this person there's
07:19no link to a bio there's an email link
07:22and this just doesn't work well as web
07:25content far better instead of posting a
07:27press release or maybe in addition to
07:29posting ing your press release you also
07:30go write the story that you're hoping
07:32the press release would have triggered
07:34when it was you know read by an editor
07:36or a journalist go write the story and
07:39make it a good one right tell your don't
07:40wait for someone else to tell your story
07:42tell it yourself and that PDF file we
07:45just saw one that PDF file not a fan PDF
07:48side jok call them the rust of the
07:50internet because after our website's
07:51really hard to update people start to
07:53work around the difficult to use CMS by
07:55just uploading PDF files you know when
07:58in fact they just need a better way to
08:00manage content PDF files don't appear in
08:02analytics they've got no JavaScript code
08:04if your PDF goes viral you'll never know
08:06they're not easy to share no there's no
08:08interactivity built into them they're
08:10not easy to update it's literally a
08:11print simulation they're not accessible
08:14for people with disabilities they're not
08:15search friendly there are no seos who'd
08:17recommend a PDF as a a go-to format for
08:20search you know yes you can control the
08:22exact formatting but and it's easy to
08:24download offline but this does not align
08:26with digital content best practices it's
08:28something that can use as an alternate
08:30format to something that already exists
08:32in an HTML format that's best practices
08:34for the web how many PDFs do you have on
08:36your website you can easily check just
08:38use this search operator or these two
08:40search operators site colon domain space
08:44file type colon PDF and that will tell
08:47you how many PDFs Google has found on
08:48your website in other words sort of how
08:50much rust there is on your website so uh
08:53next the testimonials page I love
08:55testimonials testimonials are powerful
08:57social proof along with evidence and
08:59awards and you know trust seals and uh
09:02data and statistics and years in
09:04business and reviews these are powerful
09:05types of evidence right the best web
09:07pages are filled with evidence they
09:08don't they they don't make a bunch of
09:10unsupported marketing CL uh claims the
09:12worst web pages are just piles of
09:13unsupported marketing claims so yes
09:16testimonials are great they're powerful
09:18why because they flip the script you
09:20take a powerful message and you change
09:21the messenger for that message when you
09:23make the audience themselves the
09:24messenger then that message becomes far
09:26more credible testimonials can become
09:28super authentic when they include a face
09:30a name a company a job title a company
09:33uh the logo a headline a little headline
09:36with it right the quotation quotes are
09:37the most powerful key on your keyboard
09:39no doubt and keyword Focus testimonial
09:42right a text based testimonial you can
09:43put a keyword into my point is make
09:46every page a testimonials page don't
09:48hide all your testimonials on a page
09:50called testimonials because visitors
09:51won't click on it look at this analytics
09:53account the testimonials page is the
09:5433rd most popular page hey why do we put
09:57our best social proof on our 33rd most
09:59popular page it's not that you meant to
10:01it's that you put them all together
10:02where they were weak because visitors
10:03tend not to click on that navigation
10:05label next up email links hear me out
10:09strong here's my point of view if you
10:12the desired action for a visitor on a
10:13website is to get in touch but the
10:15better mechanism for that is the contact
10:16form a contact form has so many
10:19advantages over email uh break it down
10:21it's trackable in analytics it's more
10:23reliable because email doesn't always
10:25get through someone submits a contact
10:27form it goes right into your CRM
10:28database right it can take the person to
10:30a thank you page with additional
10:31information it can send them an autor
10:33response which isn't usually the case
10:35they don't have to be on a computer with
10:36their email program right it can route
10:38the message and do lead scoring it can
10:41you know you can go to multiple people
10:43and it's not a Spam magnet every email
10:45link is a spam magnet because spammers
10:46right software that crawl the web grab
10:48every you know scrape every email
10:50address and then you start to get more
10:51spam so you know set up uh all your all
10:55your desired actions should have a
10:57contact form calls to action go to Conta
10:59contact form contact form goes to thank
11:00you page thank you page is set up as a
11:02conversion in Google analytics 4 right
11:04G4 last up dead ends the website dead
11:07end we're at the bottom of the
11:08experience they took an action they
11:09landed on the thank you page uh what is
11:11that thank you page have look at this
11:13one nothing it just says thank you
11:16here's ours it says thank you uh but if
11:18that's all it said it might as well just
11:20say goodbye right there's nothing here
11:23might go away go find another website
11:25and fill out another contact form right
11:26you're not offering them anything so
11:29it's a missed opportunity to add content
11:30or add a subsequent conversion look at
11:32this we've got an actual call to action
11:34here like you can subscribe to our
11:35newsletter from that thank you page wait
11:38a minute does anybody actually subscribe
11:39to a newsletter from your thank you page
11:41yes they do here's the analytics I track
11:43that as a separate conversion hundred
11:45hundreds of people per year subscribe to
11:47our newsletter from that our email from
11:49that uh thank you page so uh find and
11:52fix every de on your website keep your
11:54visitors flowing and never miss the
11:55chance to give them more information
11:57keep helping and that's your first
11:59interaction with your new Prospect so
12:00put on the white gloves and roll out the
12:02red carpet and give them a great
12:03experience at least if nothing else make
12:05it a compelling message informing them
12:06about the next steps so there you have
12:09it those are the 13 things that we
12:11recommend removing from your website we
12:12know this was a mini rant uh kind of fun
12:14to break it down this way yes there may
12:16be exceptions in use cases I get that
12:18but if you know someone who's struggling
12:19to Performance from their site feel free
12:20to pass this along again Andy from orbit
12:23media that was a lot um but um we enjoy
12:27making these and come back and we'll uh
12:30we'll have another one for you bye-bye
