SEO and Lead Conversion – Hubspot’s Fatal 6 Web Design Flaws

I’m going to share a little secret about a mistake we made about a year and a half ago when we redesigned our Web site.

On the surface it was a beautiful redesign. Oh, so very beautiful.

Slick, shiny, “the new hotness,” slick, and slick (did I mention it was slick?).

And it killed our Web site conversion rate.

After two months of awful performance, we finally bit the bullet and furiously rolled the old site back out, and started from scratch.

The final tally?

Between the actual project budget, wasted pay-per-click revenue, and actual lost sales due to low conversion rates, we spent a significant amount of money on the project. I won’t say exactly how much, but let’s just say it was well into multiple six-figures—on a project that ultimately produced half the results compared to if we’d simply left it completely alone.

I bring this up, because Hubspot released an article about 6 Web Site Redesign Mistakes to Avoid.

And in reading over the list, we made at least three of the six, one in a fairly heavy dosage.

The point of a Web site is lead conversion.

The point of SEO and PPC is to get people to your Web site—which point is lead conversion.

The point of a blog is to help SEO and PPC, inform customers, and get them to visit your Web site—which point is, once again, lead conversion.

The point of marketing is—(okay, you get the point).

Look, this is not a rant against trying something new or innovative with your Web site, or Web marketing. To stay competitive, your Web marketing strategy needs to consistently integrate new, fresh content where it’s appropriate.

But no matter how hot, sexy, flashy, and “engaging” your Web site or content, the point is not for people to say, “Wow, this Web site is hot, sexy, flashy, and engaging!”

The point is to get them to convert.