Website Optimization: Removing Obstacles for Client Conversion

Remove excessive colors, simplify navigation, use relatable language, replace contact forms with direct booking, avoid social media links, and use authentic, non-exaggerated images.

### 7 Things to Remove from Your Website for Better Conversions
* 🎨 Crazy color schemes can make your site look **homemade and unprofessional**. "Even if your clients can't pinpoint why something's off, they'll **feel it**."
* 🚶 Complicated menus can confuse visitors and make it hard for them to find what they're looking for. The **magic number for menu items is five**.
* 💬 Self-indulgent content that focuses on **bragging or corporate jargon** can turn off your audience. Instead, make the visitor the hero and keep the language **simple and relatable**.
* 📧 Traditional "Contact Us" forms are vague and can create uncertainty. Replace them with **direct calendar booking tools like Calendly** for **clarity and efficiency**.
* 📱 Social media links on your website can **distract visitors and take them away from your site**. It's better to **keep them engaged with your content and services**.
* 📸 Overly posed stock photos can make your site feel **staged and inauthentic**. Choose or create images that feel **natural and capture the customer experience**.
* 👥 Stock photos meant to represent you or your team can erode trust. People value doing business with real humans, so it's important to show the **actual people behind the business**. "If visitors think you're using stock photos to represent your team or your work, it's like you're hiding, and that makes them **trust you less**."

as a website marketing pro, I've reviewed and worked on literally thousands of websites. And if your site's not helping you get more leads or paying clients, it's much more likely that you don't need to add anything to your site at all, but you do need to get rid of some things. Things that are confusing your visitors, pulling them away from where you want them to go, and in some cases, just scaring them off. So in this video, I'm going to share the seven things that you need to remove from your website right now, while each is ruining your ability to get clients, and what works way better so you can keep more of your site traffic right where you want them, where they can quickly turn into paying customers. And the first thing you need to remove from your website is any kind of crazy color scheme. So, I see it all the time, especially when business owners DIY their own site and they don't really have that designer's eye, but they don't want their site to be boring. So they end up choosing either too many colors or

the colors they do choose are just used wrong, so it ends up looking way more homemade than it should. It's not just about what we can do right; it's about having the instinct to pull back to edit. Because even if your clients can't pinpoint why something's off, they'll feel it, and that gut feeling can make people really second guess the credibility of your business. And this is the kind of thing I'm talking about, and I see it quite a bit. So we've got this, you know, colored gradient up here, and then we've got another really bold color solid background here, and it just doesn't really go so great with the green above it, right? Then as we scroll down, we've got these color blocks that Clash even more. And then as we scroll down more, we've got this, you know, muddy kind of colored gradient here. And this would all look so much better, so much more like a pro designed it, if they were to pull back on how many colors they used and use them a lot more subtly like

in buttons or in headlines, maybe icons. You know, those little design elements, that's where your color should pop out against, you know, more neutral backgrounds. And the second reason to pull back is because your website really should guide visitors where you want them to pay attention, not overwhelm them with color. You know you want attention on your call to action, your persuasive words, and the testimonials. So just pick a few colors that feel good with your brand and then use them to accentuate, not to dominate. Okay, next up. If you've ever landed on a website and didn't really know where you should go or what you're supposed to do, that's a problem. When your site visitors feel like that, guess what, they're not going to waste their own time figuring it out. They're just going to leave. So your site isn't a place for visitors to just wander around aimlessly. It's about leading them straight to why they're there in the first place, which is to see if they want to work with you, right? And the way to do that is to get rid of your complicated

menu now based on my own experience making hundreds of sites for service businesses and teaching thousands more of them through my course. I find the magic number for menu items is five. And know this isn't just like a random preference of mine. It's about cutting through the clutter to give them a really clear path. Now this menu here for this Law Firm just makes it too complicated with all these choices. That means all these extras right Media blog jobs for lawyers only whatever that means. I mean you may think that they're important but if they're not directly leading to a conversion like none of these are. They shouldn't make the final cut to be up top here. So what you want to do instead is keep your navigation really nice and simple and only include the pages that people would actually need to see to want to become a customer. Everything else can find a home somewhere else on your site usually down in the footer menu where people who really want to find them can. But what about the actual written content of your

website. So, if your website uses mostly self-indulgent wording and that can look like bragging about how good you are like on this website, or if you're leaning on corporate jargon like on this one, or if you're just making it all about you, you're off track. So, you may think that this is what being professional looks like, but trust me, it isn't clicking with your audience. So, here's what you should do instead. You know, rather than making it all about how awesome you are as a business, turn your visitor into the hero. Talk about their challenges and how you can guide them toward getting it solved, just like this website does. And keep it simple, like honestly, as if you're explaining it to an eighth grader. Now, this website in particular caters to savvy business owners and leaders, but the language that's used here is still simple enough for anyone to understand it. No need for big words, you know. Honestly, the biggest, most successful companies in the world know not to sound like mega-corporations.

on their websites, they keep their language super relatable because it works, you know. It draws people in. Albert Einstein actually nailed it when he said, If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. So, by using easily understandable words on your website, it helps your audience see that you're the expert they need without making their heads spin. Okay, next we need to talk about something on your site that's supposed to help people get started with you, but it can actually get in the way of it instead, and that is the traditional contact us form. So why should you remove yours? Well, because they're usually pretty super vague about what happens after someone hits submit. Do they just wait for an email back or a call that might come when they're in the middle of something else? It's all just a bit mysterious, and that mystery is a huge turnoff, right? People want to avoid doing anything when they're not sure about what comes next. It's inefficient, and in a world where everyone's looking for clarity and convenience, it just

doesn't cut it anymore, but you obviously need something in its place. Right, here's what I found works much better. So, if you're trying to book consult calls, appointments, anything like that, plug in a direct calendar booking tool like Calendly right on your website. So, I made the switch on my own website years ago, and it just works seamlessly. So, the way it works is visitors can see exactly when you're available, and then they book themselves in for a time that works for them and for you. No tedious back and forth necessary, and it just cuts out all the guesswork. They know exactly what to expect and when. It's clear and efficient, making it way more likely that they're going to take that next step toward working with you. And believe it or not, if you want to be sure that they'll take that next step, you've got to remove your social media from your website. Now, hear me out here. Social media is up here at the very top of your sales funnel. It's where people probably first find you.

then they get interested in you right, and they decide they want to know more. And as they move deeper into your funnel, that's where they hit your website where you've got the home court advantage. This is where you control the narrative and you set the scene, and you gently nudge them closer to making a purchase. So why then would you want to distract them and send them back to your social media with buttons like these in the top navigation or your Instagram feed plastered all over your homepage? You know it's just asking for them to take a step backward in the sales journey, 'cause once they're on your site, you want to keep them there engaged with your content, learning about your services, and moving toward a decision. Believe me, you don't want to get a new follower at the expense of losing out on a potential customer. Okay, and our next website element on the chopping block is something that can seriously just suck out so much of the authenticity of your business, and that is all of these overly posed, exaggerated stock photos on your

website. And you know, these images might, you know, fill the space on your site. Sure, but they also make this site just feel staged and completely disconnected from the actual experience of working with this business. When people can just tell it at stock, especially when it's bad stock. And I would argue that pretty much everything on this page is, you know, cheap-looking, pretty generic, bad stock. They're going to start to subconsciously wonder what else here isn't real, you know, the promises, their reviews, and that's a road you just don't want to go down. But hey, I get it, not everyone has the budget for a professional photo shoot. The good news is you don't have to have one, you know, you can still use stock photos or even better create your own AI-generated ones using something like Mid-Journey. The trick here is to either pick or create images that feel natural and really capture the feeling that your customers have after working with you. Now, I actually recommend going for more satisfied-looking expressions over ecstatic and just aim for the higher quality images that don't really

scream stock photo, and here's another Pro tip here. So, real locations typically feel more authentic than those with just like the plain solid background like that. These just add kind of a layer of realism to the story that you're telling, but most importantly, when it comes to your about us page, you definitely need to get rid of stock photos that are meant to be you or your team, right? People need to see that there are actual humans behind the business. You know, people just really value doing business with real people, and they need to feel like those real people are here somewhere. So, if visitors come and they think that you're using stock photos to represent your team or your work, it's like you're hiding, and guess what? That makes them trust you less. And while it's true that you want to give people a glimpse of the real humans behind your business, you don't want to go too far in that direction and make it all about you and your team. So, if you have a team, you

should definitely remove these team bios from your site. You know, the ones that dive deep into everyone's likes and dislikes, and maybe even their favorite pizza toppings. Right here's the thing, while it is cool to celebrate your team and make them feel seen on your site, your clients don't really care. And you know, when you start linking out to every team member's social media, that is just another detour off the path that you want them on. So instead of laying out that grid of BIOS, why not just keep it simple with a really nice group shot right here on your about us page? So it shows that there are real smiling people behind your work without leading your potential clients on a wild goose chase. But that's just what you should take away from your website. What about all the things that it actually needs to be able to automatically convert first-time visitors into warm leads and paying clients? Well, I've got the entire blueprint for you. Literally every single thing you need laid out in one simple on-demand video training so

click right here to learn and copy my clients on-demand website blueprint. Just for service businesses, it's a whole lot easier than you think. So click right here to save your spot, and I'm going to send you the master class video right away. Can't wait to share it all with you.

7 Things to Remove From Your Website Immediately

Wes McDowell

Improving Your Website to Attract More Clients

Crazy color schemes can make your website look unprofessional and homemade, so it's important to use colors more subtly and sparingly.

Your website should guide visitors' attention to the call to action, persuasive words, and testimonials, rather than overwhelming them with color.

It's crucial to make it clear to visitors what they should do on your site and guide them towards the purpose of their visit, which is to consider working with you.

Simplifying Website Menus and Content for Service Businesses

The ideal number of menu items for a website is five, to provide a clear path for visitors.

Website navigation should focus on pages that directly lead to customer conversion, keeping it simple and moving additional items to the footer menu.

The written content of a website should focus on the visitor, addressing their challenges and keeping the language simple and relatable.

Avoiding self-indulgent wording and corporate jargon is crucial for connecting with the audience.

Instead of a traditional "contact us" form, provide clarity and convenience for visitors to encourage engagement.

Improving Website Conversion with Simple Changes

Using a direct calendar booking tool like Calendly can seamlessly allow visitors to book appointments, eliminating the need for back and forth communication.

Removing social media links from the website can help keep visitors engaged and focused on making a purchase, rather than getting distracted.

Avoiding overly posed stock photos on the website can help maintain the authenticity of the business and improve the overall impression on visitors.

Improving Your Website with Authentic Images

Using generic and bad stock photos can make your website feel staged and disconnected from the real customer experience.

Instead, consider using natural and AI-generated images that capture the feeling of working with your business.

It's important to avoid using stock photos to represent your team, as it can make your business seem less trustworthy.

Find a balance in showing the real humans behind your business without making it the sole focus.

Streamlining Your Website for Better Client Conversion

Team bios with personal details and social media links can be a distraction for potential clients.

A simple group shot on the about us page is more effective in showing the human side of the team.

An on-demand video training is available to learn how to optimize your website for converting first-time visitors into paying clients, specifically for service businesses.