Is Your Website Working for You?
When you hire a web developer, you need more than just somebody that can build a site that looks good. You need a web developer with a business and marketing background that can design and build a website that helps you achieve your business and marketing goals. You and the web developer are partners formulating a plan to grow your business. During the process, hard questions need to be asked like: Is your website working for you? Is it increasing your business? Is it providing useful information for your customers?
Let's analyze your website and explore some ideas to turn it from a business expense into a business generator.
What is Your Purpose?
Start by looking at your business plan and your website side-by-side. You need to identify if your site meshes with your company goals. Does the homepage, convey what your company does and what makes it unique? Do the interior pages walk people through why they should choose your products and services over your competitors? Does the website clearly state your unique selling proposition?
Pay special attention to the homepage. Not only is the homepage a chance to make a good first impression, it's often your only chance to make any impression at all. If a first time visitor needs your services, they must find something interesting in just a few seconds or they'll often look somewhere else.
After you bring the website in line with your business plan, it's time to find out what real visitors think. Ask a friend, colleague or client to look at your homepage. Can they tell what your company is about after a brief glance? Take a look at this tip from Harvard Business Review (March 2, 2010): Define Your Company's Purpose in a Sentence. Before you can announce your company's purpose, you need to know what it is! This is a critical step that many businesses don't take the time to do. Define your purpose and make it clear both on your homepage and all throughout the site.
Who is Your Audience?
The next thing to think about is your target audience. Who needs your products and services? Create a portrait of your ideal client. How do they think? What are their interests? You might have a couple of different offerings each with their own ideal client. Write a description for each type of customer that you're hoping to attract. Research your competition and look at their sites. Who do they think their audience is?
Once you've identified your target audience, you will gain invaluable insight into how people looking for your products and services think. That insight is used to optimize your website for higher placement in the search engines. Create a list of key words and phrases your ideal customer will use when searching for solutions to their problems that your products and services solve. With that list in hand, start updating your content to include those terms. Taking the time to research and understand your ideal customers will make your site significantly more effective at both generating leads, and converting those leads into clients.
Is it Easy to Get Around?
Once the message and the audience have been identified, it's time to look at the navigation. When a visitor lands on the homepage, is it obvious where they should go to get more information and buy your products? Is it easy to sign up for updates via tips and newsletters? Is your contact information easy to find on every page?
Websites are a lot like traditional stores. A lot of people visit with various problems to be solved. What narrows down their choices of where to start? In a traditional store, the large signs above the aisles help quickly navigate to the solution. Your main menu items are the large signs directing your visitors to what they need. Some people like to ask for directions and find a sales person to take them straight to the item. A search button on your site is like that sales person taking the visitor right where they want to go.
The fewer questions people have about what to do next, the longer they will stay on your site. You Tube is a great example of an easy site. People spend hours on You Tube watching video after video because You Tube spent a lot of time and effort creating a recommendation system that suggests other videos they might like. Similarly, your website should lead people down a path and continually suggest what to do next to solve their problem. Usually they come to your website with a problem that your products and services solve. If the path you build leads them to that conclusion, they'll often do business with you.
What Should You Include?
Your site is more than a pretty face — it is a destination with a purpose! A website is a place to learn something new, purchase a product, interact with others, and ask for help. People start throwing things on a website because their competition had it or someone told them they should. Do you know why they have that feature or information on their site? Before you put anything on your website ask why questions like:
- "Why is this valuable to my visitors?"
- "Why should they tell their friends to come visit?"
- "Why should they come back themselves?"
Let the research on your potential customers guide you about what content to include. People come to your site looking for something for them, not to read a brochure about your business. They don't want a marketing pitch. They do want fast and easy solutions to their problem. Ask the why question before adding any content to your website.
Putting it All Together
In order to create the best website for your business, you need to keep these four principles in mind:
- Your site's purpose should be clearly stated on the homepage. As soon as visitors arrive, they need to know what you can help with.
- Your site should attract the right target audience. Include content and key words that appeal to the audience for your product or service.
- Your site should be quick and easy to use. Once people arrive, don't make them guess about what to do next.
- Your site should encourage visitors to linger, explore further and come back often to see what is new.
Wow, sounds like a lot right? Having a popular, useful, informative website that engages new visitors and keeps them coming back is a process, not a destination. Don't do everything at once. Print out this article and go through it with your website. Make a list of changes and work with your web developer to implement the changes over time. Set an annual budget for site upgrades and repeat the process regularly. You'll be rewarded with a website that is relevant, working for you, and generating more business for your business.
