How to Make the Most Out of Your Website
Your website is your business card, your imprint online, your branding and marketing tool, and so much more. It provides content and images to a large audience and that is why it is so critical you take care to put forth only the best content and leave behind all the unnecessaries. And how do you do that, you ask? Simple. We’re here to give you a head start in making the most of your website.
Firsts up, have answers on your website to the top 5 questions being asked of your site. Your website is the first thing people see when they are interested in your business. They will search it to find the answers to their questions to see if it is even worth contacting you for further information. If they can’t find the answers they’re looking for, they will simply go somewhere else. These five items are what customers want to know.
- Cost - is there a basic idea of cost, or at least a range?
- Problems - What are potential issues with this approach?
- Comparison - how does this compare to other options and competitors?
- Reviews - what are other people saying about this product/service?
- Best - who are the best service providers and what are the best products in the category?
Be honest with yourself - how many of these questions can be answered on your website? If you’re finding holes within your content, it’s important to fill them up with the important information people are wanting to know.
Next, find out what your visitors aren’t finding on your website. You may think you’ve covered all the bases in terms of what your customers want, but you’d be surprised what they search for. If you have analytics set up, then you will be able to access what visitors are looking for and what they aren’t finding. This will help you design your content in such a way, that it satisfies customer questions.
Thirdly, show pictures of you and your team. Try and limit the stock photos if you can and use real images. These are the faces of the people that work for your company, so highlight them! There is great benefit to this. For one thing, customers tend to not engage with a faceless website. They want to know who they are doing business with. Knowing the faces of who you are working with builds relationship and trust. With trust comes new leads, referrals, and ultimately, new sales. This is especially helpful for small businesses who can appear more personal and really engage with their customers.
Now, this may seem like a no brainer, but tell your story! Why did you want to start your business? What motivated you? How did you start? What is the purpose? What is your success? This is your story. Let people in on a deeper level instead of holding them at arms length. Sharing with your customers allows them to relate to you and feel a stronger bond. So go ahead and create your story and put in on the about page and use images and video to get your point across if necessary.
Now that we’ve given you a glimpse of the important stuff to have on your website, we have a few recommendations of what NOT to include.
- Say goodbye to paragraphs longer than five lines. People tend to skim pages quickly looking for the information they need. No on has time to read through lengthy paragraphs. Write short paragraphs that get to the heart of the matter if you want your content to be read.
- No Need for Testimonial pages. Reviews and testimonials are very powerful, however, many visitors never even go to the testimonial page. Instead, scatter your testimonies throughout your website, on every page.
- Skip the “We’re Number One! We’re the Best! We’re the Greatest”, etc. These headlines are actually quite ineffectual. They reek of marketing ploys and are pretty commonly found throughout websites. We know your website is great, but tell us by providing quality content, images, video, etc. that show off your services/product to best effect.
Your website is ultimately a reflection of you and how you run your business, so take time to create your site with things your customers want and you will be rewarded with long-term relationships and a steady stream of visitors.