Making my website work

Recently, I’ve had an increasing number of discussions with clients who are VERY dissatisfied with their websites. This seems to be a continuing theme as more people develop their on-line presence. What prompted this blog, however, was an email I received about how bad this situation has become. Kate was PISSED OFF to say the least about web designers who create “award winning” sites that cost huge amounts of money and do nothing for the business owner – no measurable improvement in business from being on-line.

A web site should be your online calling card. It should NOT be a status symbol. It should bring in business and MAKE money for you. Is YOUR website doing that for you?

Kate went on to say that the web designers she contacted did not even discuss SEO, keyword placement, traffic, conversion etc. When I discussed these things with her, she was genuinely shocked – the designers she talked to apparently gave this little or NO consideration. Just a pretty site with some cool flash animations.

Before you take the plunge and create a website, be sure to give consideration to what you want your website to do. In particular, give serious consideration to what your CUSTOMERS want from your website. This would include your existing customers (so that they can get the information they want without tying up your sales team) and new customers (lead generation).

I just went through this exercise for my own website. Like the auto mechanic who drives the beater car, I too have devoted little attention to my own website – even though I do this for many people. It’s time for an upgrade! Below are my initial thoughts. Perhaps this will initiate a re-think of your own website.



I approached this exercise using the mind map above. From my customers perspective, as a site visitor I look for two things: 1. Ease of use, 2. Easy to contact the business. Lets explore that further;

Ease of Use:

That would mean the site is responsive, it loads fast, is intuitive and is easy to navigate. It should describe what the business offers in terms of products and services. It should provide easy access to what I am looking for, whether it’s general information on products and pricing or technical details and guidebooks.

Easy to contact me

The world is becoming smaller every day – the internet has made the marketplace truly global. One of the first things I look for is contact information – is this a real company that I am dealing with? Where are they located and can they respond to my needs effectively? I should not have to search very hard for contact information.

Do they have testimonials from customers that are satisfied with their services? Nothing speaks louder than referrals from others!

Next, I looked at what I want from the website. My site should do four things: (1) meet my customers needs, (2) Service my customer, (3) develop leads and (4) be easy to use.
Meet my customers needs

If the website is not customer focussed, its not required. I already know me, what I offer and what I can do for the customer. The website needs to sell that elevator speech to my potential customer.

Service my customer

If my website can provide the information that my customer is looking for without contacting me or my sales team, then its providing value to me. I don’t have to pay a customer service rep to send out documents that my customers can find on my site.

Develop leads

A primary objective for my website is that people can find me. It’s not who you know that makes you successful – it’s who knows you – or on the web, who can find you! That means SEO, keywords, content and text (vs. flash) is important! A contact box with an auto-responder can turn a site visitor into a CRM contact, loading your sales funnel automatically.

Ease of Use

The site should be easy for me to navigate and to guide my customer through the site over the phone. Ideally, no more than two or three clicks to get to ANY page. It should be clean with lots of white space and little distraction. It should be easy to modify and update for me or my service provider.

There’s a good start on an outline for my site – hopefully it gives you some insight on what your site should do for you.

For more information, have a look at the post Make your website work as hard as you do and check my blog for updates as I do the redesign of my own site!

Best Success

Norm Bain
www.normanbain.com
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