It's time for Marketing Monday again, and this is gonna be a good one! In this blog you'll find insight about what makes a website successful. Let me start with a question: what good is content that isn't growing your business? The most important digital content that most businesses have is their website.
What Makes a Website Successful?
So…is your website growing your business? It is not enough to have a website that supplies basic information to your visitors. It's not even enough to make it look cool and include lots of video. Your business needs a website that is successful at converting leads.
What makes a website successful? It's important to have a strategy before you start throwing money at a web designer. When you're immersed in your business, it's difficult to take a step back and think strategically about what your customers or clients want from your website. If you do it correctly, your website will be an effective tool for growing your business or organization. So today I encourage you to hit pause, pull out your brainstorming cap, and think through the insights coming your way. So here we go:
5 insights into what makes a website successful
1. Well-written copy
The first step to a successful website is writing really effective, persuasive copy. You need headlines that tell visitors what you're going to tell them before you tell it. You need concise sentences that are easy to understand. But most of all, you need to write copy that connects with your customers on an emotional level. Last week my blog focused on teasing out the difference between internal and external problems so that you can offer your customers what they truly want. For details on offering solutions to your customers' internal problems, read more here.
2. One central action
Websites should be action driven. If you sell goods or services, then your website should be focused on sales. If you are a church, then your website should be focused on encouraging new visitors to attend. No matter your industry, your website should guide visitors from the time they land on your page to the action you want them to take.
The action you want to visitors to take on your website is presented as a direct solution to the internal problem you can solve for them. This action should be the first step toward becoming your customer, client, or patient. Your website should convince leads why they need you, but visitors should not feel confused about what action they must take to begin doing business with you.
3. User-friendly
The layout of your website should prioritize one thing: user experience. Here is where you can get other people involved in the process. Go to your local coffee shop and ask a stranger to pull your website up on their phone, tablet, or laptop. Ask them for their genuine feedback! Ask them what they think works, and what they find frustrating.
If your website doesn't function as well on a cell phone as it does on a computer, you've got a problem. More first time visitors to websites are browsing from their phones, which means your website absolutely must be responsive. Make sure that your user-friendly experience extends to mobile screens, and that content doesn't become disordered or hard to find!
4. Less is more
Do not overwhelm your website visitors with too much information. I repeat: do NOT overwhelm website visitors with too much information! When you are close to your business, it can feel as if everything about you is highly important. You might feel like customers will choose you over the competition if you tell them everything you can offer them, demonstrating the depth and breadth of your products or services. But in reality, people choose the business that can most easily understand, not the one that is most impressive.
The majority of the information on business websites really isn't that important to visitors. For example, most visitors aren't interested in reading bios about all company employees. They want to know who the one person is that they should call. They may come to care about who your employees are later, but this is only after they've had a positive and personal interaction with you. Limit the information on your website to only that which is essential to starting a working relationship with them, and answering the most common questions your new customers may have. Menu bars with 8 fields and a drop down list beneath each is overwhelming, not helpful.
5. Build Trust with testimonials
It's more important that your website content reflect your customer than your business. That's why testimonials are so important. Leads will be converted more effectively through third-party testimony than your brag reel! People intuitively believe others who remind them of themselves, and statistically you're more likely to get new business when you have good customer ratings and testimonials. Never be afraid to ask your customers for a review!
If you'd like to see an example of an effective website, check out one we recently redesigned for one of our own clients, Dynamic Physical Therapy. And as always, if you need more help strategizing and redesigning your new website, we are here to help! You can contact us through our website.