I see it all the time. And I die a little bit inside each time.
A website with no clear objectives.
The first step in improving website performance is to know exactly what you would like your website visitors to do when they visit your website.
Dust off that strategic plan and set of written actionable business objectives and get your website in line with those goals.
Are these some of the objectives you have for your business?
- Are you trying to build credibility and close sales?
- Are there clear “trust signals” on the website?
- BBB Seal
- Customer Testimonials
- Professional Organization Memberships
- Is there content on the website that leads me to believe that your company is an industry leader?
- Authoritative articles, video, audio, etc.
- Are there clear “trust signals” on the website?
- Are you trying to increase leads?
- Is there a clear way for a visitor to submit themselves as a lead?
- Are there multiple ways to contact your business apparent on the site?
- Do you give your visitor a compelling reason to submit themselves as a lead?
- Are you trying to cut costs?
- Could you reduce customer service calls with a better FAQ section?
- Could you ask visitors for email addresses to cut down on “snail mail?”
- Could you reduce your outbound sales activity by creating a community on the website?
A website can be a marvelous tool for accomplishing or aiding in the accomplishment of many of your business goals. But, as with all things business, it pays to do a bit of planning and alignment before jumping into a new website design.
Your turn. What questions do you have about improving the performance of your website?
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Russ,
You bring up a good point in regards to the cost cutting benefit of a web site. For many, a new web site, or a redevelopment, is looked at as another cost.
aka more money.
and more to budget for.
and also another thing a company has to do.
But, if it is instead looked at as a tool to better accomplish existing sales and marketing tasks at a fraction of the cost, it begins to look less like “another thing” as well as less expensive.
There was a day when that last person finally bought a car and tied up and abandoned their horse and buggy.
In the same way, there is only so long businesses will be able to hold out – without a well-performing web presence.
Absolutely — if you approach marketing as an expense you are approaching it wrong — it is an investment.
Marketing, in and of itself is not valuable (as a new piece of equipment has value) — it is the ROI that comes from marketing that provides value — therefore it must be thought of as an investment.