Key lesson

One of the lessons we are learning in these strange times is that, for many of us, time has become so much less important. We have fewer pressing deadlines and we are not wasting so much time getting from A to B and /or commuting – so, what are we doing with all this extra time?

I hear many business owners are claiming to be “working on their websites” and this led me to wonder what are they actually doing?

Disclaimer

Now a quick disclaimer – I am not in the web design business and I can’t claim to have the best website in the world, but I believe passionately that there’s a world of difference between an average website and a good one.

Visitors and engagement

The key issue is making your website work for your business. To do that it has to be visited and, once there, your visitors need to engage with it. If it achieves neither of these it can be as whizzy/pretty/flashy/innovative/striking etc. as you like but it won’t make any difference to your business…

Let’s take the first criteria – Visitors. Why would anyone want to visit your site? Are they looking for information, a good price/bargain, to check your reputation?  The first uncomfortable truth is that they are unlikely to care about how good you think you are or much about how your business was started by your great uncle Gilbert, rather how close a match you are to their needs.

This should be paramount in your design. Potential visitors will find you using a search engine so start with the most likely search query they might use and design your site as the best possible match.

For example, let’s say you are a Widget supply company in Anytown. Your potential customers are most likely to Google “Widgets for sale near me” So your website needs to shout the message that you have every type of Widget you could possibly want at great prices and you cover an area that includes Anytown. I think that would give them a good reason to visit you!

Now part two is how do you get them to engage with you? Make sure there are plenty of interaction points i.e. buttons or hyperlinks they can click that gives them more. Some clicks will be to expand for more detail and others may be a CTA (Call to action) where they give you their contact details in exchange for more info or better still something of value like an exclusive and authoritative report on ‘the 7 best Widgets for 2020.’

Congratulations but don’t stand on your laurels…

Now here’s the thing. If you are getting visitors and they are engaging with you, you are doing better than 99% of your competitors! Obviously, there is more to it, and I would always recommend engaging an expert to design, build, and host your website, but the starting point is up to you – you have got to know what you are trying to do.

One last thought – One of the ways to quickly lose visitors is to have out-of-date or obsolete information on your site. Also, do not expect repeat visitors unless you are regularly updating it with fresh and interesting/valuable stuff. Why else would they come back?  Perhaps that is what people are doing when they are working on their websites – I hope so anyway!