Before we kick off the 3 things you need to have on your site, let’s just take a moment and run through what a website is NOT meant to be.
Firstly, your site is NOT meant to be a place where you just tell the world what you believe you are good at. Secondly, it is NOT meant to be designed like some modern art piece (confusing – wtf is it?). Finally, it definitely is NOT meant to be incomplete and unfinished.
With this in mind, I’ve got a list of three things your website NEEDS to have.
Yes, you might already have a bunch of positive information about your products, staff or services, but make sure it’s structured in a way that shows how you meet the specific needs each customer has.
Taking the time to clearly identify these, and then provide a clear explanation of each, means that your website design and marketing efforts are headed in the right direction.
While “WIIFM” may sound like the name of a local radio station (oh man – it would be called Wee FM!!), it actually stands for ‘What’s In It For Me?’ – the single most important question you need to answer for your website visitors. Get it right, and you’ve got a great chance of grabbing their interest and moving them on through to action.
Have you ever had a boss who, when explaining what you need to do, ends up leaving you confused and with no idea what they actually want to happen? Many websites make the same mistake. The information may be valuable, but it isn’t really clear what they expect their visitors to do.
For your site to be truly effective, take the time to consider the steps a visitor must go through to take the action you want them to take. Then, make it easy for them to do it! And keep in mind, the more effort you’re asking for, the more people you’ll get who won’t do it.
Apart from the massive impact it has on SEO, failing to provide your name, address, phone number, email address and social media links can make your site seem incomplete. Not including your basic contact details also makes it super hard for people to contact you.
How often have you wondered where a business is located, and headed to their contact page to find out? If that information wasn’t handy, how likely would you be to want to actually work with them?
These three areas might seem super obvious, even a little bit simplistic, when going through website design and its marketing. The problem is, more often than not, one or more of these points are messed up.
Not sure if you’re getting it right? We’d be happy to give you some pointers.
