Is Your Website Organized for You or Your Customers?

You need to organize your Website so that it will be easy for your customers to accomplish their goals. Don’t confuse them by organizing it by what you’d like rather than what your visitors and customers need and the information that they’ll be looking for.

Look at your Website just like you would your brick-and-mortar building, such as good location, storefront and interior. To ensure you reach your customers and prospects, you need a Website that has curb appeal and is easy to navigate. Maximize your layout. Customers only give you a few seconds to find what they want or they’ll leave and not return.

Your Website copy also must have powerful words that convince your potential customers to keep reading it and gain their trust. Features don’t sell, benefits do. Solve your customers’ dilemmas. Address their problems, interests, values and how they like to receive service. And, take action. A call to action is a crucial marketing strategy. Don’t let any reader go past any information on your site without being exposed to a call to action phrase. You need it to motivate a customer to convert them into buying your product or service.

Also, be smart about your Web design and navigation. Consider the pros and cons of elements such as frames, a big splash page or a shiny flash video. These represent a design aesthetic that is no longer appreciated; many times they simply annoy your customers. And even worse, using these features makes it harder for search engines to index your site, rank your Website and hinder your search engine optimization (SEO) abilities.

Does Your Website Need an Overhaul?

Time and time again, many businesses ask me this question. For many of you, your Website probably started out as an online billboard or brochure. That time has changed. Websites are now your No. 1 business calling card and 24/7 salesperson. Audiences now expect to quickly get detailed information, real services and take actions important to them online.

The key is to keep sight of your company’s goals and audience’s needs. It can start with comments like, “Our Website looks dated.” Or, “The amount of clutter has built up and key information is hard to find on our site.” And, “Are we doing everything we can online to have an impact?”

A few years ago, a thoroughly modern Website could ignore social media, RSS, accessibility and search engine optimization; it could do without Flash-based animation, rich media or have no blog. You only added content weekly or much less. When changes were needed, IT was called in to work with HTML code.

Things have changed, and keep changing. Now there are content management systems that you can update easily and as frequently as you’d like and much more. It’s important to have relevant content for your customers and prospects, and to keep your information up to date.

But how do you know? If you are unsure if you need a redesign, you can always ask for a Website review. It’ll tell you what you might benefit from when having your Website updated or redesigned.