Your Website Needs These 5 Things

Your website is your business. It's that simple.

Without your website, your business barely exists.

It's how new customers will find you and how existing customer will refer you to others.

Your website is your storefront.

When people visit, your website should have these five things to ensure people understand what you are offering, are persuaded to buy it, trust your brand, and can easily contact you.

1. Clear messaging

Stop trying to be clever about your slogans or headlines on your website. You need to make sure that within only a handful of seconds anyone visiting your website understands two things:

• what you are offering

• how they can get it

Be clear and focused with what you are saying to your customer about your product or service. Think about exactly what it is the customer would WANT to know, not so much what you think is important.

You customer is trying to achieve something by visiting your website, how will what you are offering help him or her achieve that goal?

Finally, don't be vague. Be specific. Sometimes the right headline is so simple and easy and to the point, it might sound like you should be saying more. But I am telling you, less is more, especially during this process.

People will not read long paragraphs on your homepage, or product and service descriptions if they don't get the information they need from your main headline.

Get to the point and get to it fast.

First impressions are important but don't take long to make. You need to me an effective and good one within a few seconds of someone visiting your website.

2. A single call to action

Once someone has made the decision they are interested, they need to know what to do next. Where do they click? Do they email you? Do they call you? Do they sign up for your newsletter or download an introductory PDF guide?

You need to tell your customers what to do next. Do not leave it up to them. Leaving this opportunity in the air creates confusions and an overwhelming amount of options.

If what you want them to do is sign up to your newsletter, have the opt-in form emphasized right away on the front, telling them to sign up, and what they are signing up for.

If you want them to contact you, have a big button different from the others, telling them that's the button to contact you. It's that simple.

But beware. Only have a single call to action.

You don't want to have 4 different buttons and call to actions telling someone to sign up for a newsletter, download a PDF, view your service, and contact you all at the same time.

Choose one and make it count.

The less they have to choose from, the more likely they will act on their interest in what you have to offer.

3. Content

Yes, you've head this before. Content is king, and I believe will always be king.

Content is the secret recipe to success that everyone knows about but only few are willing to implement into their marketing strategy because it takes time.

When Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, Messenger Bots, and whatever paid advertising comes our way in whatever medium or platform we are using, content will always prevail and always be important.

Content is what gives people a reason to keep coming back to your site. It's what allows you to educate your audience and build your trust with them.

With technology and the way we consume information changing, content is always required.

Content makes you perceived as an expert in your field and allow you to engage with your audience.

4. Show authority

You need to show that you can be trusted. That you actually know what you are doing and that you do it well.

How? 

Case studies of work you've done in the past and the positive results that occurred.

Logos of reputable companies, people, or brands you've worked with.

Testimonials from happy customers.

People trust other people. That's why word of mouth is still the most effective form of marketing.

When you give people a glimpse into what other have to say about you, or show them that you've worked with companies and other people they trust, they will begin to trust you.

5. Easy experience. Clean design.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Anything is possible when is comes to building a website nowadays, but I would never suggest all the bells and whistles.

You want to you website to be as easy and straightforward to navigate as possible (unless it's one of those really artsy creative portfolio type sites for an already well known brand or designer).

I believe in minimalist design with clean lines, modern typography, and simple menus.

Information should be easily accessible.

Contacting you should be the easiest thing possible.

Don't make people jump through hoops and links and web pages to sign up for your newsletter or inquire about a product or service.

Menu items and call to actions should be self-explanatory.

Whatever the customer wants should be easy to attain on your website.

This is all much more important than any trendy and cool plugin, widget, or design you could possible implement into your website.

So when you are building your site, or getting someone else to do it *wink wink*, you must take the five things mentioned above into deep consideration.

Implement these things five things and you will end up with an effective and successful website for your business.