What's your website done for you lately?

Most business professionals would agree that having a website is a no brainer.  Some might even argue that a website is a glimpse of a company’s credibility, thus not having one, or having a poorly designed one, causes some suspect.  Unfortunately for many business professionals, their website falls short of the hopeful goals that once sparked the momentum of creating it in the first place. 

If you have ever wondered whether your website was turning away would-be customers unbeknownst to you, then read on.  The points outlined in this article are sure to help you rekindle your enthusiasm about your website and help you re-think your website’s overall effectiveness.

How important is your website in your overall marketing strategy?

Today, your website must be a pivotal component in your overall marketing strategy if you intend to serve a broader range of customers and do not want to be limited to geography for revenue.

Who is most likely to visit your website?

Unlike previous times, visitors are likely to be any combination of the following types of people:

1. Prospective customers
2. Existing customers
3. Representatives of various media/press outlets
4. Job seekers
5. Competitors
6. Research gathers/analysts

Who walked through your website before it went live?

In order to get objective feedback about potential user experience with your website, you’ll want to include clients, colleagues, and associates on your list of reviewers.  Limiting your list to family and friends will not represent a good cross section of website experiences or levels of relevance or appropriateness for different types of visitors.

Do you regularly review your web statistics?

 Paying attention to the metrics behind your website can be wildly valuable in determining where to make adjustments to your website.  By reviewing your web stats weekly, you’ll be able to track the number of unique visitors, how many pages on your site were viewed, which pages were viewed more frequently, how long the average visitor spent on your website and what the referring url/site was that got the visitor to your site.  This type of information helps you measure your overall website effectiveness and adjust your strategy.

Does your website actively generate (and/or screen) leads for the business?

The effectiveness or not of your website is directly related to your purpose in having a website.  If you want to use your website as part of your overall marketing strategy (and you should be), then, it’s critical to incorporate strategies to make your website work for you.  There are many techniques to generate leads that can be incorporated into your website, and depending on your type of business, any number of them can be used - even simultaneously.

What is your primary reason for having a website?

The primary reason for having a website should be to:

1. Maintain a presence on the Internet
2. Promote the goods/services that you offer
3. Educate potential customers and existing customers
4. Demonstrate your competitive advantage in the marketplace

What can visitors do at your website?

Website visitors should be able to do a variety of things on your website in order to keep them on your site longer, keep them engaged, catch their attention and be of value.  Typically, you will want your website to be able to:

1. Help visitors find potential solutions to existing problems or pains
2. Learn who you are and what guiding business principles shape your company
3. Get a sense of the company culture
4. Understand your competitive advantage and what makes your company different
5. Invite visitors to contact you for more information

Does your website help you stay connected with your existing customers?

If existing customers never go back to look at your website once they become a customer, then you aren’t doing something right. This is why it’s important to “put a fresh coat of paint” on your website (at least quarterly).  Website visitors (even existing customers) want to see information that is fresh and timely.  Nothing ruins a visitor’s experience faster than having outdated information - like a list of specials from last year, or an expired coupon.  You must think of interesting, creative and meaningful ways to get all of your customers (existing and potential) to come back to your site on a regular basis in you are going to have and maintain an effective website.

How does your website promote interaction with visitors?

There are a few ways to entice visitors to interact with your company in a minimally threatening and anonymous way until they can comfortably build trust with your company. The easiest visitor interaction activities are inviting the visitor to sign up for your newsletter, requesting their feedback/comments to an article you’ve written, asking them to participate in a poll on your website or completing a short survey.

Can a visitor scan each page of your website easily and quickly?

 Website visitors don’t read your content - first they scan it for relevance . . . then they read it, if and only if, it is of value to them.  You have less than 10 seconds to get your visitors attention and keep it, so you have to make your content “scanable”.  

Here are some ways to do that:

1. White space is your friend - use white space to bring balance to a page; visitors don’t like densely populated or overcrowded pages even if the content is relevant and meaningful
2. Use colored section breaks between changes in thought or issue
3. Use images to break up text that runs long; it adds visual interest, catches the eye

Does your website offer complimentary information that is valuable to visitors?

Because today’s website visitors are information hungry, you must give visitors something to “munch on”.  Visitors become frustrated with websites their either offer no meaningful information that they can put into action immediately or offer information under the pretense that is safely guarded or proprietary only to discover that the information wasn’t worthwhile.

How would you describe the content and information available on your website?

The best website content should be a combination of:

1. Educational information and relevant resources
2. Promotional material/collateral
3. Testimonials from satisfied customers
4. Search engine optimized pages based on visitor search criteria

What do you ask visitors to give you in exchange for access to proprietary material on your website?

Visitors don’t like barriers to information.  The more difficult you make it for them to access your information, the less likely they are to take it, and more importantly, the less likely they are to ever come back to your site.   Be very careful how much information you truly need in order to give something to a visitor.  Try to stick with name and email address, asking for company name and mailing address is bumping up against intrusive.  There are other ways to capture visitor contact information once you have established a rapport with the visitor.

When was the last time that you updated your website?

Your website should be reviewed for relevance and freshness monthly and your content changes should be reflective of what’s happening in your industry.  Oftentimes, certain buzz words or idiomatic expressions can become passé and will likely cause your website to sound dated.

Does your website include communication tools?

The most popular communication tools for websites today are blogs, RSS feeds, and surveys and polls with immediate results displayed.  These types of tools create a virtual open link of communication that gives the visitor a feeling of connection.

Does your website include value added user features?

Currently, the most popular value added user features include contact us forms, FAQs, a privacy statement, terms of use and a search this site tool.  It’s important to note that using all of these features may not be appropriate for all types of websites.  Additionally, depending upon where you are in the life of your business, adding these features later might make more sense than delaying your website until you can have these features available. Be sure to use simple, uncomplicated language in your privacy statement and/or terms of use.

Does your website have interactives?

Interactives are pop ups, hovers, video, audio, flash, rotaing gifs and the like. If you have interactives that hinder use of the site (especially navigation), that take more than 10 seconds to load, or don't have a ""stop" or "off" button, your website will find its way on the “how not to web” lists of critics. Take care in using multiple interactives. Always use your "average website visitor" as a frame for the total visitor experience you want to convey.

Can visitors send feedback or contact you from every page?

It’s important to show visitors that contacting your business is easy to do and is no obligation or commitment on their part.   Be sure to include either text links to contact forms or your phone number (especially if it is toll free) on all - or as many pages as appropriately possible to encourage contact.

Does the “theme & scheme” and look and feel of your website match your other collateral?

Continuity is critical in having a unified marketing message.  Likewise, that sense of continuity must be evident in all of your related pieces of sales and marketing collateral.   It’s important to commit to one design/layout concept and then marry all supporting pieces with the same or strongly similar design concept and color scheme. This ensures consistency - and customers like consistency.  If you have business cards that are red and black, one sheets that are blue and green and a website that is purple and gold, customers will struggle in trying to figure out who you are in the marketplace.

Remember, a website is always a work in progress. Just ask any web development professional. There will always be new functionality you might want to experiment with on your website. It's also not realistic to think any one website should encompass every available piece of functionality. Not only will the functionality of the site start to feel like the project that never ends (which might make some web development professionals very pleased, it could overwhelm or intimidate some of your website visitors.