Your Website Is Not About YOU!

12 Steps to Engage Your Visitors and Get More Leads and Sales from Your

Site

1. Think Like Your Visitors 

Forget everything you know about your business and imagine you're coming to your website for the very first time. What's motivating you (what needs are you trying to meet)? What problems are you trying to solve? The purpose of your site is to solve your visitors' problems and meet their needs. 

 

TIP: Five Questions Everybody Asks 

1. Do I get what this site is about?2. Am I in the right place?3. Is this site credible?4. Do I know what I can do here?5. Can I click on something that will

bring me closer to my goal?

2. Check Out Your Competition

Learn valuable information by visiting competitors’ sites. Your goal isn’t to copy another site, but you might find some inspiration.  

You’ll undoubtedly see good examples of

what not to do.  

 

TIP: Find and review 5 competitors’ sites before you start building or redesigning your site.

• What is the site structure?• What are the most important pages?• Are there special features or functions?• How do they describe their products or

services?• What are the calls-to-action?

3. Why Should I Do Business With You?

You can bet your potential customers are checking out your competitors' websites.  They’re trying to figure out why they should do business with you rather than somebody else. 

How do you answer that question and how can you differentiate your business website? 

 

TIP: Ask your best customers to tell you about your business.

• How would you describe our business? 

• What is the greatest benefit you received as a result of working with us? 

• Would you recommend us? Why?(or why not?)

4. Speak to Your Visitors

How will you grab their attention? What really matters to them? 

  

 

TIP: We make choices based on emotions and justify them with "facts." 

Telling a good story builds an emotional connection with visitors.

We look to other people "like us" to decide how to act.

5. Stages in the Buying Cycle

Regardless of their stage in the process, you want everyone to take an action that moves them one step closer to conversion.

Think about your visitors’ place in the buying cycle and create appropriate messages and calls to action for each stage.

  

 

TIP: Showing food, implying sex, and invoking fear or loss gets attention.Giving something away creates a sense of connection.

Invoking scarcity makes things seem more desirable.

6. Think About the Content for Each Page

You’ve got visitors with a variety of personality types in different stages of the buying process. Your challenge is to engage them with your words and images.

Think about the questions prospects ask most often. What obstacles do they face?How can you reassure them?

  

 

TIP: Describe the features of your product or service but remember, the benefits make the sale. 

Focus on the benefits by helping the prospect visualize how much better their life will be!

7. Writing for the Web

Writing for the web is informal. It’s conversational. 

Keep it short.Use simple words.Make it easy to scan.

  

 

TIP: Read your copy out loud. If you can’t get through it, neither can your visitors. 

And remember to use the magic word-- YOU.

8. Gaining Trust

You build trust by using specifics. Avoid generic claims that don’t mean anything and can't be verified. 

Instead of "We offer the lowest price on Caribbean cruises" think like Expedia:

"If you should find a better price online for the same trip within 24 hours, Expedia will refund the difference—and give you a travel coupon worth $50." 

  

 

TIP: Build trust with• Customer testimonials and reviews• Third-party endorsements• Membership in professional/business

organizations• A clearly-stated guarantee• Awards• Case studies/thought leadership• Good design• Up-to-date content

9. Calls-to-Action

Who do you want to persuade?

What action do you want them to take?

What do they need to know before they’ll take action?

How will they benefit after they do so?

  

 

TIP: If you squint at your page the call-to-action should be obvious. 

If it isn’t, it’s too small or it needs more contrast.

10. Keep it Fresh

How often do you have to update your website?

The more frequently the better, but you should do some updating on a monthly basis-- at least.

Think of it like a garden that needs ongoing care and attention to produce the biggest and best vegetables.  

TIP: Conduct an annual site review. Remove out-dated content and add new, relevant, keyword-rich pages. Make sure your forms are working properly.

11. Web Analytics

If you don’t know how your site is doing how can you make it better?

The free Google Analytics dashboard gives you a great perspective on how your site is performing and if it’s trending up or down. 

TIP: Track the most important stuff.

• Number of Visits• Number of Page views• Bounce Rate (visits of only one page)• Average Time on Site (duration of visit)• Traffic Sources (referring sites, search

engines)• Top Pages • Conversions

12. Visitor Testing

If you want to improve your site the best thing you can do is get objective feedback from real people. (Don’t ask your Mother or your friends.) 

Fortunately, Feedback Army makes it easy and inexpensive. You can ask 10 testers up to 6 questions for only $15.00. You’ll get their responses really fast, usually within hours.

TIP: You can't possibly be objective about your own site. Any visitor testing is better than no visitor testing.

When in doubt, get an objective, professional site evaluation. 

About Us

Barry Harrison worked as an architect before turning to the web in 1995 (back when the first ads with URLs began to appear on bus shelters and billboards). In 2002 he founded Resolve Digital to meet the online marketing needs of small businesses.

Now Resolve Digital works with some of the largest and most successful companies in the world including Google, Mars Inc., InfoSpace and Clifbar. But our philosophy has never changed: It’s all about you!

email: barry@resolvedigital.com or call 888-832-0781