A website is not a magic bullet; it requires a strategy and focus for it to work. Question is: are you maximizing the results from your website? Are you even getting results at all?
Think about what your website should do for you: sell more products, establish yourself as an authority, get more Newsletter subscribers? And how about your target audience: who are they (primarily)? Local, regional, national, or international? Men or women? Do you have any idea what age group they are in? Children, professionals, seniors? I’m sure you can come up with several other pre-qualifying questions that will help you get a clearer picture of who you are talking to (or hoping to talk to) in your marketing efforts. And your website is one of those tools.
Armed with these descriptions of your primary target audience (personas) you should take a second look at your website and see whether you think they will be able to find what they will the looking for. Are you speaking their language? Are you addressing their main concerns, and are you providing a convincing solution for those concerns? Will people actually take that final, so desperately desired step: buy from you, contact you, subscribe to your Newsletter? How strong are your website’s Calls To Action? Are they visible above the fold? Can it easily be seen by people quickly scanning? Is your website easy to read on a smartphone or tablet?
It may very well be worth your while to ask somebody else to take another look at your website, from a user’s perspective. And ask them to think out loud, so you can learn about their impressions, hesitations, likes and dislikes and whether they would feel compelled to take the action you desire. Then it’s time to start working on revamping your website.
For more information: contact your web developer, or website optimizer Nardo Kuitert at www.ferguswebsites.com or 519-787-7612.
Nardo has written this column on behalf of the Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce since 2006.
