As I state in the first blog post “Conventional Wisdom is usually wrong”! This goes for website design as well. Conventional wisdom says to “build a beautiful website and pack it with keywords and “rich media content” and you will grow your business.” The “beauty” statement is being promoted by the so-called FREE design companies who are competing for your so-called free business. These are companies who hire graphics people who are really good at selling beauty but not so good at selling your products or services. The “rich media content” people are those selling S.E.O. as a way to “get you on the first page of search engines”. This sounds good but being on the first page doesn’t always create new business and i don’t care how good they are they can’t guarantee you first page results! If they do…run! The following post will explain why over 90% of businesses have the wrong design if they are wanting more new business via a website.
Which would you prefer?
A beautiful website that does not create new business or an ugly website that creates new business? I say this not for shock value but to make a point! Beauty may be important if you are selling beauty but not if you are selling insurance, products, business services or anything unrelated to beauty. This does not mean you should or need to have an “ugly” website! In fact if properly designed you can have both!
Why is S.E.O. Not That Important?
Search Engine Optimization ( S.E.O. ) If you are like me you receive up to ten emails per week from S.E.O. companies promising to put me on the first page of Google. I have an entire post about why this is not important unless you are a fortune 1,000 company. The funny thing is if these S.E.O. companies are finding your website so are others! What is important is that your website looks professional and easy to navigate.
How should your website be designed?
It is impossible to provide a “cookie cutter” answer for this but most websites should contain the following:
Home page: The home page is the most important aspect to any website. If it is designed wrong people will continue to search to solve their problem or provide what they are looking for. Less is more! We live in an “MTV” world where people visiting websites want to get the information quickly or they will leave. Statistics say that if you have not grabbed their attention within 5-10 seconds they will most likely move on. S.E.O. companies will tell you the home page needs to be packed with keywords, phrases and lots of content so you have a better chance of getting on the first three pages of Google. if you think simple does not work check out this >website<! They are doing fine with their simple home page and it hasn’t changed since they started September of 1998! Do a search for your business using a popular keyword or phrase for your business category on Google. Now look at Google results near the top of the search page to see how many people want to be on the first page with that keyword or phrase. I just did one for “insurance quotes” and found 285,000,000 websites that want to be on the first page. Good luck with that! Google isn’t stupid! That’s why they offer pay per click to guarantee first page results. I have a blog post on this as well! So… What should be on your home page:
- Simple Header that does not take up more than 25% of the page. It should clearly have your business and possibly phone number and address if a brick and mortar business. You don’t need a logo but if you insist go for it! If you want to believe the S.E.O. stuff a text logo helps here if it describes your products or services.
- Brief description (one to two lines if possible) about who you are and what you provide. Don’t write a page of information because most will not read it anyway.
- Call to Action (CTA) Video that makes the viewer want more. IMPORTANT! The video needs to be professional if you have a professional business. The look and the script needs to be produced with a CTA. DO NOT educate in the presentation! This is more important than having 100 – 1,000 words on the web page. Most people would rather view videos than read words. The video should not be more than 60 seconds. FYI: As of this post video is one thing that can help your S.E.O. if done properly.
- Easy Navigation is very important so the viewer can get the information they want or need without reading a bunch of unrelated information. Remember the website is for your potential customer/client not you!
- CTA Form to capture potential new business. You may want to have a special FREE offer when they request information or something else to get the viewer to contact you. Keep the requested info as short as possible to encourage them to provide the information you need. This form should be on each page of your website so at anytime they want to contact you they can do so without having to go to a contact page.
These are just the basics for a quality CTA website and as I stated every website needs it’s own design based on what you are selling. If you would like more information about your own business website contact me directly info@SuccessBuilders-TampaBay.com