What Does Your Website Say To Your Clients?

Have you thought about what your website is actually saying to your customers or users? I am not talking about the facts exactly, I am talking about everything else on your website including website design, organization, content, images and more. Everything you place and don't place on your website is critical to your website conversion rate. When you get users to your site you don't want to lose them with silly mistakes and overlooked opportunities. This article will help you do a quick check on your website and improve your web presence and client conversion rate. In other words - improve the odds of your website visitors actually becoming paying customers.

When a client arrives at your website you have about seven seconds to convince them they are in the right place. Have you ever gone to a website, scanned it and then clicked away just knowing it was not the right site you were looking for? Sure you have - we all have. This usually happens for reasons of design and missing information. Websites that look dated, vacant, have poor color choices, typos, blank pages, dead or 404 Error pages, no contact information, no information on the website / business owner or even just too generic are just some of the reasons people click away from websites. Don't lose potential business with laziness or silly mistakes. Take the time to make sure you have covered the major points detailed below.

Do Have Your Business Name and Contact Information on Every Single Page. If a user is forced to click beyond 2 clicks to find your contact information they may click away from your site. Make it easy and place your contact information in the header or footer of every page on your site. You don't know what page your user will arrive or find first so keep this critical information clear and easy to find. Also, users may be using a cell phone to find you and we know that waiting for a page o load on a cell phone is maddening. Make it easy for your customers and place your company name or your name, your phone number or email address where they can't miss it! Your clients will appreciate the ease of access to your info. One more tip about about this information - if you place your contact information inside an image used in your header, then also place the contact information in text at the bottom or in the footer of every page. Search engines can't read your contact information if it is embedded in a graphic used in your header.

Don't Have Any Blank Pages or Under Construction Signs or Coming Soon page. Empty pages that say "Under Construction" or "Coming Soon" makes you look like you are not ready for prime time. No one will know your website is missing pages if you don't tell them. So don't tell them! You can work on any page in your website without publishing the unfinished page. If someone built the site for you, have them unpublish the page. Just take it down until you are ready with content. Having a blank page tells your potential clients that you may not have your business up and running either.

Don't Over Use Images. Too many images just looks wrong. A good rule of thumb should be one image per article, maybe 2 images if it is long and the content call for an image. If images serve a descriptive or demonstrative purpose to your content, then by all means use the images necessary to get your point across. However, using a bunch of images within an article to spruce up a page or to fill up space just doesn't work. Every image used on your site should have a purpose of some kind. Images should convey a message ideally. There are plenty of places on the web where you can find public domain images or royalty free use images. Don't steal other people's images. If you use someone elses' image, give proper credit and link back to the source. Giving credit gives you more street credit too. The idea is to find an image that can provide your users a clue as to what the content on that page may be about. So be smart and be selective. A final tip - make sure you use your Image Alt Tag with keywords that describe your content.

Don't Forget to Ask Your Visitors to Do Something. Make sure you ask your visitors to do something. Sign for email news letter, coupons or updates. Explain to your visitors what exactly they will get in return for signing up to receive emails, and then stick to the promise. Visitors are scanning your site for information and if you don't ask for something you may lose them once they click away. "Follow Us on Twitter", "Like Us on Facebook", "Keep Up with our RSS Feed", "Call Us for an Estimate", "Take our Pole are just some examples. You have a second to create a relationship with a potential customer so use it!

Organize Your Content For Your Visitors. Keep your content organized and easy to navigate. When creating menu names, don't change the names of the menus on different pages. Keep things logical and easy to find. Create categories and sections that make sense and are broad. Remember you are the expert about your topics, but your visitor is not. Visitors may not be aware of technical names of things. So think of your site as a brand new user who knows nothing about your industry or business. Create menu items and sub items that are clear and easy to understand. Content should be reached within a few clicks, not more than 4 or 5 clicks. Having to click 4 or 5 times means your content is buried in your site and you should rethink how you it organized. Keep it simple.

Remember Your Site Is for Your Visitors - Not You. Usually the first rendition of a site will be designed to the owners' preferences and tastes. Then the second one will be built for the client. It just happens that way I have found. But make sure that it is built for your customer and target audience. Something that makes sense to you having been in your industry for years, may not make sense to someone who doesn't even know what they are looking for exactly. You as the owner may like flashy tricked out websites, but if it is not appropriate for your business, than don't do it. It is better to present your website in a clean, sparse, professional manner that communicates responsibility, reliability and trust. You wouldn't want your bank to be using flashy bright colors and artsy images would you? Probably not, as that is not what a bank would use to communicate with their customers. If your audience is made up of teenagers then flashy cutting edge images would make sense. Keep your audience in mind at every step of you website creation and you simply won't go wrong. Develop an audience profile for your business and stick with it. Are they high tech or low tech? Older or younger? Cell phone users or computer users? It's your site, but your customers keep you in business.

Everything you place on your website, or don't place on your website tells your potential customer something about you and your business. Really think through what your visitors are seeing and reading on your website. Have a friend or a relative who doesn't know what you do visit your website and provide some feedback. It's an easy way to make sure that your site isn't missing any critical information that you may have overlooked. There are more things to consider for your website, but these are some of the most critical factors. You want your visitors to love your website not just you.

Don't Tweet Twittlessly:

Getting A Grip on Social Media

Why should you take the class?

Top Ten Reasons

1. No one knows about your website.

2. The only traffic to your website is by you.

3. You keep posting links to your website on Facebook but your family never visits.

4. You think Twitter is for the birds.

5. You believe social media is a passing fad.

6. You think social media and Facebook in particular is a total time waster.

7. You started a LinkedIn profile but never finished it.

8. You don't know anything about social media.

9. You believe that social media is part of some bigger government conspiracy.

10. Your kids won't be friends with you on Facebook.

New Upcoming Website 123 Class Announced for November 1st  15th (Date Change)

Why should you take this course?

I created the Website 123: Planning, Assembly and Marketing your website based on years of working with my clients. Over the years of building websites and consulting with clients I found similar questions and issues that came up with almost every potential client. Many people are very eager to get a website up and going on the web for a variety of reasons, and then when the details start being extracted there is not enough information to actually start building the site.

So in an effort to help eager website owners I created a class that will help every owner conceptualize their website, save money along the way, and learn what questions need to be asked up front before the job even begins.

Don't Tweet Twittlessly: Getting a Grip on Social Media

Social Media Workshop

September 27th, 2011

@ Ikea Business Center - Brought to you by PACE LA

Don't Tweet Twittlessly: Getting a Grip on Social Media Join us and learn how to harness the unruly social media networking sites to your advantage and your timetable. We have all jumped into the social media pool without knowing how to manage it or what to do once we got on. Well this workshop will help you find your direction on the web. You will learn... How to effectively use social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Linked etc...) How to effectively manage all of your accounts How to create, implement and maintain your online marketing strategy