5 Steps For A More Effective Website

By TJ Gilsenan posted 10-11-2011 17:18

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Even with all the energy surrounding social media. your website is still your most important piece of internet real estate. It's the one place online dedicated exclusively to you. Where you get to call the shots. Where people know they can go to learn about you. To help you make the most of this: Here are five steps to a more effective website.

1. Capture visitor attention right away
When a visitor lands on your home page, they should be able to tell right away who you are and what you do. Online, attention spans are short and choices are many. If it takes somebody more than 5 seconds to figure out what you’re about chances are they’ll leave and never come back.

To quickly engage your visitors, make sure your home page makes clear who you are and what you do. For example “ ABC Wealth Management is a San Francisco-based wealth management firm specializing in financial planning for individuals”. (Here's an example from my home page). It lets people know they are in the right place.

2. Keep visitors on your site
The reason you have a website is so that people can learn about how you can help them. To do that, they have to stay on your site. Offering links to other websites only makes it easy for visitors to leave. (Not to mention that many of your major competitors advertise on the sites to which those links lead)

A better strategy is to link within your own site. Consider adding links to your home page that point to the interior pages of your website. This helps visitors explore your site and stay engaged.

3. Stay on message
Remember that your website is the only place online devoted exclusively to you. If your clients and prospects are ever going to learn about you, this is the place. It's a good idea to keep distraction to a minimum.

For example, your visitors can get market data anywhere on the web. They come to your website to get information about you. (Or more specifically, what you can do for them).

Why not use the space on your website you’re currently using for market data to offer your visitors a chance to sign up for your newsletter? Or register for an upcoming workshop you are holding? There are a lot better ways to put that space to work.

4. Keep the conversation going
Even the best website can only go so far in educating clients and building relationships. This is because, once people have visited your site, they rarely come back. So how do you keep the conversation going once they’ve clicked away?

By asking for permission to stay in touch. You get this permission when a visitor subscribes to your blog or signs up for your email newsletter. By doing so, they're saying that they would like to hear from you in the future.

5, Measure for Success
Just like a portfolio, your website performance can be measured and optimized for desired outcomes. This process starts by setting up a measurement tool like Google Analytics (a free tool offered by Google)

With it you’ll be able to answer questions like:

How many people visited your website last week?
How long were they there?
Which of your website pages did they visit most?
What content is most attractive to visitors?

To get the most out of your website, treat it like a portfolio. Set goals, measure your progress, and optimize for your desired outcomes. Why settle for under-performance?

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