A website should be your greatest sales person—the one that works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
When designed and developed correctly, a website should be able to engage your ideal buyers with carefully crafted messaging. Most importantly, it should be efficient at generating leads, nurturing those leads into clients, and converting existing clients into brand ambassadors (also known as raving fans).
But how often do you come across a website that does all that?
Many of us have certainly come across a horrible website — flashing ads, gritty layout, questionable font choices. We’ve also experienced sites with content that leaves us wanting, or wondering what on earth we’re reading! Believe it or not, these are common issues among many companies’ sites.
Maybe you’ve done more than just experience a bad site. Maybe your own company’s site is lacking. To truly understand what makes a good website, you need to have a delicate balance of quality design, usability, and engaging content.
Join us for a look at how to propel an average website to one that is A+, converting your leads and producing lasting positive results for your online marketing efforts.
Understanding What Makes a Good Website is Critical for Your Bottom Line
If you’re thinking about giving your current site a makeover or investing in a whole new website, keep reading. Our years of experience have taught us a few things about critical design and development factors, and we’d love to share them with you.
Here’s one thing we can tell you for certain: Your website matters.
Statista’s report of online shopping behavior indicates that consumer activity online is at an all time high. Whether your business is B2C or B2B, potential customers are online, reviewing products and services, and establishing their opinions about you and your competitors.
And here’s the kicker: Over 90% of consumers report having at some point developed a negative impression of a brand based solely on their website. That means you might only have one chance. And that chance is your site.
This means that not only does your website matter, it’s your business’ first impression for many potential clients. Furthermore, it should also be your most powerful marketing tool for nurturing these prospects through an effective sales funnel (which we’ll dive into more soon).
Therefore it is essential that you have critical functionality built into your website to manage ROI:
- Goals & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are tied to financials in Google Analytics.
- Lead Scoring and Marketing Automation that scores individuals who navigate through your website based upon their engagement.
- A CRM tool that seamlessly connects leads with your pipeline and financial Projections.
3 Focus Areas for Your Next Site Website Design (or Redesign)
It is estimated that a goldfish has the attention span of 8 seconds, while a human being has an attention span of 7 seconds. Yep, we are losing to goldfish.
But, if we understand that we are communicating to a marketplace with severe ADD, then we need to make every second count.
Concerned your website doesn’t quite have what it takes to keep your target audiences’ attention? Not to worry. While there are several elements to transition a good website to great, the following three focal points will help you achieve positive, measurable results.
Visual Appearance
When potential clients come to your website, they are getting a feel for what your business is all about. The look of your site helps communicate that to them. Take some time to consider the goals and objectives of your business and what specific aesthetic will best represent your brand.
The art behind high quality website design should be about more than just making your site look pretty. It’s design should strategically communicate your company’s values, culture, and unique selling proposition. Consider the importance of the following visual elements:
- Layout
- Typefaces
- Colors
- Images
- Navigation style
Tip: Design with a priority of preserving white space. These important breaks provide visual breathing room for the eye.
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Website Usability
There are many designers out there who can make your site visually appealing. However, it’s still possible to have a site that while looking amazing, is difficult to navigate, slow to load, or is just not mobile friendly.
User experience is key.
The painful reality is that web designers and usability experts are commonly just guessing when they first build your website. Sure, they can use best practices, they can do a SWOT analysis of your competition, and they can even utilize small focus groups. But without real data, they’re just guessing.
That is why it is essential to make sure that you view your website as a work in progress. Have a growth-driven mindset, always tweaking, always adjusting based on what the data tells you is working and not working.
The best sources of website data are often found through:
- Analytics
- Heatmapping, scrollmapping, click-mapping
- Video analytics tools
Tip: Request our free heat mapping report for your website and find out where you’re losing people.
If you don’t have the time, energy or resources to invest in these tools, we recommend an approach that was made famous in the early 2000’s. It was a book by Nielsen and Krug called “Don’t make me think”. If your website requires too many mental calories to consume, it most likely will not work for your intended audience.
Tip: When designing, keep in mind the “three click rule.” Users should be able to find exactly what they are looking for on your website in no more than three clicks.
Quality Content
When considering what makes a good website, remember that it’s important to carefully select the messages that your site pages will communicate. With so much quality, helpful content on the web, users won’t spend the time to wade through loads of information to find what they need.
Our content strategy follows the buyer’s journey.
The buyer’s journey is broken down into 3 phases:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
If you only write your content for one phase, you may alienate potential buyers in other phases.
Keep in mind, not everyone is in a position to buy. In fact, very few are. So if your content isn’t designed to nurture your lead down the funnel, you are probably going to lose potential customers in the process.
QWASI
It’s critical that your content answers the needs and concerns of your website visitors clearly, concisely, and quickly. That’s why we utilize a formula called QWASI.
QWASI: Questions With Answers And Simple Information
It is really important that your website is designed in a way that users can get access to quick and simple information. Using the QWASI formula, it can do just that.
Your Business Website as a Powerful Lead Converting Machine
As we mentioned earlier, we believe that your website should be your best sales person — the one who never sleeps and is always working around the clock to generate, nurture, and convert leads. Your site’s design and development should be backed by conversion science so that it’s well-worth your investment as an effective, powerful marketing tool.
Speaking of your investment, be sure that the site you build is nimble, scalable, and measurable so that it can be tested and improved over time. Most web companies make their money by building sites that will be outdated in two years. Simply because the web industry has failed to keep up with modern marketing doesn’t mean your company has to pay the price. Build it right the first time, and create a growth-driven design that will only get better as the years go on.
In review, your website should be:
- Visually impactful
- User friendly
- Composed of quality content
- Nimble and scalable
- Measurable
- Growth-driven
To learn more about how we use cutting-edge design and conversion science to build effective websites, contact us today. Or, if you’re doing an in-house site makeover, we recommend saving yourself some time and money by first downloading a free checklist on 10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid During Your Next Website Redesign.