The Most Important Thing About Your Website

Think about your website before you design and publish it.

Your website is the face of your company. Unless you’re in retail, it is likely the first thing your prospects and customers experience when they interact with your business. 

Yet, more often than not, businesses get their website design wrong. 

Bad website design and functionality can negatively impact your business. It’s essential to get this right.

The Number One Problem

The number one thing that businesses get wrong with their website is failing to focus the messaging on the customers’ or prospects’ perspective.

Too often, a business’s website is “Let me tell you about me! And here’s more about me! Did you know this about me?” 

How does that engage your customer or potential customer? 

Most of the time, it doesn’t.

Your visitor leaves, probably never to return. An opportunity to grow your business is lost.

Think About the Customer’s Journey

Ask yourself, what do you want your website to accomplish? Unless you’re in e-commerce, your website’s goal is likely to start a conversation – to generate a lead. To do this, first think about the journey you want your visitors to have on your website. Then structure and write your website content from the customers’ perspective. What can you to do help solve their problem?

Think about it. When you are looking for something, be it a pair of shoes from Amazon or help with accounting or landscaping, the customer has a problem they’re trying to solve. Their shoes are worn out, they don’t know how to file their taxes or their lawn is brown.

Focus on Problem, Solution, Why You

You should present your website in terms of:

• The problem your customer faces

• The solution to that problem

• Why should they work with you to solve it? 

Again, think about the desired journey and guide your visitors along the way. Then encourage them to contact you.

For example, on your home page, above the fold, something like:

• Problem: Small and medium-sized businesses often struggle to manage their finances, keep their books in order and file accurate tax returns.

• Solution: A professional certified public accountant can help ensure your business finances and tax returns are always in order, simplifying your life and improving operations.

• Why You: Acme Accountants has over twenty years of experience helping small and medium-sized businesses organize and manage their finances, improving profitability and saving business owners time while reducing stress. Our team of professionals works closely with you to identify your needs and tailor programs that meet them.

• Ask: Contact Us for a free consultation. (This leads to a form or an email address and a phone number.)

The idea behind this is that your visitor should identify with the problem statement, get engaged with the solution statement and be excited by how you solve it. 

Get Them Off the Home Page: The Pyramid Model

Your home page should get their attention and interest and engage the visitor to learn more. Once you address the problem/solution/why you, get them as quickly as possible to the information that’s relevant to them.

For example, one of my clients does business exit strategy consulting for three different types of organizations: small-medium, enterprise and non-profit. On her home page, after the problem/solution/why you sections, there are three buttons, each with a BRIEF explanation and a link to a separate page for each of the three types of businesses.

If I’m a non-profit, I click on that button and am taken to a page that’s exclusively focused on my needs. I don’t need to wade through content about small, medium or enterprise businesses. That’s just noise to me and slows me down.

I call this the Pyramid Model. It works for most websites, including navigation links for your blog and about us pages.

Keep Your Website Simple and Easy to Navigate

Few things are worse than scrolling endlessly through a home page (12-15 mouse scrolls!) with detailed information on things that aren’t relevant to me or complex navigation that only the webmaster understands. Rather than convert by filling out a form, I’m more likely to bounce and check out your competitor’s website.

So, get your customers to content specific to their needs and drive them to the contact us form.

Simple is most always the best option for starting a conversation that can lead to a business opportunity!