You’re probably already guessing at lots of things your website should do – and you’re probably right for most of them, but these are my absolute essentials:
# One – have a clear purpose
Most people will say that their website is to make sales – or sometimes as an online brochure, but then a brochure is intended to persuade people to buy, so that’s the same thing. However, you need to be realistic, if you don’t have an ecommerce site, people are probably not able to buy from you online. This means that the purpose actually is for them to ring or email.
# Two – get their attention right away
If people arrive on your website and have to search to see if you’ve got what they want, your website isn’t working. Most people won’t bother making the effort; if it’s not obvious they’ll just go somewhere else!
If you’re paying for your site to be search engine friendly and get traffic, it’s not good news if people take one quick look and leave.
# Three – don’t put obstacles in their way
Make life easy so eliminate anything that will make people work harder than necessary to get your message. How quickly can they see that you’ve got what they want? Are your pages clear or confusing?
Think about your website from the viewer’s perspective – if you know what you want them to do, get their attention and make it easy for them to take action you’ll be way ahead of most of your competitor’s websites!
