Is your website ready? Five Things You MUST Check
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Is Your Website Ready? 5 Things You MUST Check Charles E. Crouch © Charles Crouch, 2008-13, All rights Reserved
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Website designs may include unseen barriers which keep people from visiting the site and easily taking the actions you wish them to complete. This presentation discusses five things every website owner should check to ensure their site is easy to use and encourages visitors to complete your goals for them. • Home pages that attract visitors • Interesting content for your target audience • Encourage clicks by your search engine listing • Show a clear path to your goal • Use a call to action that converts Topics in the presentation include simple navigation, encouraging users to act, interesting content, clear search engine listings, good content structure, descriptive meta tags, customer decision process and clear call to action.
Transcript of Is your website ready? Five Things You MUST Check
Is Your Website Ready?5 Things You MUST Check
Charles E. Crouch
© Charles Crouch, 2008-13, All rights Reserved
Your New Website!
Home
About
News
Contact
It is with great pleasure that we announce the grand opening of the ACME Widgets company website where you can learn all about ACME and its fine line of products.
Your new website is online. You’ve even had the launch party!
But when you go to check...
Where are your customers?
Too often we set up barriers we do not even recognizethat keep visitors from reaching the goals we want.
Here are 5 things every website owner MUST check
✓Home Pages that Attract Visitors
✓ Interesting Content for Your Target Audience
✓Encourage Clicks by Your Search Engine Listing
✓Show a Clear Path to Your Goal
✓Call to Action that Converts
Home Pages that Attract Visitors
Your Home Page is:the First Impression of your business. It must:
✓attract visitors
✓have clear, easy navigation
✓encourage them to complete your goal
But youonly have
3 to 4 Seconds to do all this!
Attract visitors:Your website home page is like the entrance to your store:
Both of these work, they are just designed for different types of customers. Design your website for your customers and their needs.
Clear Navigation
✓Easy to understand
✓Show a clear path
Never leave your customers confusedabout where to go next.
Encourage visitors to complete your goal
Etsy provides numerous ways to shop. They do not care how, just as long as you shop
with them.
Interesting Content for Your Target Audience
Key Questions to Ask
Who is your Target Audience?
What do they want to know?
Not: What do you want to tell them?
How can you make it easy for them, not you?
You must be able to answer all of thesequestions in detail.
Too many websites look like this.
About UsOur
OrganizationOur
ProductsNews
About UsContact Us
Our New Company Headquarters!
ACME Widgets
Welcome to ACME Widgets
With the opening of our new company headquarters, ACME Widgets moves to the front of the line for showing our best
ACME
PetSmart quickly enables visitors to find suppliesfor their pets.
Remember,in 3 to 4 seconds:
if visitors cannot:
- figure out what your website is about
- find interesting material
They will leave!
Even a B2B site can quickly show visitors whereto find interesting material for them.
Encourage Clicks by Your Search Engine Listing
Homework: Go Find Yourself
➡ Put your company name into some search engines
➡ Look at the results pages
Can visitors easily identify you?
Does your listing encourage them to click?
(I am a teacher, I can give homework.)
Getting found easily is Critical for local businesses
Improve your Search Engine Results by
‣ writing Relevant Content
‣ using Good Structure
‣ adding descriptive Meta-tags
Write Relevant Content
✓write for Your Visitors First!
✓Original, Fresh Content is best
✓then think about search engines
Use Good Structure
• Headings
• Sub-headings
• Bold text
• Hyperlinks
• Lists
Heading to IntroduceEset eiusmod tempor incidunt et magna aliqua bold important words and phrases. Utim minim veniam, quis nostrud exerc.
Sub-HeadingMaecenas aliqua maecenas ligula nostra, accumsan. Fermentum pede quam scelerisque Hyperlink to Relevant Material, et enim.
List for Similar Items• Enim cars aliquet penatibus • Sit nam trucks montes• Praesent planes leo orci aliquam
Write content using good structure to make pageseasier to read for both people and search engines.
Sub-Heading to Separate
bold important words and phrases
Hyperlink to Relevant Material
List for Similar Itemscars
trucksplanes
Heading to Introduce
Descriptive Meta Tags
➡ Meta tags are not shown to visitors.
➡ They are used by browsers & search engines
➡ Help classify and index web pages
Just like a television schedule provides information about the programs, meta tags give information about the content on a web page.
<html><head><title>Boston University (BU) in Brussels: International Relations and Business Graduate Degree, Certificate and Diploma Programs</title><meta name="description" content="Boston University (BU) in Brussels is an international business school with graduate degree, diploma and certificate programs in international relations and business. Contact us to learn more about our graduate international business degrees: [email protected]."><meta name="keywords" content="Boston University in Brussels, European Graduate School, Post Graduate
Title
Keywords
Description
There are three principle meta tags for web pages. You can see them using a browser to view the actual code for the web page.
Boston University (BU) in Brussels: International Relations and ...Boston University (BU) in Brussels is an international business school with graduate degree, diploma and certificate programs in international relations and ...www.bu.edu/brussels/ - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
Title Tag
Description Tag
The Title Tag is the most important meta tag because search engines use it as the headline in their listings.
The Description Tag can be used by search engines to provide a summary of the web page content.
3,650,000
Title Tags MatterHere are over 3 million web pages with a listingNew Page 1. How can visitors find them?
How to add Meta Tags?It is easy to add meta tags to your web pages.
Talk to your website developer
Show a Clear Path for Visitors to reach Your Goal
Customers use a Decision Process when starting to make a purchase
• a set of Activities & Choices
• made by a Typical Customer
• to reach your Desired Action
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Action
Loyalty
Possible decisions to be made when buying a book
Awareness GiftSpecial Interest in
Subject or Author
Specific Need:
Class, Work, Hobby
ConsiderationRead
ReviewsAsk Friends
Search for
Availability
Review
Contents
Preference Price Quality AvailableFits My
Needs
ActionPurchase
Online
Purchase
OfflineLibrary
Borrow from
Friend
LoyaltyArrived On
Time
Good
QualityEasy to Get
Whether you have a website or app, it must support your customer's decision process
Bookstore App
Shelf
Shop
News
Contact
This website includes three different decision steps on one web page
ActionPreference
Consideration
Call to Action Converts
A call to action clearly tells visitors what they must do next.
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Action
Loyalty
0
25
50
75
100
Home Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Finish
Vis
itors
On a typical website, for every 100 people who begin a process, only two or three actually finish. By adding a customer decision process behind the graph, we can see why poor information and
vague guidance contribute to this high failure rate.
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Action
Loyalty
0
25
50
75
100
Home Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Finish
Vis
itors
But, by making a change to help visitors and show them what to do next, we can make an improvement which flows through the entire chain. Rather than two or three who finish, we now have
three or four, a significant increase.
Recap
Focus Your Website On Your Visitors
Never leave them wondering"What now?"
Questions Comments and Suggestions?
Charles E. [email protected]
CharlesECrouchwww.charlescrouch.com
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