Danielle MacInnis – Marketing Blog for Small Businesses

Most small businesses clients have a website that they did years ago and now many are looking to redo it. The main driver for this decision is the recognition that a website is a lead generation tool and that 83% of Australians’ look online prior to purchasing so a website has never been more important. Here are some consideration that will make it more effective.

1. Attract the right customers – This means think about them when you are designing your website. What do they want to find out? How ease is it to find the information? What do you offer to give them a taste of your service? Companies that do this really well attract a lot of their ideal customers. Don’t try and be everything to everyone. Be selective and be persuasive.

2. Get found. Make sure the site is built with optimisation in mind. Key words and tags are one thing but having great content and valuable content will help.

3. Build it so you can update it. You need to use a CMS system. WordPress is great because you can optimise it easily and change the content quickly. Other CMS systems might be more difficult to manage so make sure to play with a text site before you sign up!

4. Websites should be a lead generation platform. You need to think how you can achieve this for your site. What can you offer your customers so they will leave their details. A calculator, whitepaper, e-book. Something of value so you can collect names and nurture a relationship.

5.Websites are constantly changing and measured. Use google analytics and see what is working and what isn’t. Then make changes.

Great take ways from Rain Today interview with Ben Hunt a web designer who wrote Save the Pixel: The Art of Simple Web Design.

“I think the biggest mistake that service providers make online today is all standing toe to toe—all standing together in a flock like sheep,” Hunt says. “The question is what is your thing? What do you want to be known for? What do you want to mean to people? And you need to get that message to come across straight away as soon as people arrive at your website.”

Do that by having a website design that is simple, clean, and enables you to communicate—not one that makes use of every bell and whistle yet still has visitors wondering what it is you do or, more important, how you can help them, Hunt advises.

“If you think it through, nobody’s interested in your company. Nobody is interested in your products or your services. Nobody is interested in what you do or how you do it. The only thing that any of them are interested in is what’s in it for them. Your home page needs to make a proposition. It needs to call out to the visitor and say this is what’s on offer here. Give a reason to notice you; give a reason to read more,” Hunt says. To listen to this podcast click here.