Would you buy your service/product from you based on your website? Does your site have a good first impression? Look it over and see what needs to be improved to fulfill the point of your site. Ask people who you know and know will give you a straight answer the same two questions I just asked you. Just like anything else in business it’s extremely beneficial to get a different perspective. If you do find that your website can use a little buffing up and don’t know where to start you can try the following quirky trick to gain web focus.
First of all think of your homepage as a person, I know it’s a little weird but go with it for a moment. Get out a pen and paper draw your ideal representative, (you don’t have to be artist of the year). What would your ideal rep. wear to work? Are they the suit and tie type, laid back and relaxed, new age, small town church wear, stay at home mom, etc? Give them a short background like where they are from, their work experience, what their main job focus with you is, etc. Name your ideal employee with a name that fits all the characteristics. Are they a Carol, Steve, Bob, Peggy-Sue? This is a great thing to do with your employees/co-workers to get their perception of what you represent.
Next step is to write the voice that matches your star employee. Try to stay around the 8th to 9th grade level of intellect. Even if you have rocket scientists reading your site this makes it easier to skim through and get your point across quickly. Leave the extremely technical talk for your inner webpages that deal with those particular subjects. Use your content in a sales savvy way. Influence them in your direction. Give your web visitor the information they need to make the decision and feel comfortable to follow through.
Amazingly your creation has created focus for your site. From here you can turn your new staff member into a website. You know what the appearance and feel of your site should be, its background, what it sounds like and even what it’s name is. Remember not to loose that focus. Your site has a point, get to it. IT IS OKAY TO BE DIRECT! Your web audience knows that your purpose it to sell them on your product, service or idea. Make it easy for them to complete the point of your site. Create an easy to use side bar that allows them to complete your sites point on any page they are on. It’s also a great idea to incorporate a Share This Site option that is unselfish on your part. Make it simple for them to email the URL to someone with a blurb about why they are sending it to person x.
If you do need more guidance SEO companies offer a variety of strategies to get your point out there and noticed in the web world of billions. Some SEO’s even have a basic pricing system that is more do-it-yourself mixed with consulting that may work for your needs. They’ll look over your site and give you a suggested to do list to make it more user and Google friendly.
For more information on getting to the point in your website you can read Seth Godin’s Free Knock Knock file online. He goes into more detail and gives examples about what the purpose of your web site should be.