Are you looking to do a website makeover? I’ve got five important questions to ask you before redesigning your website. If you haven’t created your website yet, all but the first question applies.
1. What is my SEO value, and how do I ensure it gets transferred?
If you have an existing website, you have created some kind of SEO value.
For those who are still learning, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and any website has some kind of SEO value. Your SEO value determines your ranking on someone’s search results.
For example, let’s say you have a business selling stuffed animal panda bears. If someone is looking to buy stuffed animal panda bears, they’ll type those words into their search engine. If you have a good SEO value, your business would be one of the first ones on that list of websites for them to click. Because of that, they are already more likely to purchase your stuffed animal panda bears.
A business can achieve good SEO value organically in a number of ways. Blog posts are one of them.
Avoid this common trap. You don’t want to fall into the trap of getting a pretty website update for a good deal, but all the effort you took (knowingly or unknowingly) to build your SEO value, was lost. If you hire someone to redo your website, and they don’t get your links to connect over, you could lose all that SEO value you have created. If that link connection is lost, it would lower your ranking on someone’s search results for your service or product.
Win by doing this instead. If you are getting a quote for a website makeover, it’s a good idea to ask them a couple of questions:
- What is my current SEO value?
- How are you going to transfer that value?
It is pertinent to ensure your current SEO value is protected and built upon.
2. What do I want my website to accomplish?
Considering the purpose of your website will help you create a sturdy foundation to build information on.
Avoid this common trap. I often hear people say things like, “Well, we don’t get business from our websites.” or “Our website is really just there for customers to see that we’re a real company. It’s a validation website.” These people have websites not set up to serve their purpose.
Win by doing this instead. The important thing is to understand how you want to sell and make a website to accomplish that sale process. There are different types of websites (like an e-commerce site, for the shopping cart experience). For those who just want a validation website, that’s fine, but make sure it is a validating tool, not just a tool talking about yourself. If you have an e-commerce site, you need to make sure all those buttons work. Consider the customer journey experience. Are you going to give them a 10% off coupon for visiting your site? Much can be gained from asking yourself, “What do I want my website to accomplish?”
3. Who are you? Who do you do it for? What proof do you have?
Here’s a crazy trifecta of purpose questions for you to ask yourself. These are crazy because so many people botch this.
Avoid this common trap. You could ask a number of people, “Hey, tell me about your company. What do you do? Who do you do it for? And what proof do you have?” More often than not, I hear people stumble over their answers, unsure. Most business owners’ elevator pitches SUCK. They’re terrible. It’s funny to me to watch how many companies really have no idea who they are, who they do it for, and what proof they have of that.
Win by doing this instead. Practice being able to answer these questions in a sentence or two. For example, if someone were to ask me these questions about my manufacturing company, I would respond with, “I’m a contract manufacturer of custom wiring and cable assemblies, and I do it for large OEMs. The proof I have is all my years of experience, my history, my great record of on-time delivery, among many other things.” When you know these answers, you’ll have a clearer idea of how to set up your website to convey that message for visitors.
4. What is my value proposition?
You have to be crystal clear about your value proposition (what you offer your customers) or you’ll have confused customers.
Avoid this common trap. Take a tour through some product or service websites. You’ll often find many business owners just talk about themselves. Their front-and-center image doesn’t represent anything about what they do.
For manufacturing websites I’ve come across, several send the messages “We have this equipment! And that equipment! We have this! And have been in business forever! We’re US-based! And look at our certifications!” On and on. What’s happening here is they are talking internally about themselves. It’s like a boring-ass meeting. Stop talking about yourself. Websites that are rambling about themselves haven’t communicated anything.
Win by doing this instead. It’s very simple: get out of your own way! Write down 5 answers to this question: What is my customers’ biggest problem? If you only have 1-3 solid value propositions, make sure that’s what gets on your website. Then, write how your business solves each of those problems. Make sure it’s obvious on your website that your business does this. If you can’t solve that problem, don’t put it on your website.
5. What is your call to action?
If you don’t have a tangible call to action, then your website design is all for nothing.
Avoid this common trap. Don’t waste your time and money sending people to your crappy website just to sit. If you have calls to action, make sure they work. I can’t tell you how many times a website has a call to action (like a “Call us now!” button or a form) and they don’t get back with me. Have a call to action, and make it functional.
Win by doing this instead. Consider what action you want your website visitors to take. Do you want them to call you? Set up a meeting with you? Purchase something right there? Sign up for your newsletter? Text you? Fill out a form so you can follow up via email? Then you can go from there. Once your call to action is in place, have several tests to make sure it’s working properly and there are no technical issues.
Need an example of a bomb-ass website? Check out our homepage!