If you haven’t checked out part one yet, I recommend starting there for even more tips on how to improve your website.
You can find that link here!
In that post, we give specifics on why exactly we have revamped our website multiple times over the last decade or so, as well as our approach.
This includes tips on how do things like refine your overall vision and purpose of your site so you can speak to your audience effectively. We also dive into the technical aspects of making your content work for you.
However, as you can see, a lot goes into creating and maintaining an effective website. In this post, we will cover three more helpful considerations and strategies.
Let’s go!
1. Focus on Lead Generation
One of the best quotes I have ever read was back in 2009-2010. It was about the true purpose of having a website.
The best websites act as a 24/7 salesperson for your company.
So what are the tools that you’ll use on your website to turn it into an automated salesperson?
The first step is to identify the current points of friction. If your website currently is not generating leads, its important to understand why.
This can be complex, but it can also be simple. For example, maybe your site doesn’t work well on mobile devices.
What is the most desired outcome of user behavior that you’re seeking to achieve? Know the answer.
Improve Your Website by Engineering it to Produce Desired Outcomes
If you’re running an app, that means you want visitors to quickly go to the App Store to download your product. Even better is if they can register right on your website without hesitation.
For a service based company like us, the goal is getting you to call us, email us, or fill out a contact form.
When it comes to eCommerce, the goal is the most obvious one. Getting you to click buy now, and check out.
When we talk about friction, we mean that more steps are required for users to complete an action. Considering there is simply so much out there, the more friction there is, the more likely it is that prospects will just give up.
The more digging that your customer has to do to find you or to make a purchase, the less likely they are to make that desired action.
Less is more
CTAs (Call to Action) have been overdone in the past few years. CTAs include phrases like:
- Click the link for a 20% Discount!
- Contact us for more information!
- Message us for a free consultation!
While it is good to include them in your marketing and content, this has become wildly aggressive over the last 20 years or so.
Think about it: pop-ups, opt-in bars, and more are all full of CTAs. Due to this, CTAs are not the guaranteed lead magnets that they once were.
They can become obtrusive and annoying if you use too many. However, it’s still important to display necessary information to allow visitors to make a choice without feeling bombarded.
The Chop Dawg Approach To CTAs Can Improve Your Website
Of course, you want to guide people toward taking beneficial actions. However, the key word is guide, not try to force them.
This is why we utilize consistant branding so people always know they are interacting with us, but it won’t be anything obtrusive. We make our contact information clear, but do not hammer people with popups.
Our call to action is at the bottom of every blog post, not jammed in between every paragraph so it interrupts the flow.
Our goals is that, if as you’re reading our content, the idea sparks in your head to talk to us, our contact information is already there for you.
You don’t have to click a single button, scroll anywhere. We are right there for you to engage if you want to, and if not, no worries!
Guide your readers. This can include leading them with CTAs or even suggesting further content they can read with suggested articles. You can also create series of posts on popular or helpful topics.
2. Think About How You Are Expanding Your Reach
SEO has evolved over the years. Writing consitant content has certainly helped us with our search rankings.
This is because there are just so much more possibilities of where to rank than just “mobile app developers in Philadelphia”.
Remember earlier in this post where we reference how valuable our blog posts have become? What started as a hobby, just an idea in 2013 to better communicate to our targeted audience, has turned into a source of strength for us.
It has helped us find new clients, educate our clients, build a bigger base, and grow our brand equity and presence.
You need to ask yourself, what is the platform you are building supposed to do?
You need to be thinking ahead. When we started getting into the marketing and content game, we focused on this medium only, blog posts.
For your audience or goals, a different medium might be better. This is why some are getting into podcasting or shortform content. This is why knowing who your audience is and approaching them how they will respond to is key.
Design your new website to do this. As Wayne Gretzky said, “go where the puck is going to go, not where it is currently at.” Plan ahead.
Act ahead. Be ahead. Win ahead.
3. Make A Scalable Website that can Grow With Your Enterprise
You don’t want to build a new website just so that you’ll need to change everything again in six months. A strong foundation is key to empowering you to improve your website over time.
Our goal is always to build a foundation for our website so that it can be built on for the next 4-5 years.
That doesn’t mean that our site will look the same in even a year, but that we build our site so it can be adaptable. We want to be able to make big changes without having to tear down the entire foundation every few months.
You need to plan ahead. Think on these considerations:
- Will it always be just you running your website alone?
- Is it possible that you will expand to a team later or do you simply wish to outsource the entire project.
- Will the type of content you create upgrade, change, enhance?
- If your services or products will expand or change, your website should be able to reflect that.
As you can see, a lot more goes into making a truly effective website than many people think!
Why We Use (And Recommend) WordPress
One of the biggest recommendations we provide to our clients, and even do ourselves, is build your frontend websites on WordPress.
WordPress serves as the backend engine that runs the ship for us. The work comes when you want to add any kind of customization.,
Implementing this customization, though, is much quicker thanks to the framework WordPress provides.
Figure out what is the solution you want to use for the next few years, and support it starting now.
The worst thing you can do when building a website is to pour months into planning, designing, programming, and training only to have to rebuild the whole thing soon after.
Most companies, like us, will spend thousands on our online experiences.
You don’t want all that time and money to go to waste.
Final Thoughts on How You Can Improve Your Website
Overall, by making improvements to your website and utilizing various strategies such as lead generation, expanding your reach, and creating a scalable website you can make it more successful.
As a result you will be able to deepen relationships with potential customers, broaden business opportunities, and generate more leads.
The tips provided in this series of blog posts provide a great starting point for anyone looking to maximize their return on investment on their website.
Hopefully, you now better understand why we do what we do and why I offer this specific advice!
What do you think? Comment below.
Since 2009, we have helped create 350+ next-generation apps for startups, Fortune 500s, growing businesses, and non-profits from around the globe. Think Partner, Not Agency.
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