What makes a website successful?
You might be thinking I really need a website. You might be thinking I’ve got to get online! However, you’re not necessarily thinking about what is going to make your website a success. One of the biggest problems I find business owners make when creating a website is that they haven’t thought about what their website is for. So it’s almost impossible to say whether it’s a successful or quality website if you don’t know what it’s going to do and what outcomes you want from it.
Today I’m going to take you through some of the possible things you would want your website to do! I know it sounds really obvious that you need to decide what job your website is supposed to do or what its purpose is. However, so many website owners go into the process just to have a website. Then it becomes a very expensive business card, which doesn’t necessarily mean your website is successful because we don’t really know what it’s supposed to do.
Really important ways your website can be a fantastic marketing tool for your business!
- It’s you when you sleep
- Engages your audience
- It can drive traffic
- Lead generation
….and then it can make you more sales which is ultimately what you want from your website. That is what a successful website looks like.
Next, you need to look at what success means to you. What exactly do you want your website to do for your business? I’ve come up with some of the things I want my website to do for me.
What should a successful website do for my business?
1. I want my website to make sales
I want my website to sell these things for me so, that way, I won’t need to assist every potential customer. My website should do that job for me. To engage those people by taking them through the sales funnel and sell on the site. This is the most common want from those that have a retail store or sell services appointments. Whatever the business, you want your website to be driving those sales for you so you don’t have to come in and do that work. That’s the beauty of websites, they are tools that will keep on giving and you don’t have to pay it a wage nor do you have to keep on plugging away as you do on social media. Once it’s there, it can do its job.
2. I want my website to generate leads
This is a real biggie because so many of our sales are driven through e-marketing and building your mailing list. The list is another way of getting people to make the first step of working with you. It then allows you to continue to build that relationship. Once they’re on that list, then they’ve given you permission to talk to them. Also, they’ve given you permission to sell to them. Websites generating leads for you is absolutely key to getting them to eventually make more sales. It is also a measurable method as you can see how many leads your various signup forms on your website are getting for you. A great idea to get names for your list is to run competitions. I do mine in the website footer, although many use the pop-up method. What methods have you used? Let me know in the comments!
3. I want my website to build great relationships with people
Building that know, like and trust is key to this. Write a fantastic blog, produce some great content that people will want to read again. So many clients that I work with have a lot of content over a lot of years. It needs a great sorting out so that they keep people coming, keep people on the website, reduce that bounce rate and make them interact more. Every single time they’re reading something from you, you’re one step closer to building that great relationship and one step closer to getting them to buy from you.
4. I want my website to keep my business at the front of people’s minds.
This is similar to building those relationships but more advanced. You want people to think of you and your website as a good place to answer a question. That way, they’re actually going straight to your website to consume your content, and you’re really staying in front of their minds and driving traffic. Some ways to drive this traffic could be from your email list, from your website, or from building brand awareness through Social Media. As long as you have the answers on your website, people will visit it.
Alongside this, what you want is to start driving traffic organically and for your website to be getting new people in so you’re not having to do the work. To do this, you’ll need to get up to date with your SEO so that Google includes your website as a potential answer to search requests. It’s another way that your business will work for you and one that is measurable because you can see the statistics. You can see how many new users are coming in and you can see where they’re coming from. This means you can see whether you’re getting organic leads or whether you’re driving them yourself.
5. I want my website to act as customer support.
My website should be somewhere for people to go if they have a problem or if they need to contact me to answer some questions. FAQs is a fantastic page to include for example to answer questions about delivery. You don’t want people having to come to you with all the questions all of the time so that will take some of the strain off your admin.
6. I want my website to provide my services
Another way a website can be very successful is to have courses on the website. That way, people can log in and get the material directly from there. You may use something like Simplero or Kajabi as a platform for memberships or online products which can be linked to through your website. This is a really useful tool to provide services that you’re selling to make a successful website.
7. I want my website to have brilliant visibility
This is important for all websites but especially if you’re a local business. Having visibility means you can be contactable so don’t forget your contact phone number, email, or contact form on your website. So, being visible, making a good impression, and really driving that brand awareness.
Don’t just aim for having a website for the sake of it, give it some good objectives, and make sure you know what you want it to do for your business. Then you’ll be able to tell if your website is successful because you’ll have the measurements to tell you. If it’s not successful, or if it’s not driving the traffic to the way you want, fix it. Maybe you’re not getting sales leads or signups or your customer support is not working. In this situation then your website is not successful and needs a little tweak in the right direction.
I hope that’s given you some good ideas to think about how your website can really work for you and how it can be successful. I’m all for less work doing less work myself and getting my website to work for me, making sure that it actually does something and has a purpose.
I’d love to know what the purpose of your website is and whether it’s doing its job or whether you feel a bit lost. Let me know in the comments!
Kat x
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