Why is your website sooo important?

Your website is your portal, your foundation and the centre of your marketing so it needs to be more than just pretty.

Instead of looking at it from a technical point of view, I am going to put a marketing lens over it.

1. An easy-to-update CMS
   A CMS is a content management system which allows you to build and manage a website. Ideally, you want an open source CMS which means you don’t need to worry about coding and it is easy for you to update and make changes once the website is built.
   
   
2. Responsive design or mobile friendly design
   A responsive website is a website designed to change its look based on the device it’s viewed on. E.g., It will still look good on a mobile, a desktop, or tablet and the design moves to suit viewing on a smaller screen.
   
   
3. Helpful navigation
   Navigation is simply the way users make their way around your website. What links or pages do they click on? Where is their eye drawn when they land on your home page? Work with a web designer to create a logical site map as part of your overall design.
   
   
4. Clearly explains how you help above the fold
   You have up to 7 seconds before someone clicks off your site unless you show quickly that you can help solve their problem. So many websites I look at, have ambiguous, general phrases, or at the top of their home page with a stock image – it means nothing.
   
   
5. Copy that makes sense and fits your brand
   Ambiguous phrases like “Growth focused, heart-centred” don’t mean anything. Your copy and headlines need to tell me who you work with, what problem you solve, and show your brand personality. Is your positioning statement unique to you or is it interchangeable? Could that be any one of your competitors?
   
   
6. High-quality content
   Your website pages need to have well-written, keyword-rich content. Keywords are those words a prospect types into a search engine to find you. It is important as search engines like Google crawl sites looking for content that is readable, valuable and updated often and then serve those sites up higher in results than those that don’t.
   
   
7. A blog
   A great way to ensure your site has this key feature for Google to find you is have a blog. Posting valuable content on a regular basis, keeps your website updated with fresh content, that positions your business as a thought leader. Upload a blog regularly, add call-to-actions to it, and make it sharable.
   
   
8. Clear calls-to-action
   Have Call-to-actions on every page and be very clear about what you want the visitor to do next – Book a call, Download Now, Buy Now, Subscribe – get specific.
   Don’t hide them, make them obvious and stand out.
   Add them in multiple places. Make it easy for me to buy you!
   
   
9. Contact information
   You might think this is obvious but it is often missed. Have your business’ address, phone number and email listed in a footer that appears on every page so visitors don’t have to search for it.

10. Page loading speed
    Another really important factor is fast page loading speed. The easiest way to check this is to use a tool like Pingdom (this is one of many free ones you can use).

11. Capture website visitor data
    Now you have spent all this time making your website functional, you want to capture the traffic that you generate to it. Simplest way is with a lead magnet and gated content.