I was recently reflecting on the key principles of good web design and it struck me that a lot of our conversations with clients end up talking about their Home Page.
Don't get me wrong, it's always great to have interaction and engagement with a client about their website, however, do we need to give the Home Page such a prominent role?
Yes - your Home Page is a very important aspect of your website as it can sometimes be viewed as the "front door" to your business online. If you are engaged in any offline promotion you are probably promoting your main web address. Customers and people who “know” your firm will also tend to remember your home page or at least search for your name online. So if definitely pays to make sure your home page lives up to expectations.
If you are employing a content strategy (and if you aren’t, please talk to us about starting one today!), have you thought through the fact that your target audience ‘should’ be finding your content because it addresses the pains and challenges they are suffering, rather than your content simply promoting your company and/or a range of services?
These visitors, these potentially valuable customers, will be arriving because they think you have something interesting for them to find out or learn. They are there because you have some knowledge they want to consume.
With this in mind, take a big step back and now look at your website design and ask yourself the question that if someone arrives on your news section to read a blog about something interesting you have written about - what will help them to make that transition to do business with you?
With the right content strategy in place you can begin to grow traffic to your website because we all know that:
As mentioned previously, with more relevant content on your website your visitors should be arriving at this content because it interests and helps them, so now you need to use your:
As you can see, the sum of the parts is beginning to build and the first signs of a ‘lead generation engine’ is beginning to show. With the right content coupled with the right methods of content promotion, your website will start to attract relevant visitors to consume this content - not just your home page. The more you do this, the more traffic you will start to build, the more leads you will start to generate and the more clients and customers you will start to win!
SO… in summary, don’t expend all your energy worrying about how good your home page looks. Spare a thought for some interesting content and how you will draft it and promote it in order to generate leads and win new customers.
If you would like to find out more about how we use this very same strategy to generate business for Enlighten IC, please get in touch to Schedule A Quick Call. Alternatively, you may wish to download a copy of our guide to “Designing A Website To Win New Clients” packed full with lots of useful hints and tips on getting your website strategy right.