How to Improve Your Website Right Now

Times are changing, but your website is standing still. On top of that, you can’t get at it! What’s the best approach? I’ll give you several options, but the core of this improvement is discovering what’s wrong (besides being out of date).

Investigate business websites – any area, any size – of companies like yours.

Start with Google , Bing , Yahoo , whatever search engine you’re comfortable with. Then, use search terms you would use to find your own business. Add the city if you want to find sites close to home.

What do these sites have that yours does not , especially on their front pages? Select the ones that attract your interest and then, really analyze the parts of the page and their functions. This is a step you take right now and repeat as often as you like. You’ll begin to see the common components of a website home page. How does yours compare?

Here are some essential parts of front page that you will need to improve your website:

• Logo at the top and slogan to state what you do and how you do it
• Clear navigation at or near the top or a sidebar location
• Photos of newest product, you doing a service, your crew – a company-specific photo or two .
• An introduction to your company and what makes it unique in your industry. Explain how you can help your customers.
• A call to action (at least one) – what you want visitors to do next:  subscribe to your newsletter, a free tips sheet, your blog feed; answer a question or a poll; come to a free event.
• A list of your latest posts /articles about subjects your customers want to know about (not a sales pitch)
• Links to your social media accounts (more internet platforms where you can solve your customers’ problems).

Some of the page components listed above should be included in most of the other pages of your website. If you look again at the websites you’ve selected, these essential elements are seen throughout the sites – the same logo, navigation, call to action, list of recent posts, links to social media.

Product feature lists morph into customers using products.

Rather than describing your fine products or services with all their features, explain how cusomers are using the products or services to solve a their problems or situations. Here’s an example:

Compare these statements:

With the “After” option, your reader will put himself in the situation and feel good about using your Whammo tool. The “Before” statement is lifeless. It doesn’t solve the visitor’s problem; it just tells him what you have. A list of features won’t sell him any time soon.

Time to make some changes in your sales copy, from the intro page to the product/services page. Give customers answers, add your call to action, and web traffic and sales leads will start to happen. This website improvement is not as apparent, but it’s probably the most important.

Update the information, continuously.

Your visitors are seeking up-to-date information , not last year’s information, but today’s. How are you going to do that? Do you have an online accessible website (usually called a content management system/CMS)? WordPress is the most popular software for this kind of website and it’s not difficult to learn.

Besides keeping all the pages current, WordPress also includes a blog . Now you have an opportunity to write about what your customers want to know more about. Write about a new product you’re developing and would like feedback on. Write about how Fred Jones used your services and became a millionaire.

The Result? Website Traffic and Leads Generation

Acting on the three important concepts explained above will make remarkable improvements to your website . There are many steps in each part, but well worth the final result. Get started today. Follow up as soon as you can. You’ll have an up-to-date, inviting, informative, and lead-generating website ready to take on the competition . Yes!

For a more detailed listing of website redesign and improvement, be sure to read these articles:

• Website Redesign Step 1: Evaluate
• Website Redesign Step 2: Collect, Write, Re-evaluate
• Website Redesign Step 3: Newsy, Simple, a Winner
• Your Website Can Generate Better Results with these 6 Steps

If you get stuck anywhere along the way, send an email, and I’d be happy to help. If you want to take a better look at what’s not working on your site before you start, try my FREE ” 10-Step Website Eval .” Let’s make your website right, right now.

I hope my enthusiasm for improving your website gets you started.
What’s the hardest step for you to take to get this going?
Add your comments below… 

About Sally Erickson

Erickson Creative's Sally Erickson is a WordPress website builder, specializing in evaluating and improving business websites for more leads and better profits. Making better websites everyday…. connect with me on Twitter and FaceBook.

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