One of our long term clients summed up our rationale very neatly in one of their blog articles. They described the two predominant types of client that come into their offices looking to get a mortgage in Florida.
There are 2 primary types of client, The Organized & The Disorganized
The Organized Client
has all of their paperwork in order
is willing to be educated
doesn’t make rash decisions
The Disorganized Client
can’t find their paperwork
forgets about crucial deadlines
expects someone else to do everything for them.
For the very obvious reasons, as shown above, we are careful about who represent.
Confusion is one of the primary problems with many websites.
Imagine this. You, the potential client, arrive on a website having made a search. You were looking to buy a certain product and you want to see that product with larger imagery and with more details.
Get it right the first time
If you have booked a flight online, you will have chosen a departure airport, a destination and a time-frame for your trip.
Once you have selected a flight and you start the purchase procedure, you will be asked if you want to add:
- extra luggage
- insurance
- car hire
- hotel
- plus other items.
At this point you have already committed to making the flight purchase, so there is no harm in offering other products. You will either say no and continue to the checkout or you might tick a few boxes and have these extra items added to your basket.
How many of you would actually book a flight online if you searched for a flight and got a barrage of advertisements for insurance, car hire, hotels, extra baggage etc, BEFORE you saw the availability of flights and the prices?
Chances are you left the site and went somewhere else which gave you the information you want in a timely and ordered manner.
Determine what you sell – then streamline it
If you have been in business for several years, there is a high likelihood that your website has become a junkyard of products which are no longer on sale or information that is no longer relevant.
Instead of trying to retrofit a new design into the old information, you will get much better results by getting your hands dirty and sorting out all of the stuff you have hoarded on your website. Think of it as spring cleaning!
- Collect everything you wish to keep and file it accordingly.
- Trash anything and everything which is no longer relevant.
- If you haven’t used something for 12 months you probably never will again.
Don’t get sentimental, just get rid of it.
The next step
Once the above has been completed, we can set to work designing and building your new online presence. Now we have a few parameters to work with we can begin to develop a clear goal.
One of the most time consuming elements of creating a successful website is the copyrighting. Everyone can write, but very few can write in such a manner that appeals to the search engines as well as the end user – your clients.
Targeting your copy is a mindset and a skill-set. Understanding the numerous parameters required by the search engines is complicated and tedious.
A minimum amount of characters and words are required for each sentence, paragraph and page. The <h> tags need to be correctly utilized and the percentage proportion of the chosen keyword phrase or name needs to be adhered to. Simply writing random descriptions will not cut it.
Add to this the crucial requirements of your client being able to read, comprehend, remember and ultimately coming to an informed decision about what you are offering.
If you get it all right you will generate ‘organic’ lead enquiries who are ready to make a purchase. Get it wrong and your potential client moves on to the next website, which is probably owned by your competitor.