Business Website Advice

Website Users Ask for 7 Things - I call them Sticky Factors

The goal of a Sticky Website is to Get ‘em There and Keep ‘em There… more customers - spending more time - doing more business.

This Page is just an introduction to the Sticky Website concept. I write lots of Posts on each factor. Read Posts>

Visitors Click off.  If we don’t find what we’re looking for we click off. Bounce. If the came to us one way or other they thought we were what they were looking for.

Each year, many thousands of users are surveyed as to what they like and don’t like about websites.  Don’t you want to give them what they ask for?  

1. Be Informative - a website has to solve the visitor’s problem. Yes visitors all have a problem when they come to your website.  Think of all the questions they have when they phone or email you.  Your answers should be on your website.

2. Be Readable - your website layout must make it easy to find what they are looking for. This means it must be uncluttered, obvious (not subtle), using online friendly font style, font colours and spacing.  Add to this light background colours with dark font, unless you are an entertainment site or have a website read solely in a dark room.  Yep, leave the black background to print media, not online reading.

3. Be Scannable - readers don’t read every word. You don’t (caught ya) so why should they.  Help them skim your pages by providing lot’s of descriptive headings and sub-headings.  And tie the text to the heading without a blank line between (chunking). Sometimes you have to overcome the default to do this.  Add captions to photos so visitors quickly know what they are looking at.

4. Be highly usable - you want it to be easy to do what you ask them to do.  Buy Now etc.

5. Be Search Engine (SE) Visible -A high Search Engine rank position (SERP) for your website address URL is just one form of visibility but a very very desirable one indeed.  If you don’t rank highly you need to list your site in directories that do , or buy text ads such as Google’s Adwords.  Read my various articles on SEO under Category.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a complex hot topic. See my SEO category for short sharp posts on SEO issues an owner should know.  Briefly, SEO  means attemps to get onto the first page, in the top 6 preferrably, of a search results page.  It’s a specialty within online marketing not something your web designer does or even keeps up to date with.   Designers focus on creating sites that look good and function well technically.   Feel free to pass along my latest free SEO guidelines.  They are available on the left sidebar.

Be warned. There are lots of SEO cowboys out there who charge heaps and promise first page ranking.  I do neither and have lots of happy clients.

SEO Success Cycle is simple but as most things it’s easier said than done:

1. research,
2. implement, 
3. monitoring
4. and adjusting. 

Help for doing SEO yourself. I created a special workshop dedicated to improving search engine visibility and developed a DIY tool to use during coaching to help determine and organise the keyword search phrases. You can read more about my Search Engine Plan and case study at my Website Help Shop.

SEO consultation. Getting to the top page, even the top 20 requires research, planning and all the time and skills that goes with these.  I can do a SEO Search Engine Status Report for you. Then you can work with your designer to implement my report. 

I say gather your ‘tech team’ around you…your designer and people like me and other SE optimisers, but you the business owner is the default person who knows your target customer and product better than anyone.  You drive the bus. 

6. Be easy to Navigate - I call this the Hanzel and Gretel effect. We all want/need to find our way home.  Visitors must be able to easily manuevre around the page and between pages.  Some things have become default expectations of users.  Each year they tell the big survey’s they want navigation on the left.

7. Be ‘Wow’ - create a Look & Feel that represents who you are as a business. Show your customers what you’re like -  whimsical, authoritative, competent, adventurous.

Check the individual Categories section of this Blog for more details on each Sticky Factor. Each post in a Category will have a Sticky byte of info, just for you.

Take the Test.  Would you pass my DIY Website Health Check Up?   Have a go.  It’s cheap and easy to do. The results will give you confidence your website is healthy, or you will end up with a clear action list to discuss with your designer.