Whether you are aware of it or not, your website—and in particular, your home page—is the face of your company to your clients and to your potential clients. What kind of face are you presenting to your public? When you look at your home page, is it like looking in a mirror? Or is the image you see there completely different from who you really are? Unfortunately, many companies (large and small) launch their website and rarely (if ever) visit it again.
When is the last time you visited your own website and looked at it the way your customers do? A regular review of your “public face” is an absolute must. This is the view that the majority of people have of you. Here are a few things to consider when you perform your regular review.
The web experience needs to be about your customers—not about you. Let’s be honest: Nobody really cares all that much about your mission statement. Think like a customer. Why are your customers there? What are they looking for? How can you help them find what they need quickly? Chances are they didn’t visit your website because they want to hear you extol your virtues. They have a problem or a need. Does your site help them solve that problem or meet that need? Here’s some additional help for making sure your homepage does its job well.
Sometimes it is about you! Maybe people really don’t care about your mission statement, but they actually do care about who you are—at least as it pertains to them. People do want and need to know why you’re in business and why you’re qualified to help them solve their problems. But your “About Us” page needs to focus on how your qualifications and abilities will help them. Here’s help for how to create a powerful about us page.
How is your website doing? Most companies spend a fair amount of money creating their websites. Then they sit there. Maybe they get looked at and maybe they don’t. The problem is that many businesses don’t know how their websites are performing. Do you know how many leads have come from your website in the last month? Can you track results back to your site? How do you rank compared to your competition? If someone searches for your goods or services online, do they find you—or your competitor? If you don’t know the answers to those questions, you probably ought to do an audit of your website. Ask us about a free website evaluation.
Business has changed a lot in the last few years. But some things have remained the same. First impressions are still important. For most people, the first impression they have of your company or organization comes from their first visit to your website. What kind of impression are you giving them?