Website success includes a well-defined set of workflows and thoughts so that your website converts visitors into customers. There is much more going on than just how your website looks. It also needs to leave behind a good experience. Don’t get caught up with just the design aspects of your next website development project.
So you’ve just launched and completed your website development process, but now you’re not sure what comes next. Unfortunately, it’s not over. But this is not a bad thing! As the web evolves, so can you and your business. If anything, the internet is empowerment to you and your message. It shouldn’t be a chore, but enjoyable. It should be fun because there are so many ways you can take your business now that you’re online! Really, you’re ready to go in a brand-new direction and meet brand-new customers from all over the world, and you can now work much smarter with your marketing efforts. But many find themselves asking questions such as which direction should you go in first? What if we do it wrong? What if our website is not received as well as we thought, or what if no one visits our website!?!
Don’t panic, website success online is not guaranteed, but it’s not as hard as some make it out to be. Over the years we have come to realise that in order for your website to be successful and do well online, there are six steps you MUST take as a minimum to achieve a successful website outcome:
Website Success in 6 Easy Steps
Whilst this list is not exhaustive, taking note of these key steps will go a long way in making sure your website development project is a success.
Make Sure People Can Find Your Website
People spend a lot of time and effort getting their website online and can’t wait to share it with the world. The next question they ask is now what? Well, it’s important that people can find your site via search engines (SEO), social media, reciprocal links, word-of-mouth e-mail marketing, business literature and other means. In order to be a success online, you need to be found. After all, if no one visits your website what’s the point of having one? This means you need more tools than just your website alone, and you need to work continuously on your online marketing efforts. This requires work, but the Internet is the number one platform which delivers the greatest return on investment, especially when done right.
You need to make sure that you have performed your keyword research so that you don’t waste time writing content that no one is looking for. Make sure you look around the entire topic too, to find what people are asking about, and what interests they have. You will achieve free traffic this way.
You Must Tell People What They Can Achieve on Your Website
People need to know what they can achieve on your website. If they go to the site and can’t instantly see what they can achieve whilst there then they will switch off and click off! They have to know the benefit to them and for it to serve their need by visiting you. This is why information and content is still king, but you need to make it easy to understand, use and meet your visitor’s needs.
Make Your Website Simple to Use
Now that people know what to accomplish on your website, you need to provide the steps in order for them to be guided to achieve the benefit. Don’t make it difficult, make it as easy as possible and as obvious as possible. People don’t have a lot of time, so don’t waste it with poor navigation and overcomplicated steps on your site. Ultimately, you either want them to buy from you directly there and then contact you – so make it simple and accessible across multiple devices with responsive design.
Give Visitors a Reason to Come Back
It’s important that people have a reason to come back to your website. If you don’t then they won’t return. Research shows it can be five to nine visits to a website before they would even buy anything you have to offer. If you can’t get people back to your site, then their first visit will be their last.
Get Visitors to Convert
This doesn’t mean getting them to change religion, it merely means getting them to either buy from your site forcing them to action something such as signing up to your newsletter or following you on Twitter. You need to make this process obvious too, and you need to have KPI metrics in place, so you can monitor your websites’ performance! Why? Well given that the web is always evolving, if you can’t monitor performance then you can’t make incremental changes to keep up with your client’s and customers’ patterns and requirements.
Seek Referrals
Get website referrals from people wherever and whenever you can. Even a simple reciprocal link could have a profound impact on your website and its page rank for example in Google. You can do this in a number of ways such as using share features, embedded linkbacks, affiliate marketing and by promoting your content on forums and social media. Viral marketing as seen through the likes of Twitter trends can be very powerful, but it doesn’t just happen, it has to be earned. But there’s no reason why you can’t make the most of it. Start today!
The list doesn’t stop here though, but it will get you going. You need constant continuous improvement in order to be a success in the long term regarding any website development. But with tenacity and the right platforms in place, it’s not as arduous a task as it may seem.
