10 Steps to Success System – Step 1: Site Reviews

One of the challenges many business owners have is that they have a really hard time creating a website that sells. Many of you know that over the last few weeks I have been out in the trenches meeting first hand with many business owners! I have been doing this for two reasons. First, I want to have a better understanding of the needs of my customers and second, I want to give back. I know that on this journey, so many people have helped me, that I want to meet as many people as I can and help them to make those small incremental changes so that they too can become successful.

When working with new clients, one of the first things we always have to address is the website. I have found that after talking to dozens of business owners in the last few weeks one on one, and literally after reviewing hundreds of websites while preparing for meetings and presentations, most websites need to improve in almost all of the same areas.  Here are 9 things to check!

Visually Appealing

Is your site visually appealing or does it look like it was built 5 years ago? Does it have a nice logo at the top? Does it have a slogan? Is it well laid out?

Guides User To An Action

Does the website guide the user? The question I am always asking clients is: What action do you want them to take? When someone lands on your website, what do you want them to do? Where do you want them to click? What page is your primary sales page?

Local Address

If you have a brick and mortar physical location be sure to put in the physical address of your business on every page. Another great tip is to embed a Google Map on your Contact Us Page.

Phone Number

Most sites today have a phone number on the site but a lot of them have them hidden down in the footer or only on the contact us page. When building your site, you should ask yourself…. How do I make the most sales? When I ask that question to business owners, most of the time the answer is over the phone. Be sure your phone number is in big numbers at the top of the home page and possibly at the top of every page.

Lead Magnet

Your lead magnet is the free gift or offer that you give away in exchange for an email address. It is so important here to do this right. I recently attended Ryan Lee’s DotComExpo and heard Marie Forleo  speak. She gave a great illustration about Lead Magnets. She said to not give away Happy Meals and she explained it like this. Imagine if you are going out on a first date with someone and he takes you to McDonalds. Would you expect him to take you for a nice steak dinner on your second date? Of course not! So why treat our prospects like that! Your lead magnet should have your best stuff and leave a good impression with your prospects. It should be so amazing that they will come back for more.

Testimonials

You can’t have enough testimonials. It is not enough to have a testimonials page anymore. Your testimonials should be worked into the design of every page of your site. Work them into the graphics. Work them in the footer. Work them in the side navigation. Be sure to have them on your sales page!

Credibility Logos and Symbols

For a long time I did not have the BBB logo on my site. That was until I got a phone call from a prospect and as I was on the phone with her she was looking at my site and she said: “You are a member of the BBB right? As I don’t see the logo here.” Hmm. I actually was but had not updated the site. I put the logo up and she signed on the next day. Whether or not we look for certain things, you can bet your target market does.

Email Opt in

The biggest error I see on small business sites is the failure to capture leads. I have never met someone that told me: “Oh I wish I had waited a few more years to start to build my list as it is just too big.” But I sure have heard a lot of people say: “I wish I would have listened and started to build my list sooner.” Build a list.

Explain!

Your website is not an information portal. It is your online business card. It is your sales page. It is one essential part of a whole marketing strategy. A lot of times when looking at a site, I see a lot of information, but the owner has failed to answer the basic questions:

  1. What We Do
  2. How We Do It
  3. How Much It Costs
  4. Proof of Results

If you can focus on answering those four questions in exactly that sequential order, you will be way ahead of the game!

One of the things that I am working on right now is completing a set of 10 downloadable Infographics called the 10 Steps to Success System. You can get the first one NOW right here.

Step 1: Site Review
Download Now

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