Is Your Website Ready for Company?

Ready to get started?  Follow the outline, we’ve created, or just jump to the topics that interest you the most!

PART 1: Why Do You Have a Website

It sounds like a silly question, but it isn’t. Beyond just establishing an online presence a good website is an integral part of your sales process providing prospects and customers information they need when they need it.

An important part of answering this questions is identifying the primary audience for your website. While many people will come to your website. Who is it most important to impress?

Assignment:

• Download the IDEAL CLIENT WORKBOOK.
  • If you haven’t defined your ideal client, it will be difficult to anticipate their search intent. Use this workbook to narrow your audience.  If you have multiple audiences, pick the most profitable segment for this program.  You can repeat the process for each segment over time.
• Download the WEBSITE PRIORITY GUIDE.
  • Complete the question for each of your target audiences
  • Keep this list handy, we will refer to it throughout the course

PART 2: Audit Your Design

First impressions matter and when it comes to your website, you need to make that impression quickly.  In the first few seconds your website has to prove to visitors they have come to the right place.

Assignment:

• Watch the video to see examples of good and bad web design
• Listen to the podcast interview
• Download the WEBSITE AUDIT WORKBOOK and record notes, comments and ideas

PART 3: Audit Your Content

If the visual elements are the framework of your home then your content (the words, pictures, videos and forms which fill the pages) are the furniture and paintings on the wall. In this section we’ll take a closer look at how to improve your content.

Visitors to your website want answers fast.  Follow these simple rules to make it easy for them to find what they are looking for.

• Write short paragraphs. Think about what happens to a long paragraph on a mobile device. It seems to go on forever, but your readers attention span doesn’t.
• Break up text with headlines so readers can scan the page, jumping to the information they are seeking.
• Simple language and short sentences make it easy to grasp ideas quickly.
• Put the most important information first. Your web page isn’t an essay or a brochure so give the readers the highlights and you can provide more detail later on in the document.

Assignment:

• Watch the video on this page.
• Ready to dive into more advanced content creation? Watch the bonus vide about website questions.
• Listen to the podcast
• Identify three pages on your website which need additional or updated content.
• Update the WEBSITE AUDIT WORKBOOK and record notes, comments and ideas about your content.
• If you are ready for an advanced preview of our Content Based SEO approach, watch the short bonus video as well

PART 4: Audit Conversion

People don’t become customers overnight. Typically they start out as random visitors to your website, or someone you bump into at a networking event. Transforming that casual contact into a customer for life is a multistage process that begins as a prospect gradually learns about what you do, how you operate as a company, and eventually hires you.

Conversion tools allow you to engage visitors, collect contact information and share more relevant data to move them through your sales funnel.  Think of creating conversion tools like stocking your refrigerator so you always have something tasty to offer guests.

Assignment: 

• Watch the video
• Identify the pages on  your website which do not have a clear next step.  Brainstorm possible calls to action for each page.  
• Listen to the podcast and evaluate your current landing pages.  Are they focused on one compelling call to action? 
• Update the WEBSITE AUDIT WORKBOOK and record notes, comments and ideas about your content.

PART 5: Audit Your Metrics

Are you tracking the return on their marketing efforts? If not, it is like getting in your car and ignoring all the gauges on your dashboard. You might get to your destination, but you might also run out of gas before you ever arrive.

For every marketing investment you should have a specific objective or goal and a metric. Whether you are spending 1,000 or 10,000 marketing metrics will help you figure out if the money is being well spent.

Assignment:

• Watch the video
• GET THE PLANNING WORKBOOK and use to it set goals for your business.
• Update the WEBSITE AUDIT WORKBOOK and record notes, comments and ideas about your content.

PART 6: Audit Your SEO 

Go Narrow to Win Big – SEO is not about winning every battle, but winning the ones which count. Pick a key word you want to rank for and search for it on Google. Odds are there will be millions of search results returned in just a few seconds.

So out of the millions of possible pieces of data why should you be #1? It is hard to complete on the broad search terms but you can increase the chances of landing on page one by narrowing your focus to niche keywords and specific geographic areas.

Remember 46% of search is local. You may not win around the world, but you can dominate in your own backyard.

Speak to Human Beings As you write content for your website, think like a customer. Use words they would use to describe your product/service.

Natural language wins . Say goodbye to stilted and forced content with your key word plugged in every few paragraphs. People are using longer, more conversational phrases to find you. As a matter of fact, more than 50% of searches are four words or more in

Assignment:

• Watch the video.
• Using the Page Audit Worksheet select three pages on your site to revise SEO title, meta description and content to avoid most common mistakes.
• Listen to the podcast interview

PART 7: A Second Opinion

When you are done with your web audit if you would like a second opinion on things you should consider, book a one hour working session with me