“How to get your website finally working and generating
sales for you.”
Why a few simple changes can get things working.
By Dr Jason Steele, Owner of SeyeneCo Web Design
The following article will help you understand
why your website is not generating any business for you,
and provide you with options for improving things.
Before proceeding please answer yes or no to the following questions:
1) | Has your website never generated business for you? | Yes No |
2) | Would you like to understand why your website isn’t working? | Yes No |
3) | Do you want to start generating business from your website? | Yes No |
Whether you’re just curious as to why your website isn’t generating
business for you, or you’ve decided to bite the bullet and get it fixed
the following article will provide you with the route to finally achieving
website success.
In the next 5 minutes as you read this entire article you’ll see how easy
it is to make your website finally generate you business. You’ll also learn:
- Why your website isn’t generating any business
- What to do about it
- How to fix your website
- How to enhance your website
- The cost of development
- How to choose the right web site designer
So why’s your website not generating
business?
A great website has to look good,
generate leads from search engines and convince the reader
to take the action you want them to i.e. contact or buy from you.
This might seem obvious, but if just one of these principles is lacking
then the entire website will go nowhere, and fast.
There are basic principles for the look of your website:
- The logo should be in the same position on every page
- The logo should be at the top left or top right of each page
- The location of the navigation menu should be in the same position on
every page - The navigation menu should be at the left or top of every page
- The colours in the website should match those used by the company
Check your website against these principles. If your website doesn’t satisfy
one then you’re annoying the visitor before convincing them that you’re
the company to solve their need.
Ensure your website looks good.
Up to 75% of the visitors to your website should be coming from search
engines i.e. Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. This means that when people search
for the products and services that you offer they should be finding your
website. A properly optimised website will appear in the first few pages
of the websites that Google, Yahoo & MSN return to the user.
Some of the reasons your website might not be appearing in the search engines
are:
- Using a splash screen before the homepage
- A purely Flash based website
- A heavy use of graphics in the website
- A lack of actual text in the website
Check your website for any of these problems.
Ensure your website is search engine friendly.
Every page on your website should have an action for the visitor at the
end of it. For example phone us now, contact us now, click the buy button
now etc. If your web pages don’t have this then you’re not encouraging your
visitors to take the desired action.
Ensure each page has an action.
Now you know the problem, what do
you do?
Believe it or not, you’ve actually taken
the first important step towards fixing your website – you’ve acknowledged
the problem. Too many companies in your same situation simply give-up
on the website and become bitter towards the original developer.
As with many things in life there are those who can, and those who can’t.
The website designer you used previously clearly failed in one of the three
key development aspects of the site:
- They failed to make it look good
- They failed to optimise the website for search engines
- They failed to convince the visitor to contact you or buy from you
As I mentioned before, a successful website requires each of these principles.
Don’t worry all is not lost – it’s a lot easier to fix a broken
website than to create one from scratch.
Acknowledge the problem and move forward.
Fixing your website
This starts by attempting to identify what’s
specifically going wrong with your website. I would start by asking
whether your website looks good. Now I don’t mean whether your
website has animation, flash and funky menus on every page – I mean does
it look good? Everybody has their own view as to what a nice website looks
like, and most people can spot a bad looking website a mile away.
I would say that a website:
- Must use the corporate colour scheme
- Should have left-hand or top navigation options
- Place the navigation panel in the same place on each page
- Use black text against a white background
- Not use flash, animation or frames
Another easy way to establish whether your website looks good is to ask
your clients what they think of it. I wouldn’t ask the original website
designer for obvious reasons.
Next you need to check whether you’ve actually generated any business
from the website? Hopefully you’ve kept track of this since launch.
If your website hasn’t generated any business for you then at least you’re
now doing something about it.
The vast majority of visitors to your website should be reaching
it via the major search engines. Checking to see whether your website
is appearing in Google, Yahoo & MSN will be the easy part. Simply visit
the search engines and see whether you can find your company website appearing
in the first three pages for any of the services or products that you offer.
If your website only appears when searching for your company name, then
you have a problem. If your website doesn’t even appear when searching for
that then you have a major problem. As I have said previously, acknowledging
the problem is the first step to changing the situation.
Lastly, go through each page on your website and ensure that there’s
an action at the end of the text. For example if you’re a sandwich
supplier then the page listing those sandwiches that you make should finish
with something like “For the tastiest sandwiches in Edinburgh call us on
…”.
Determine what’s not working.
Now you have a rough idea as to why your websites not generating you any
business.
Enhance your website
As you’re about to change your website
to improve its performance you should take the opportunity to talk
to your clients about what they’d like to see on it.
You might find that some of your clients would like more news about your
company, or perhaps the facility to download forms. As with business, the
way to make your website a great success is to identify what your clients
actually need and provide them with it.
Ask your clients what they’d like to
see on your website
Costing the development of your website
The cost of redeveloping your current website
depends upon several factors such as:
- The current condition of your website
- The number of page in the site
- The amount of text and graphics in the site
As a ball park figure each page on your website will cost between
£75 and £150 to redevelop. Obviously there are companies and individuals
who will charge much less and much more than this.
Get an idea of the cost.
Choosing a website design company
The worst way to decide which web site
design company to choose is through looking for the cheapest quote. Obviously
you want to develop a great website without having to invest more than you
can afford, yet the expression “pay nuts, get monkeys”
should be foremost in your mind.
Some things to definitely consider when deciding on a website design company
are:
- Have they created websites that you like the look of?
- Do their clients actually appear in the search engines?
- Will you meet with representatives of the company or is everything
conducted via emails and phone calls?
A great website should:
- Look fantastic
- Appear in a high position in the search engines
- Persuade people to actually contact or buy from you
Your previous website designer failed with one or more of these tasks,
so you’ll want to ensure the next designer knows what they are doing.
Check the ability of your next web designer.
For an analogy a website is like a salesman. If the salesman looks good,
generates great leads and has a fantastic sales talk then your business
will thrive. If anyone of these three vital components isn’t effective then
you’ll get no extra business.
The look of the website is compared to the look of the salesman. The leads
the salesman generates is compared to the traffic generated via the search
engines. And lastly, the sales talk is matched to the web copy of the website.
For your website to be a success all three ingredients must be present.
You’re the owner of a
property letting company
based in Glasgow, where you have several properties on offer. Your current website
has been up and running for a year and generated no new business.
After doing some Internet based research you know that there are 121 people a month
looking for property to rent in Glasgow. Each property you manage to rent earns you £100
commission per month.
If your website is sitting at the top of the search engines for the phrase “property letting Glasgow”
then there’s a very good chance you’ll get all 121 people to visit your site. Taking a conservative conversion
rate of 5% then this means you’ll get an extra 6 sales per month.
Six extra sales per month at £100 each means that you’ll quickly recover the initial investment
in the website.
However, and this is the catch, if your website isn’t sitting in a high position in the search engines
for your targeted phrase then the number of people visiting your site will be lower, the sales will be
lower, and the commission will be lower.
So when evaluating quotes from potential website designer simply choosing the cheapest could be
an expensive long term mistake. You need to ensure that the designer you choose has the ability to
get your site rated near the top of the search engines.
So now what?
You now know the three possible reasons
your website isn’t generating you any business. I talked you through:
- Why your website isn’t generating any business
- What to do about it
- How to fix your website
- How to enhance your website
- The cost of development
- How to choose the right web site designer
Provided you follow these steps your website will be fixed and generating
business in no time.
If you’re based in Scotland and your website isn’t generating you business
then phone SeyeneCo on 01698 292 296 and we’ll get it fixed.