Does Your Website Suck?

Did you know that success online is a ‘holisitic’ thing?

It’s not about any one thing, like good search engine optimisation, online conversion or copywriting…it’s also about having a great website that works.

I’m not just talking about how ‘pretty’ the thing is.  While aesthetics are really important, there are other factors that can make the difference between whether your website makes money for your business…or whether the only thing it’s good for is eating up hosting fees!

So what constitutes a website that ’sucks’?  Depending on your type of business and the sites purpose, generally it means it’s ability to attract good numbers of traffic and visitors who then take a desired action…that leads initially or eventually to your buisness growing.  And to achieve this ongoing.

If your website sucks, the good news is that you can create a successful website on purpose…And literally turn it into a sales machine over time.

The trick is knowing now to do it.  If you contact us, I’ll show you.

Strategic Thinking

A few years back, websites were brochure sites.  Nothing more than your business card online. But things have changed because of the way the ‘net (and especially search) is driving new consumer behaviours.  Just think of how often you you use Google instead of Yellow Pages, Finda or Trade Me.

Internet users just like you and me, are more savvy, sophisticated, cynical…and fickle.  It’s no longer a case of getting your nephew to bung up a website.

Today your website (or rather websites) must be about your business strategy.  And the reality is that ’search ‘ ie Google, Bing & Yahoo is the single most important aspect of business strategy right now.  Why? Because more and more, people are looking online for what you do, sell, offer or promote.

In fact, in the near future, I predict that your search strategy  WILL BE your marketing strategy.  In other words, when your potential customers (most of whom have never heard of your brand) look for what you sell using a search engine, where are you ranked?

Anyone Can Rank Highly (If You Know How)

Here’s the thing.  Most businesses that appear near the top of their industry or niche keywords are not there by accident.  They are the smart ones who have seen the emerging trends and have started to take action.

The days of being the biggest company offline meaning that you also lead the search engine rankings…are well over.  Sorry.

Here’s an example (healthinsurancequote.org.nz).  A small client of ours who is taking on the largest health insurance organisation in New Zealand – and winning.  Being at #1 means visibility, and it means leads.

Rankings + Traffic  x Conversion = Online Success

For a website to achieve high Rankings in search engines in your chosen category or niche must have the right architecture.  It needs to be built in a certain way that sends a clear message to the web crawlers about exactly what your site is about.  We call this concept ‘relevance’ and it’s one of the most important aspects of achieving good SEO rankings.

Sure, there are other important factors like backlinking and other off and on-page SEO factors, but we know now that relevance and what we call ‘theming’ are critical factors that are affected by how your site is built.

Traffic is simply the volume of visitors that come to your website over a peiod of time.  Good SEO rankings affect traffic because there is a link between your top 10 ranking and the number of clicks to your site.  But good SEO rankings are not the only way to increase traffic.  There are other strategies like dealing with returning visitors, permission (email) marketing, microsites, integration of  social networks (like twitter) and lots more.

The measurement of how many site visitors actually take some action that you desire is called Conversion.  Success with conversion is dependent on many factors.

Some of the main ones include site aesthetics (how pretty the site is), the use of compelling words and copy, the proper placement of the site’s key features like calls-to-action, newsletter sign up, the inclusion of list-building tactics such as whitepapers or mini email courses, the placement of different elements and lots more.

How Do You Stack Up?

How well is your website performing right now?  If you could double or triple the number of qualified enquiries you get over a month, and it continued without rest way into the future, would that be worth contacting us for a free strategy meeting to learn more?

If you’d like to get a written report outlining some genuinely practical ideas (assuming you have a site) that you can implement immediately, as well as some strategy and options for the future, please click on the button below.

We’ll send you a short questionairre to complete and within a day or two we’ll email our findings and suggestions – without any hard-sell or obligation.

I hope this information has been useful, and look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for reading this.

Rhys Coffin
Director
Strategic SEO Specialist
Internet New Zealand Ltd

E: rhys@internetnewzealand.com