Everybody has a website, including authors, publishers, non-profits, and corporations. But, what does your website do? Is it like most websites, which look like someone took a boring, static, printed brochure and slapped it up on the Internet? Or, does your website create action and activity? If you have a website, this should always be your #1 focus:
Your website should be a decision-making machine.
Your website should literally drive visitors to take action. It’s a huge mistake to let people visit your site and aimlessly wander through it. You must strategically direct visitors to the content, products, and services that you want them to notice. They will rarely find that information on their own.
Take this quick test and grade your website (I’ll wait.) Go to your home page and count how many buttons or links are displayed that ask visitors to make a decision. Next, do the same assessment with the most popular pages on your website.
Effective examples of decision-making links would include:
- Start Here
- Free Gift
- Download Now
- Read Case Studies
- Take Free Quiz
- Complete Free Assessment
- Try Free Sample
- Work With Us
- Buy Now
- Signup for Free
- Register Today
If your website lacks a clear decision-making system for visitors, make changes quickly. I can assure you that you’re missing sales and losing money. You cannot afford to let your primary marketing tool become an albatross.
When people visit your website, always give them a choice of yesses. Load up your home page with several next-step options. End the content on every subpage with options to read more or visit another appropriate part of your site.
Purposefully guide people through your website. Do not let visitors take a self-guided tour. Otherwise, they’ll get lost or simply leave frustrated.
For some of you, your website may act more like a stop sign or a traffic cop telling people to halt, rather than waving people through to continue their journey. For others, your website may be too static and full of dead-ends. When people visit, they feel bored and ready to leave in a matter of seconds.
Your website is a literal machine that resides on another machine called a digital server connected to the worldwide Internet. Machines are supposed to make our lives easier by handling repetitive tasks for us around the clock. Yet, your website won’t do you much good unless your turn it into a decision-making machine. Now that you know, what’s your next decision?
Read for FREE: Good Websites, Bad Websites, and the Difference
