Take Time To Create the Best First Impression
Taking time at the beginning to strategically set up your website saves hours of heartache and potential spend dollars correcting mistakes.
New business owners, anxious to have a web presence, often fall into the trap of getting a website up before it is ready to entice and engage new customers. When you start thinking about your website, the most important factor is how your site visitors--potential customers--will discover your product or service and how they are led to making a purchase.
Actation Now! created a free guide Before You Meet Your Web Developer with questions for you and your developer on setting up your website.
You need to consider customer priorities:
- What customer needs does your business satisfy?
- How do your business and products benefit your target audience?
- A clear list of bullet items of benefits.
- What can your business offer your visitors, what’s in it for them, how can you help them?
- What problems do your prospects have that your business solves?
Answering these questions, and the others on the guide, help your web designer strategically structure the website to lead your prospects through the steps to buying your product or service. The answers lead to important site development issues such as selecting an appropriate color scheme and designing the site menu to the overall number of pages.
How To Refine Your SEO Strategy for the Website
SEO stands for search engine optimization and that means creating a website that distinguishes your business as a recognizable and differentiated entity on the web. Gone are the days of keyword lists. Now your optimization strategy depends on creating a unique, individualized web presence highlighting the essence of your business and its benefits to customers.
Yes, semantic web page content will augment your overall business vision and communication with your customers, but you need to do the strategic thinking about your business first.
David Amerland’s SEO HELP: 20 Semantic Search Steps That Will Help Your Business Grow walks you through the strategic thinking about your business that will enhance your website to grow your business. Working through the steps refines your thinking about the connection between your web presence and your business.
Actation Now! Has a free tool, SEO Help Questionnaire, to copy and use to store your answers. As your business grows and changes, you can go back and revise your answers to better think about how your website best serves your business. Michel Reibel calls it your Semantic Plan.
The Right Time for Semantic Writing
Once you have a clear vision of your business and a website that reflects your vision, then you are ready to add content that aligns with your vision.
I’m prompted to share these thoughts after a recent discussion with one client on how he wished he had taken time from the start to plan his site wisely over a year ago. And, I have a potential new client who is not ready, yet.
If you have questions about how this strategy works for your business, get in touch: 503 468 7008. Zara Altair
