In the past websites were built with the idea of an electronic business card, but that's not really the mindset anymore of what makes a good website. Sadly this create-it and leave-it mentality is still lingering in small business owners today.
Whether you are a doctor, mechanic, painter, contractor, consultant, or an ad agency you need clients, and you need your cash flow to increase or at the very least be stable enough to pay your employees, bills, and hopefully yourself. New customers are what propel average companies past the 5 year and 10 year business marks.
Customers are the lifeblood of your company. What are you doing to bring new customers to your business?
What Makes a Good Website? The First Step is More Customers
A good website can bring new customers every month. But what exactly makes a good website? That’s a great question! Here are just a few things you should have on your website:
- Important information should be above the fold
- Calls–to–Action should be on every page
- Calls-to-Action should direct visitors to a landing page
- Any guides or free offers should be hidden behind a form
- Visitors should know what you do or sell in the first 5 seconds of seeing your website
- Your writing should be in second person and be compelling
- Pictures
- Social Media Links and Sharing Buttons
- A Blog
- A Large Number of Indexed Pages
This list could go on, but for initial changes these are the most important and some of the easiest things to fix. However, this does depend on who and how you manage your website.
Evaluate Your Own Website to See How “Good” It Is
One of the first things we do with any prospective client is analyze and review their current website. Almost like assessing the damages on a car. We go through our checklists and use our software to decide how much work will need to be done to make a website not just good, but the best in its industry. Then we decide what should take priorityand what can wait, depending on the client’s budget.
If you would like us to assess your website, and have a chat about making your website a lead generating machine, then please don’t hesitate to call us at 530-345-8295. Or you can Contact Us through our nifty form!
Free Resources to Do Minor Evaluations on Your Website
If you're not ready to talk, but still want to see what you could do to assess your own website, we highly recommend using the QuickSprout tool. It’s easy and free, plus it lets you add up to three competitors that you can compare to your own website.
QuickSprout
Please keep in mind, some of the terms or factors in the report may not be explained, so here are a few terms you might see when determining what makes a good website.
Don't know what a term means? Here is a mini glossary to help you!
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
How easy can your website be found on the Internet?
Website Errors
These are important if you have errors on your website. You'll need to do some maintenance on your website. Errors greatly reduce your website score.
Speed
A speed test analyzes how fast your page loads, etc. This is important, and if your speed is in the red you may need to make changes to the CSS and code in your website.
Above the Fold
Computer screen sizes vary, but there is a rule of thumb we all live by: keep important information above the fold. This means visitors should not have to scroll to see more of your content.
H1, H2, H3…
These are Heading tags. Just like when you assign a heading in Word, it assigns a style, and in website language it also assigns the importance of the words in the heading. An H1 is most important, H2 is a little less important, and so on. Keeping your Headings short, to the point, and keyworded is very important.
Number of Indexed Pages
When Google is deciding where and when to show your website in search results it looks at many factors, one of these is indexed pages. How many pages do you have? If you don’t have a lot of web pages this can decrease your chances of getting found by customers and give your competitors a leg up.
Keywords
These are the terms you add to your website that Google believes you want to be found for. If your report shows a lot of bogus words that have nothing to do with your industry or business you have a problem.
Hopefully these explanations will help you read your report. If you have any questions at all about what makes a good website, add them in the comments section below. Thank you for reading.
Food for Thought:
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
-Sam Walton
To learn more about what makes a good website and how it fits into internet marketing, download our free guide below.
