Every business has a website, but each one varies in its level of effectiveness. Does your website look like someone took a boring, static, printed brochure and posted it online? The best websites promote action, creativity, and decision-making.
You want your website to be interactive – not only to provide visitors with information but to compel them to action. A great website moves people to respond. Perhaps it is to sign up for your free e-newsletter, to order a product, to download a free report or register for your webinar. Your goal is to make your visitor motivated to engage with you in some way.
Your website should be an interactive hands-on experience, not an aimless wander through a quiet art museum where it’s all look, no touch. Your website should literally drive visitors to take action and direct visitors to the content, products, and services that you want them to notice.
Take this quick test and grade your website. How many buttons and links on your homepage ask visitors to make a decision? And how many opportunities to interact, invest and commit on the other pages?
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
- Sign up for Free
- Register Today
Changing your static website to a dynamic one is easy. If your website lacks a clear decision-making system, you’re missing sales and losing money. Your site is your primary marketing tool. Don’t let it become an albatross.
Give visitors a choice of yeses. Your homepage should be loaded with several next-step options. At the end of content on every subpage, provide options to read more or visit another appropriate part of your site.
No self-guided tours. You must purposely guide visitors through your website, making sure they don’t miss any opportunity to engage. Machines make our lives easier by handling repetitive tasks for us around the clock. Are you making the most of your own decision-making machine?
When you look at your website statistics, don’t just look at how many unique visitors came to your site or how many page views you have received. Pay attention to the percentage of the people who came to your site actually did something that you wanted them to do. They gave you permission to email them, they ordered a product, they requested a consultation or they make a donation. Effective websites should be about engagement.
