Website designs may include unseen barriers which keep people from visiting the site and easily taking the actions you wish them to complete. This presentation discusses five things every website owner should check to ensure their site is easy to use and encourages visitors to complete your goals for them. • Home pages that attract visitors • Interesting content for your target audience • Encourage clicks by your search engine listing • Show a clear path to your goal • Use a call to action that converts Topics in the presentation include simple navigation, encouraging users to act, interesting content, clear search engine listings, good content structure, descriptive meta tags, customer decision process and clear call to action.

1. 18 April, 2013
Is Your Website Ready?
5 Things You
MUST Check
Charles E. Crouch
© Charles Crouch, 2008-14, All rights Reserved
Photo: C. Crouch

2. Your new website is online.
You’ve even had the launch party!
But when you go to check...
Your New Website!
Home
About
News
Contact
It is with great pleasure that we
announce the grand opening
of the ACME Widgets
company website
where you can learn
all about ACME and
its fine line of products.

3. Where are your
customers?
Photo: C. Crouch

4. Too often we set up barriers we do not even recognize
that keep visitors from reaching the goals we want.
Photo: C. Crouch

5. Here are 5 things every website
owner MUST check
✓Home Pages that Attract Visitors
✓Interesting Content for Your Target Audience
✓Encourage Clicks by Your Search Engine Listing
✓Show a Clear Path to Your Goal
✓Call to Action that Converts

6. Home Pages
that Attract
Visitors
Photo: iStockPhoto

7. Your Home Page is:
the First Impression of
your business. It must:
✓attract visitors
✓have clear, easy navigation
✓encourage them to complete
your goal
But you
only have
3 to 4 Seconds
to do all this!

8. Attract visitors:
Your website home page is like the entrance to your store:
Both of these work, they are just designed for different types of
customers. Design your website for your customers and their needs.
Photos: C. Crouch

9. Clear Navigation
✓Easy to understand
✓Show a clear path
Never leave your customers confused
about where to go next.
Photo: C. Crouch

10. Encourage visitors to complete your goal
Etsy provides
numerous ways to
shop. They do not
care how, just as
long as you shop
with them.

11. Interesting Content
for Your Target
Audience
Photo: iStockPhoto

12. Key Questions to Ask
You must be able to answer all of these
questions in detail.
Who is your Target Audience?
What do they want to know?
Not: What do you want to tell them?
How can you make it easy for them, not you?
Photo: Microsoft

13. Too many websites look like this.
ACME Widgets
About Us Our
Organization
Our
Products
News
About Us
Contact Us
Welcome to ACME Widgets
Our New Company
Headquarters!
With the opening of our new
company headquarters, ACME
Widgets moves to the front of
the line for showing our best
ACME

14. PetSmart quickly enables visitors to find supplies
for their pets.

15. Remember,
in 3 to 4 seconds:
if visitors cannot:
- figure out what your website is about
- find interesting material
They will leave!

16. Even a B2B site can quickly show visitors where
to find interesting material for them.

17. Encourage Clicks
by Your Search
Engine Listing
Photo: iStockPhoto

18. Homework: Go Find Yourself
(I am a teacher, I can give you homework.)
➡ Put your company name into some search engines
➡ Look at the results pages
Can visitors easily identify you?
Does your listing encourage them to click?

19. Getting found easily is Critical for local businesses

20. Improve your Search
Engine Results by
‣ writing Relevant Content
‣ using Good Structure
‣ adding descriptive Meta-tags
Photo: Microsoft

21. Write Relevant Content
✓write for Your Visitors First!
✓Original, Fresh Content is best
✓then think about search engines
Photo: iStockPhoto

22. Use Good Structure
Write content using good structure to make pages
easier to read for both people and search engines.
• Headings
• Sub-headings
• Bold text
• Hyperlinks
• Lists
Heading to to Introduce
Introduce
Eset eiusmod tempor incidunt et magna aliqua
bold important words and phrases
phrases. Utim
minim veniam, quis nostrud exerc.
Sub-Heading
to Separate
Maecenas aliqua maecenas ligula nostra,
accumsan. Fermentum pede quam scelerisque
Hyperlink to Relevant Material
List for Similar Items
Material, et enim.
for Similar Items
cars
planes
• Enim aliquet penatibus
• Sit nam trucks
montes
• Praesent leo orci aliquam

23. Descriptive Meta Tags
Just like a television schedule provides information
about the programs, meta tags give information
about the content on a web page.
➡ Meta tags are not shown to visitors.
➡ They are used by browsers & search engines
➡ Help classify and index web pages

24. There are three principle meta tags for web pages.
You can see them using a browser to view the actual
code for the web page.
<html>
<head>
<title>Boston University (BU) Title
in Brussels:
International Relations and Business Graduate Degree,
Certificate and Diploma Programs</title>
<meta name="description" content="Boston Description
University
(BU) in Brussels is an international business school
with graduate degree, diploma and certificate
programs in international relations and business.
Contact us to learn more about our graduate
international business degrees: brussels@bu.edu.">
<meta name="keywords" content="Boston Keywords
University in
Brussels, European Graduate School, Post Graduate

25. The Title Tag is the most important meta tag because
search engines use it as the headline in their listings.
Title Tag
Boston University (BU) in Brussels: International Relations and ...
Boston University (BU) in Brussels is an international business school with
graduate degree, diploma and certificate programs in international relations and ...
www.bu.edu/brussels/ - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
Description Tag
The Description Tag can be used by search engines to
provide a summary of the web page content.

26. Title Tags Matter
Here are over 3 million web pages with a listing
New Page 1. How can visitors find them?
3,650,000

27. How to add Meta Tags?
It is easy to add meta tags to your web pages.
Talk to your website developer
Photo: iStockPhoto

28. Show a Clear Path
for Visitors to
reach Your Goal

29. Customers use a
Decision Process
when starting to
make a purchase
➡ a set of Activities & Choices
➡ made by a Typical Customer
➡ to reach your Desired Action
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Action
Loyalty

30. Possible decisions to be made
when buying a book
Awareness Gift
Special Interest in
Subject or Author
Specific Need:
Class, Work, Hobby
Consideration
Read
Reviews
Ask Friends
Search for
Availability
Review
Contents
Preference Price Quality Available
Fits My
Needs
Action
Purchase
Online
Purchase
Offline
Library
Borrow from
Friend
Loyalty
Arrived On
Time
Good
Quality
Easy to Get

31. Whether you have a website or app, it must
support your customer's decision process
Bookstore App
Shelf
Shop
News
Contact

32. This website includes three different
decision steps on one web page
Action
Preference
Consideration

33. Call to Action
Converts
Photo: iStockPhoto

34. A call to action clearly tells visitors
what they must do next.

35. On a typical website, for every 100 people who begin a process,
only two or three actually finish. By adding a customer decision
process behind the graph, we can see why poor information and
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Action
Loyalty
100
75
50
25
0
Home Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Finish
Visitors
vague guidance contribute to this high failure rate.

36. But, by making a change to help visitors and show them what to
do next, we can make an improvement which flows through the
entire chain. Rather than two or three who finish, we now have
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Action
Loyalty
100
75
50
25
0
Home Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Finish
Visitors
three or four, a significant increase.

37. Recap

38. Focus Your
Website
On Your
Visitors
Photo: iStockPhoto

39. Never leave them wondering
"What now?"
Photo: iStockPhoto

40. Other Presentations
on SlideShare
Photo: C. Crouch

41. Questions Comments and Suggestions?
Charles Crouch
info@charlescrouch.com
CharlesECrouch
www.charlescrouch.com
Photo: iStockPhoto