What Not to do on Your Business Website
Before it was more widespread and known as speed dating, there was “New Year’s Calling”.
The 1800s custom was as follows; on New Year’s Day, single women would hold an open house of sorts, inviting eligible bachelors. Their visits would be capped at 15 minutes, usually not exceeding 10.
So, what feels like a tradition birthed after the iPhone, actually goes back centuries. And it speaks to an aspect of human nature that is wildly relevant to business:
First impressions really, really matter.
In the 21st-century, the website is to business as New Year’s Calling was to romance. And just like many bachelors were surely committing a plethora of errors over a beautiful coffee table that would now fetch upwards of $20k on Antiques Roadshow, many businesses are making catastrophic errors on their website. The bachelors didn’t get the girl and the businesses don’t get the customer.
And that is a bummer of a scenario, so let’s dive into what not to do on your business website.
Not Know Who You’re Talking To
Two facets here, one vague and one highly specific.
In the vague sense, you are talking to customers, the vast majority of whom know little to nothing about your product or service. Use language that reflects that, not language you use with your management, staff or industry friends.
In the highly specific sense, you’re not just talking to customers. Ideally, you’re talking to a particular demographic. It’s crucial to have this/these figured out so you speak the language, align the values, and connect on a transactional and personal level.
There are outstanding buyer persona tools out there that will make your website exponentially better with very little work, relatively speaking.
Note, the entire design speaks to your audience - meaning copy (the words) is just the start. Ensure your website’s aesthetic is something your buyer personas would find welcoming yet professional.
2. Think You’re the Main Character, all the Time
In his book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie said “a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language”.
Now look, don’t go starting every paragraph of copy with “Look Gary”, or “Candice, we understand”. There are thousands of names - you ain’t nailing them all, and it’d be creepy if a Gary or Candice WAS reading.
The point is, your customer is the hero of this entire story, not you. There are only four you-oriented fields a business’ website should address - and always as efficiently as possible (aka, few words!):
Explain what you do or provide,
How it makes their life better,
Why you’re different from competitors,
Why customers can trust you
That’s it. And even within those fields, still frame the writing to have the customer as the subject of the sentence.
3. Slack on Maintenance
Arnold Scharzenegger’s body in the 1970s.
Airbnb listings that get a 5-star rating then get lazy.
Oil changes for your car.
Things seldom just achieve greatness and float there; there’s a reason “resting on your laurels” is such a damning, yet useful phrase.
Whether it’s you overseeing your website, or you’ve outsourced the maintenance - it’s imperative to enact necessary updates. That means everything from contact information and technical details, to services provided and any sort of About Us page.
In fact, arguably the most important upkeep occurs outside your website in the form of marketing and campaigns… but needs to be accounted for in it.
As you routinely tune up your website, be sure you’ve done some proper research on what your competitors are up to as well.
4. Neglect Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Mastering this is like a cheat code, but you’re not even cheating, you’re just playing the game that is made by Google.
SEO is the extent to which your business appears in search results (Google and other search engines). This is done largely by utilizing the right keywords (queries searchers type into engines) in the right places (page titles, headlines and some behind-the-curtains code). The first thing to know is that SEO is a long-term game. And any company or service that promises you elite rankings in 20 mins, is one you can move on from.
So how are these mystical “right keywords” determined? Research tools. See, it’s not that there’s some special keyword Google just prefers. It’s that there are keywords that more people are searching for more frequently than others. Software like SEMRush or Google Keyword Planner will shed light on what keywords you should be focusing on.
You can boil down SEO strategies into the commonly-cited 3 Cs: content, code, and credibility. The first and third go somewhat hand-in-hand (though credibility and trustworthiness are infinitely harder than just posting a bunch of gibberish). For code, it’s best to find someone or some company that knows what they’re doing.
The bad news? These mistakes are easy to make, and odds are you are currently - or will commit one of them. The good news? So are and so have millions of others.
But as we at Iliad Media Group have enjoyed year after year of unparalleled radio advertising success, we’ve since blossomed into a digital powerhouse as well. We help local businesses be heard on the radio and found online with stories that make customers eager to buy. And we’d love nothing more than to help yours too. So let’s chat.
