Websites are the cornerstone of online marketing. We’re focusing a lot on blogs, social media and lead magnets, but everything links back to the website. Without a website, you have no home on the Internet and no way to get visitor and client.
But websites have changed a lot in the last few years. A couple weeks ago I emailed a dozen high profile marketers in the industry, asking them one simple question:
“If you could give ONE piece of advice about website development, what would you say?”
That was the question, these were the answers.
I always recommend to my clients that they use a feature opt-in box or an exit-intent pop-up to get the most subscribers possible.
When visitors come to your site, only 1/2 of 1% will sign up for your email list when your opt-in box is in the sidebar. By putting the opt-in front and center, you will convert 5% to 10% of your visitors to subscribers and your email list will grow much faster.
Sue Anne Dunlevie
http://www.successfulblogging.com
The most important aspect of your business is your message and the content you create to share that message, so don’t worry about look and feel of the site until you have created some content to launch your business into cyberspace.
Then, take your time with the branding, images, and details that will give the site the aesthetics that represent what you want to project to your target audience.
Connie Ragen Green
http://ConnieRagenGreen.com
My one piece of advice, as I guess you’d expect from someone who’s written a book on email marketing, is to make sure you are offering something of value to motivate people to sign up for regular emails from you.
The vast majority of people who visit your site won’t be ready to buy right away no matter how great your site is. It will take time before they’re ready and you’ll need to build credibility and trust through multiple interactions.
Unfortunately, the chances are that most people won’t come back to your site so you won’t get those multiple interactions unless you can get them to sign up for regular emails where you can nurture your relationship and add value until they’re ready to buy.
So for me the number one priority is to have something really useful that guides your ideal clients in an area they need advice on or helps to solve an immediate problem for them. When they sign up for that they start to get your regular emails where you can continue to add value and build credibility and trust.
Ian Brodie
http://IanBrodie.com
Plot out the minimum you need to launch while making sure you can grow into your site. I see too many businesses hold back launching their service and getting their name out there because they think their site has to be huge, or filled with bells and whistles, or they’re just waiting for it to be perfect. I’m very much of the idea that you should get it to ‘good enough’ and then launch because your site will only really start to evolve and come to life after you go live.
Map out a few key pages such as a homepage, about page, services page, contact page and maybe a squeeze page for a free download (in exchange for an email address). Make sure the design and copy on those are strong and then start marketing what you have. I love WordPress for the ease with which you can set up and manage a site while having room to add more functionality as you go.
Amy Harrison
http://HarrisonAmy.com
My advice is to remember…it’s NOT about you.
All the books and training talk about structure, time on site, pages, mobile display, blah, blah, blah…
And sure they’ll say to focus on the ideal client and deliver the content they want…all good.
However, taking a more holistic point of view about what the website’s look and feel are to YOUR user is critical.
Don’t just mirror what you think is delivering success for someone else, deliver what’s successful for YOUR client. How?
Ask a current/former client to take a look and give you unbiased feedback…and do the same for them!
Chris Makell
http://www.ChrisMakell.com
My one piece of advice for entrepreneurs building a website would be to have a clear understanding what a website can and can’t do for you, and then make sure you design your website accordingly.
I like to say your website is like your online store — you have lots of departments (which are sales pages that describe and sell specific products or services), you have a place where they can get to know you with your About You page and getting content from your blog, and of course getting on your mailing list and joining your community.
It’s basically a jack of all trades, master of none, which means it’s really good at giving an overview, but there are other vehicles that are better at specific jobs (for instance, sales letters are better for specifically selling products and services and opt in pages are better at building your list and community versus an opt in form on your website).
Does that mean you shouldn’t have a website? Absolutely not — it gives you credibility and allows people to poke around and get to know you and figure out what they want. It just means you need to design it accordingly to help direct people as to what you want them to do next.
Michele Pariza Wacek (Michele PW)
http://MichelePW.com
I actually created my first website myself using Frontpage (a program that isn’t even available anymore). Now I won’t say it looked professional because it didn’t. But I learned tons about the technical aspect and, most importantly, I could make changes myself.
Today WordPress sites have taken over. Thank GOD. They are clean and easy to use. Even if you don’t build your own site in WordPress (I didn’t), I would still recommend having a little training so you can at the very least make your own updates to the copy. It’s very important to have the power to make changes to your message on the fly in my opinion.
Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero
http://RedHotCopy.com
I’d simply say that create websites that are helpful, fast, and provide a great user experience. It is very important to provide good user experience to the site visitors to hold them for a longer duration.
The user experience includes your site design and site speed. How many times we just abandon a site because it takes too long to open up, even if it has a good design.
Of course, there are many other aspects to consider while building your blog or website, and just speed might not be helpful if it is not supported with good design and great content. Summing it up, build a website that the visitor falls in love with! 🙂
Harleena Singh
http://www.harleenasingh.com
Before you start daydreaming and then planning and then building your website, be crystal clear on what is that your business is all about. And we’re not even talking about the marketing copy and all the fancy phrases and offers.
Be clear on your business model. Only then, you will know what role your website will play in the greater scheme of things. Once you have that, then you can team up with copy writer, coder and designer and get a website that will do its job – in vision and functionality.
Sara Speicher
www.saraoblakspeicher.com
“My best piece of advice would be to make sure your message is very clear on what it is that you do.
“I can’t tell you how many sites I land on and although their design is really awesome and the colors pleasing to the eyes, I have absolutely no idea what it is that they actually do. Out of curiosity at times I’ll look around because I want to know but most first time visitors won’t. Who has the time to dig into a website to try and figure this out!
“Make it easy for your visitors. If you just have a website then have some type of verbiage on your home page letting us know what service you provide. If you just have a blog then it needs to be in your tagline so we’ll know how you’re going to help us.
Design, colors, fonts, they’re all important but even if you have all of that right but your message isn’t clear then it’s all in vain.”
Adrienne Smith
AdrienneSmith.net
Before you even install WordPress – decide who it is you want to serve. Then do plenty of research to better understand how they communicate. It’s critically important to understand their pain points and how to speak their language.
As a result, you’ll be able to connect with your audience in a meaningful way, and help them overcome their biggest frustration.The beautiful outcome is that you’ll build (and sustain) a base of raving fans and loyal customers.
Craft your signature style and user experience. A lot of people make the mistake of jumping into their website without having all of their ducks in a row, which is the quickest way to get overwhelmed and haphazard. Neither of which results in a stunning final product.
My best piece of advice for building your website would be to make sure you have all of your branding guidelines defined and your entire site outlined before you EVER start creating your site. You need to know what your vision is before you can create it.
Having your branding guidelines {including your logo, color palette, font theme, decorative elements, etc} pre-defined and your entire website plotted out will drastically reduce the time it takes you to build your website, not to mention it will ensure that you maintain a consistent look and feel for your brand.
Pre-planning takes the guest work out of the equation and makes creating your website easier because you already know what elements to use and what goes where. You know what they say, if you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail. Don’t set yourself up for failure…that’s just cray cray!
Take the time to craft your signature style and map out the user experience on your website and you’ll be off and running with an unshakable foundation for your website and brand as a whole.
Andrea “Dre” Beltrami
http://thebrandedsolopreneur.com/
My one piece of advice would be to avoid the Bright Shiny Object Syndrome – so many people just throw bells and whistles onto their websites, and they end up with a “Frankenstein” site that has too much going on and no focus.
To avoid that, I always recommend clients to get clear on their message and how they want to show up so they can create a cohesive branding for their website. They also want to be clear on what they want the website to do for their business, so they can be selective about the kind of functionalities to include to yield the desired results, instead of throwing spaghetti on the wall and wasting precious time, money and energy.
Ling Wong
http://business-soulwork.com/ywf-free/
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Hi there!
Best post ever.. found some awesome marketers here, I only know a few of them but now I will check them all out!
Thanks for sharing with us..
Hey Cathy,
Great roundup post! I think the most important tip is to have clarity on what your site is about and who would be attracted to your site. So many people put up a site with all the bells and whistles but yet it had no direction or no purpose. I learned this when quite a few people kept asking me what is my blog about and what exactly do I do. That was a great indicator that I needed more clarity.
Thanks for sharing Cathy! Have a great weekend!
Thanks so much, Sherman! I agree with you about direction and purpose. I’ve had the same questions and also learned to fine-tune accordingly.
Thanks for stopping by and you have a good weekend too!
Cathy
Hi, Cathy,
How very exciting to be gleaning wisdom from these awesome entrepreneurs! Great ideas and lots of golden nuggets shared.
Thanks for introducing me to Michele and Chris; I was not acquainted with them yet.
I appreciate you putting this together for us, and also for inviting me to participate. What an honor!
Hope you have a lovely weekend, and will be spreading the word…
Take Care,
Carol
Thanks, Carol!
This is indeed a good group – and you’re an important part of it! My goal was for everyone to recognize some names and be introduced to new ones.
Cathy
Hi Cathy,
Wonderful indeed 🙂
One can make out the efforts put in to compile all of this together – and thanks so much for adding my two cents along with others as well. Yes, I do see a few familiar faces, while the rest I’d surely love to meet.
I enjoyed going through the wonderful answers everyone had to share, which makes this such a worthwhile post for everyone.
Thanks so much for sharing this with us, and I’d surely be sharing it further as it would help many. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Harleena,
Thanks so much for stopping by to comment. I hope the info shared here will be widely shared, as all too many people make really bad decisions about their websites. And I really appreciate your contribution. Well said!
Great collection Cathy – and interesting to see so much agreement across contributors.
Cheers
Ian
Thanks, Ian, and you bring up a good point. Even though each contributor wrote independently, and some don’t know each other, there were some underlying themes, especially related to message.
Cathy
Hi Cathy,
What a great job you did putting this altogether. I see some familiar faces here but a few I don’t think I’ve run across yet.
We all have our own thoughts about the question you asked us so I think that all of these answers of course are right. I also think it depends on your main goal but I still believe that if you’re not clear on your own message then everything else will be in vain.
I know at times that’s even hard to figure out but that’s just part of the process wouldn’t you agree?
I enjoyed reading what everyone had to share and I can’t thank you enough for asking me to contribute to your post too. Thank you so much for that and I’ll be sure to pass this one around as well.
Great job Cathy!
~Adrienne
Thanks, Adrienne! My goal was to introduce some folks who will be new as well as appreciate the veterans in the group.
Your point about message is well-taken and relates to just about every topic here. For instance, you can’t be consistent without a message foundation!
Thanks for contributing and supporting this post!
Cathy
Hi Cathy,
You absolutely asked the right people because this is all excellent advice.
Having an exit intent popup will absolutely increase your signups, but it can be too much for some readers. As long as the copy or the freebie that is offered appeals to their interest, this should work very well though. Email is probably the best channel to nurture your relationships.
Being able to write and improve your own copy is also a great one. Even though most entrepeneurs don’t have the time to make copy a study, I would also recommend any entrepeneur to pick up a book or 2, or to read Gary Halbert’s newsletter.
I was happy to see Adrienne included here. Message is very important and i’m still working on making my website instantly clear. Her advice is very valuable because people have low attention span and if your messaging isn’t clear, they’ll leave without taking action. Most of them just won’t try to figure it all out.
And last but certainly not least, the BSOS! It’s easy to fall prey for it, especially if you are on some lists that promote overhyped cheap products & plugins that promise the world. If you are new in internet marketing, this could eventually suck out all of the enthusiasm. It happens to people everyday.
It’s hard to even add something to this. I’d say being consistent is very important if you want people to come back to your website. They will start to depend on your schedule after a while which is a great thing but can hurt you if you don’t stick to it yourself, like Neil Patel has tried in the past. His traffic basically crashed down and it took a long time to get back to the same level.
– Jasper
Hi Jasper,
Thanks for the thoughtful response. Exit popups are controversial: they annoy some readers, but they’re becoming commonplace. Gary Halbert’s always a good choice for copy, and the copywriters here are pretty strong too!
Good point about consistency. That’s always hard: BSOS never stops!
Thanks again,
Cathy
Hi, Cathy,
Great post! I agree with every single one of these experts. It isn’t about you and content and branding are important.
Great to see so many friends here also.
Sue
Thanks, Sue! You’re a real inspiration when it comes to blog posts of all kinds and i’m so glad you were there.