It starts out simple. You have a small business and you need a website. You write some of the pages or have someone do it for you but then…ahh! It becomes a huge mess. Maybe you start to feel like you need to improve your website because it isn’t really saying what you want it to say.
Do you find yourself explaining to people, in person, something different than what they might find on your site? If this is the case, or if you are just continually frustrated that your site isn’t saying what you want, you may need to try the beauty of SIMPLICITY.
“More” Confuses
Of course, there’s a lot you want people to know about your small business. It’s only natural! But, time and time again the issue I encounter the most with small businesses is that they say TOO much, all at once. Your potential customers and clients visit your site only to leave confused and, even worse, frustrated. Rather than influencing a potential new contact, you’ve now created a NEGATIVE contact.
Maybe your navigation panel has seven or eight headers, or maybe your headers have countless sub-menus. Or, they land on your page and have to scroll for minutes before reaching the bottom, sorting through long paragraphs and explanations. Then what happens? They bounce. If you’ve ever heard about high “bounce rate,” that’s what this means. They bounce in and then bounce right off your site.
Keep it Clear
One of the frequent services Steady Glow Digital provides to improve your website is paring down and CLARIFYING CONTENT. Sometimes it can be hard to do this when you’re so close to a business (it can even be a challenge to do it for myself!) but ultimately, it’s worth it. Content on your website should be DIRECT and be capable of answering questions a visitor might have. Some possible questions might be:
- What does this business do?
- How is this business different than another, similar one?
- Where is this business located?
- How do I contact this business?
- How much does this business’ services cost?
Take a peek at your site right now. Does it answer any of these, or similar questions?
Now What Do They Do?
Another thing to remember is…why do you have a website in the first place? Is it to sell a product? Generate contacts? Sign people up for your emails? Have them call you? Keep that singular goal or goals in mind in your content and design. That thing you want them to do? Make it painfully obvious and SIMPLE. Repeat it, on every page, in the header and in the footer. If you’re goal is to have them sign up for your emails, create a pop up sign-up, put a link to sign up in your header and even mention it within your content, in multiple places. It may feel a little redundant but what it does it make it EASY for people to do that thing, regardless of where they are on your site. Maybe your goal will change over time and with that, you can adapt your content and design. A website is a LIVE thing. Making your calls to action (CTAs) clear and available will help improve your website’s retention rate (making that pesky bounce rate go down).
Improve Your Website With This Simple Exercise
Empty your head for a minute. Now, in thirty seconds, explain what your business does. Did you find yourself resorting to “corporate speak” or using a different tone of voice? Try again, and again and again. It might even help to get frustrated. Sometimes, in our frustration, we blurt out the simplest and clearest explanations. Here’s another option: try explaining what you do to a child. Children are the best buffers of our BS. If you have a child, you know how much you have to distill complex concepts into easy-to-understand explanations. This works really well in business and websites, too.
Sometimes, Simplicity is Hard
If the prospect of combing through your website’s content and layout is too daunting, don’t worry, that’s actually what we love. We helped numerous businesses take scattered content, too much content and underperforming websites to create a smooth-running, more engaged and better performing machine! Your first step is to contact us today!