5 ESSENTIAL QUALITIES FOR A SUCCESSFUL WEBSITE

You can't be a thriving company without a website.

Some brands claim that social media is all you need to attract customers, and while that might be slightly true for some unique businesses, for the other 99% of us, it's not true. You don't just need a website. You need an effective one that will attract customers and motivate them to take the actions you want them to.

Without delay, let's talk about 5 essential qualities your website needs to be successful.

1. ENGAGING
When I say engaging, I mean your website needs to hold people's attention, lead them to scroll through your pages and peak their curiosity. You can engage with people through a variety of techniques:

• Use images and video content whenever you're able to

• Keep your flow of thought intentional through out each page

• Make navigating your pages easy by providing links through out your site

• Keep your copy refined and concise

• Focus on only the most essential details

It's not enough to just have a website. It needs to maintain your users attention. People's concentration is already short when visiting your website. From my years of observing user behavior on my customer's websites, it only takes 3-5 seconds for a user to determine whether they will continue on the website or bounce.
Whether your website is engaging or not will determine how long they stick around and continue investigating what your business has to offer.

2. ENLIGHTENING
When I say enlightening, I mean your website needs to provide all the answers, solutions and insights that the visitor was looking for when they decided to visit your site. 99% of the time, when a customer visits your website, they're trying to decide whether you can really help them or not. To show that you can help them, your website should include the following qualities to enlighten them:

• Clearly communicate the problems your business solves

• Clarify the features included in your offering

• Share the benefits your customer will enjoy

• Portray competence through customer testimonials

• Show character through your personal story and passion

All of these areas act as steps in your customer's journey as they attempt to decide whether they should choose your business or someone else's. Take some time to work through each of these areas and write down the details and thoughts that come to mind for each section. The more clear and concise you can be, the more enlightened your customer will be.

3. EMPOWERING
When I say empowering, I mean your website needs to equip them with the clarity on which next steps or actions they can take in order to make a purchasing decision. We need to use very obvious call-to-actions through out our website and explain to our customers what these call-to-actions are and what they can expect when they take one of them. Some common next steps include:

• Online form

• Product page for purchasing

• Calendar to book consultation

• Video to watch

• Email sign up in exchange for more information

Each profession will have a next step that relates best to it's field. For example, an online shop that sells merchandise will focus on it's product pages as being their next step, with a "Buy now" on each product page. A roofing contractor might have an online form requesting some basic details from the customer and their roof. An escape room or entertainment venue might have an online booking page that reserves their customer's spot and also collects payment.

It's up to you to determine what form of empowering action you want customers to take. Just make sure it's obvious and clearly communicated.

4. EDUCATIONAL
When I say educational, I mean taking your knowledge, experience and skills and communicating them in a learning method that allows your customers to see how it can solve their problem. Educational content is super powerful for building trust with potential customers. And when you give way your knowledge to them for free, it adds value to them.
Some ways to make your site educational include:

• Write "How To" blog articles

• Record short videos of yourself

• Create a short online class on a specific topic

• Write a white paper on a particular subject

• Create an E-book that focuses on a specific topic

While you want to make the education on your website free of cost, you can still ask for some kind of exchange from your customer. For example, if you offer a free online class, you might ask attendees to provide their information in exchange for viewing the class. Or if you offer a free E-book, you might ask people to provide their email before downloading it. For blog articles or podcast videos, instead of asking for someone to exchange their information to view this content, you can include call-to-actions that encourage viewers to take a next step.

However you decide to create your educational content, just be sure it's quality content that will add value to customers. Try to come up with it yourself. Avoid relying on ai content generators like Chatgbt who's content is usually more generic. People will only benefit from your educational resources if it's truly meaningful.

5. SEO FRIENDLY
I kept SEO as the last quality because I've seen too many business owners get hyped up about this and neglect the other four qualities in this article. Here's the truth about SEO: Search engines rely just as much on the quality and value of your website to determine ranking as they do the technical optimization required for their search crawlers. If you invest in the previous four qualities in this blog, my belief is you'll already be 80% SEO-friendly. So don't neglect them!

To make sure your website crosses the finish line of being SEO friendly, you want to complete the following housekeeping items:

• Make sure your images are correctly named - updating alt text

• Make sure your search keywords are in Title 1 format

• Set up your structured data markup (what allows search engines to show special highlights of your website in search results)

• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly

• Make sure your site is Google indexed

The good news is that these steps are actually really easy to implement. While 10 years ago you may have needed the help of an HTML code expert, most website hosts like Wix, Weebly and WordPress offer simply guides that will optimize your site with a few simple clicks.

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