How to Set Your Website Apart From the Rest
This blog entry was posted on March 21, 2010.
If you want your website to succeed, you need to think strategically about your customer and what action you want them to take. Most other companies don’t do this. This is what sets apart a great website from the rest of the pack.
- Customer: Focus first on your customer. When a visitor arrives to your website, they are looking for something to help solve a need. This could be to buy or it could be to solve a particular problem. You need to understand what your best buyer is looking for and then make sure you address that clearly on the page they arrive on.
- Image: Design your website around your customer. If you sell to Baby Boomers, design your website with a high contrast design with a larger font. If you are selling to Gen Y, then a trendier look is in order that integrates social media elements. Your design needs to be consistent with your branding and your industry. If you are selling to corporate customers, then you need a professional and polished look.
- Action: What do you want your visitor to do? Buy? Sign-up? Call? If your page has no clear path to action or even worse, too many possible actions your visitor will leave. Make decisions easy. Make it clear and easily visible for the arriving visitor. Design a single primary action into your web page.
- Trust: People are cautious buying online with good reason. Write your website text to address the needs of your visitor in their language (not industry jargon). Make it easy to contact you with a phone number and an actual street address (not a PO Box). Post your privacy policy, shipping procedure and your refund policy. Include a trust building About Us page.
A website that gets results focuses on the needs of your visitor. Remember, it is not about “you”… it is about “them”.

















