Summary: In this episode, I talk about getting ready to launch or overhaul your small business website so that you get the outcome you want- more leads, more sales, more customers.<br> Podcast Transcription:<br> DESIGNING A SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITE THAT SELLS<br> You’re listening to the Clickable Marketing Podcast, where we help fired-up small business owners turn clicks into clients. Join us to discover how you can make more money online in less time. Now here’s your host, Mr. Web Marketing, Brad Hauck.<br> Good day, and welcome to the Clickable Marketing Podcast. I’m Brad Hauck, and this is episode 2. Today we’re going to look at getting a site that sells or building a site that sells. Having a website that sells you a business is super, super important. It’s all very well to say that we need a point of presence online or we need a place where people can go and check us out. In the end, I like to look at website as a member of staff.<br> Its job, sitting there, is to sell your business, in other words, to get people to come to your website to take a particular action. People come to your website; they judge you by what they see. In fact, I’ve had numerous occasions where people have mentioned to me that when they are searching for a new provider where they pay for a service or a product, they’ll go and check out their website. They’re making judgments about you every time they look at you online. It is well and truly worth spending the money and the time to make sure that your website is clean, fast, and encourages people to take the action that you want.<br> MEMBER OF STAFF – JOB OF THE WEBSITE<br> If you look at your website as being a member of staff, like every other member of staff that has a function to perform – and that is to sell your business. When you’re looking at the existing website you’ve got, look at whether it is actually doing that or not.<br> The first thing about any website is that it should be laid down in a way that helps promote the most popular option or the one that you want people to take. The most popular option might be the most popular products that people buy or might be your famous product, whatever it is, or alternatively, it might be to get people to fill out a form so that they come to your website, they fill out a form for a contact, or for a quote, or to get you to come out and see them. It depends on whether you’re selling, obviously, services or products.<br> It’s up to you what that is. In most cases, I suggest that that option is the first thing that they see on the page.<br> SECTIONS OF A WEBSITE – LEVERAGING THEM<br> When you’re having a look at a website, the top section of the page is quite often the menu. The next section, which is quite often a large picture, is known as the slider area. Under that, we come down into the main section of the website.<br> On your home page, that slider is one of the areas that are often wasted – meaning that people just put some pictures in there and put some words on it. It really is a great place for a call to action, and it is probably the most powerful part of your website because it’s the first thing that people see.<br> Everything that you do should be laid out to take an action. If we’re talking about the slider in this case, then it shouldn’t be sliding. By the time the pictures load and then slide across, your visitor has scrolled down the page. I can tell you now. They are not waiting for 3 pictures to show so that they can read the great little slogans that you’ve got on it. You might think it’s cool. You might think it’s really, really useful, but in the end, you’re wasting your time.<br> Studies have shown, again and again and again, that sliders do not work. They interfere with the flow of a website. If you’re going to put a nice image there, pick one image, get a call to action or a form on top of the image, and use it to your advantage to get people to take an action as soon as they come on the website.<br>
