(part 3 of 3)
In this 3-part article series my goal is/was to offer a
different perspective on the seemingly endless, although good intention-ed, “you
need to have a website” message. We covered an approach you can take to
discover for yourself, if a website is right for you, or not (at that point in
time), and alternative approaches you can take to achieve an online visibility if
it was decided that “no, a website is not right for me at this time.”
What if after you had the Q & A with yourself, you
realized you DO want a website? That ah-ah can be just as terrifying as it is exhilarating.
On one hand; you
will have a website that people will visit, share, learn about you and your
services and take an action-step (or two) that you offered to them (buy,
sign-up, follow, join, etc.)
On the other hand;
the overwhelm of where do you start, who to hire (or not), and what part(s) of
the website to focus the most attention on (at this beginning phase) can lead
to a similar procrastination as not knowing if you wanted one to begin with or
not!
Without going into the depths of website design, development
and promotion I would simply like to share with you The Only 4 pages Your Website Needs to give you a starting point
for website success.
Here we go!
- Home page (shocking!)
- Product or Service (oh, my – that was pretty obvious)
- About (needed but care is required with this one)
- Contact Us (yes, really)
In conjunction with the above; an added bonus, although to
me not technically a “page” of a website, is also to include a blog (feed or
otherwise linked) as well.
It really is that
simple – invite them into the foyer of your business (home page) make them
feel comfortable and offer them actions to take, share your story (about page) to
create an emotional connection as well as stating your credibility, showcase
your wares (product or service page) so they know exactly what problems you
solve and what the benefits are to them, and finally make it super easy for
them to find you (contact us page) so they can reach out to you; after all if
they are on this page they most likely want to expand their experience with
you.
You may very well have additional pages, but if you focus on
these four you will feel less overwhelmed during the initial website building
process and they ultimately will be the driving force of your website being
found via a search query.
For each of the pages keep in mind how did the visitor
arrived there (did you tell them to go, was it from social media or a
newsletter or printed material, from another page of the same website) and now
that they are there what do you want them to (specifically) know and what do
you want them to do with this new knowledge (call-to-action).
With this simple approach
you will have a powerful, sale generating website without overwhelming yourself
in the process. I call that a win-win!
Looking forward to seeing you all again next month; not sure
yet what the topic will be but…
Until then, happy marketing!
Chana Monahan
Greenhouse Graphics, llc. Where Ideas Grow
860-379-2974
Sometimes the simple approach is the best approach, right Chana?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Daniel...or at minimum a great way to get something started; one can always embellish later down the road. Thank you so much for your great comments throughout this series.
ReplyDeletecan you add links to your other posts?
ReplyDeleteIve experienced them to be very approachable and helpful, even when I choose to edit something around christmas/new years eve, they've always been quick to get back to me.web builder software
ReplyDelete