Could Your Website Be Embarrassing You? Stephanie WardYou know how you feel when you think about cleaning out a kitchen drawer or the hall closet.

You dread it, you put it off and finally you break down and force yourself to do it.

Once itโ€™s done, what follows is nothing short of magical.

You feel fantastic, so happy that youโ€™ve done it. Youโ€™re proud of your work and you feel much lighter.

You think to yourself, why did I wait so long to do that. Wish I would have done it ages ago. And you realize it wasnโ€™t such an awful task after all.

Your website is even more important because unlike your kitchen drawer, which most visitors to your home never see, everyone who visits your website has full access to every nook and cranny.

And if itโ€™s been a while since you took a close look at your website I bet there are some areas that can be cleaned up and improved. Which will not only make you feel better, it will increase the probability that you will attract more clients. And thatโ€™s the whole point, right?

Convinced that this is important and feeling committed to taking action?

Awesome, letโ€™s get started. Let me give you a run-down of some of the things you want to look for.

I recently got some amazing feedback on my website from my master mind members. Donโ€™t worry, if youโ€™re not in a master mind you can ask a fellow entrepreneur to swap website reviews with you.

But donโ€™t rely only on the feedback from your reviewer, first you need to take a look yourself so you have a context for the feedback you get.

And if you canโ€™t find someone to exchange website reviews with you (although I really think you can if you think about it), go ahead and do it yourself. Itโ€™s better than not doing anything at all.

So hereโ€™s what you need to do, read every single word on every page of your website. If that seems too overwhelming, commit to doing one or two pages a day until youโ€™re done.

As youโ€™re reading through your website keep the points below in mind.

Page Organization

Is the information organized in a logical way with the proper formatting hierarchy? For example, I got some great feedback about my โ€˜Speakingโ€™ page.

It was a chronological list of all of the talks Iโ€™ve given. Which was not easy to read or helpful for people who are looking for themes or categories of my talks.

So I reorganized the page into three sections by topic, much more logical. And I changed the font and color of sub-headers so it flows better.

Emphasis on the Right Things

Make sure that the most important elements on each page stand out. For example, in the past on my Work With Me coachingย page I didn’t have a clear overview of how I could help my clients. I added a visual description, along with text, to make it much easier to see the ways I can support my clients.

Design

Iโ€™m not talking about a complete rebranding (unless thatโ€™s exactly what you need). Just to take a look and see what can be tweaked. I noticed that the color of my links was too light and they needed to stand out more. So I found a darker color that works much better.

And while I was looking at my links I realized that I didnโ€™t have a hover color (which also helps people identify links). Having a hover color means that when you hold your mouse over a link the link changes color. Turns out this was a really fast and easy thing for my web person to change.

Too Much Content

Content is king but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Say what you need to say to make your point but make sure you are being concise. Have you heard the quote from Blaise Pascal (often mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain), “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter.”

I got feedback that my โ€˜Testimonialsโ€™ page was too long (this is the new shorter version). Before I had a special section at the bottom that included success stories from ezine readers. I got the outstanding suggestion to move all of those ezine testimonials to my ‘Free Report Page’ (because my ezine comes with my free report). Brilliant, why didnโ€™t I think of that?

Website Copy

Is your website copy all about you or about what you can do for your clients? Make sure your copy is client centric and use the word โ€˜youโ€™ more than the word โ€˜Iโ€™.

Clear Call to Action

Make sure your main call to action is on every page of your website (in the top of the sidebar) as well as woven into the text on your pages.

Miscellaneous Errors

Be on the look-out for misspelled words, broken links, grammar mistakes, and strange formatting.

Donโ€™t delay, make these changes to improve your website then you can sit back and revel in your action knowing that youโ€™re presenting your business in a way that is attractive to your potential clients.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE?

You can, as long as you include this information with it: Stephanie Ward is the Marketing Coach for Entrepreneurs who want to create meaningful and prosperous businesses.ย  Grab yourย FREE copy of the special report โ€™7 Steps to Attract More Clients in Less Timeโ€™ plus business building tips, at: https://www.fireflycoaching.com.

Share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.

Stephanie Ward

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This
Skip to content