We often tell clients, “we don’t build websites for you, we build them for your customers”. In effect, you are not our customers, your customers are (you just get to pay the bill! – doesn’t life stink sometimes).
If you can think of your website as not yours, then you’re off to a great start.
consider the "wants" of your visitors
Customers are selfish creatures, all they care about is themselves and their own needs! With this in mind, structure your information and wording to talk directly to the needs and wants of the customer.
Example:
“Edge of the Web have a combined 30 years experience in building websites for our customers. We have worked with clients ranging from internationals to one man bands.”
_____________
Boring huh?
How about:
You need a website that communicates effectively, enhances your image and most importantly gives your potential customers the confidence to pick up the phone. Edge of the Web can help you achieve this.
_____________
OK so maybe that’s not perfect either, but I’m sure you agree it’s far more relevant and compelling to a first time website visitor right?
I suggest you go through your own website (or proposed text) and look for every instance of the word “we” or “us” or “our” or “I” or your company name, and consider how this could be turned into a statement of benefit for your customers.
Note: Your “about us” page is the place to let rip with the “we” and “our” sentences.
Think also about the information architecture of your website, and particularly your navigation bar layout.
How many times do you see websites with a navigation bar structured along these lines:
Home | About Us | Our Approach | Products/Services | Contact Us
Once again, this is a very self centric structure that is very unlikely to appeal to your customers, both in terms of the order of the items, and the language used. Try to position the elements in order of priority to your customer.
With that in mind I’d strongly recommend you bring your product or service to the fore and move all the information about yourselves to the back of the queue. In the scenario above I would suggest:
Home | Products/Services | Approach | About Us | Contact
It’s more succinct, and certainly more relevant.
NOT CONVINCED?
Well consider this: When you go looking for a product or service on the internet, do you start by looking for a company that impresses you and then figuring out whether what they are selling satisfies your requirements?
I doubt it.
Most people want to identify whether you tick the purchase boxes first, and only then they will start researching whether they consider you to be trustworthy, experienced, ethical, friendly, etc etc etc.
Of course this advice does not apply literally to every single instance of a website in the world, but I’ll bet it applies to you!
Photos courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons license from users amylynne
01926 411 827