Bryan Franklin

Putting your website to work for you

9 years ago

 

Before we get started, let me just say this one thing … Your website will never be done.

You should always be working to update and improve your online presence and evaluating how it is bringing you results (and even if it is bringing you the results you want).

Given that, it’s important when you’re upgrading your website to really pick a wave point. Pick your next safe harbor. Ask yourself, “What’s the next thing I want to achieve and I can get done in a couple of hours or 5 or 10 hours?”

Or maybe you prefer to work on it in dribs and drabs. Maybe a half a day one month and then a little bit later, a couple of months later you work on it again.

It is useful, and way more productive, to work towards getting your website to a certain place and then give it a rest for while, and then pick it back up after a month or two.

There are obviously some exceptions to this. Sometimes you just need to do an overhaul on your website or create a new website, in which case you’re going to have to spend some effort making that right.

But the work isn’t done once the website’s up. In fact, as most of you, the work really just begins once you’ve got the latest revision of your website up.

Pick your wave point, achieve it, and drop it.

Which brings me to my main point:

Give Your Website A Job

What purpose does your website serve?

Perhaps it’s getting customers on your list. Or getting clients to call you up. Maybe it’s to give yourself credibility so as to be seen as an expert in your field.

Once you know what you want your website to do, then you need to decide who you want your website to reach.

You’re literally going to want to put yourself in the shoes of the people that you want to be looking you up and imaging what their experience is.

What Impressions are they having? And the best way to do that is to know exactly who they are.

Knowing who they are is knowing how they speak. What words they use. What their hot buttons are. What are their hopes, dreams, fears, and frustrations?

Your objective should be very clear as to what action you want them to take at every turn. Do you want them to sign up for your email list? Should they schedule a free strategy session? Or maybe you want them to read a specific blog or like your Facebook page?

When they go to your homepage, have you gotten crystal clear about what action you want them to be taking?

You only think you have control.

One of the common mistakes that I see is that people assume they have control over their online presence. They assume that their online presence is completely contained on their own website.

If you’re going to actually manage your online presence (which includes all your social media sites as well as your website), it’s important to acknowledge that you do not have control of what people will see and how they will find it.

For example, the home page is often one of the least trafficked pages on the site. This is for a number of reasons, but mainly because the home page has the least amount of quality content that Google and other search engines love so much.

People find you the way they find you.

Your website is a small portion of your online presence. There are all the social media sites. There are other people mentioning you in their blogs. There’s what other people have written about you or included you in different products. There are other people that have the same name as you, but they’re not you. That’s all part of your online presence.

It’s just important to notice that you don’t always have control directly over your online presence and your online presence is not your website. It’s how people find you.

Being found is the first step to having a solid online presence and a successful business.

And that is also a job that will never be done.

 

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Image Credit: The Future by Android Jones
View and purchase the works of Android Jones at androidjones.com/.

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