Attract More Visitors

With a New Year and a sense of there being a new outlook in the world, it's a good time to think how your website/blog/podcast is doing. While the Presidential Inaugural parade was today in Washington DC, we can also look at the recent Rose Parade on New Year's day in Pasadena for some guidance on website design and strategy.

Design, Planning, Functionality, and Theme

Looking at the before and after pictures of NAMM's* "Musical Extravaganza" float which was designed to coincide with the Rose Parade's "Hats Off to Entertainment" theme you can see that a lot of work and planning goes into creating a pleasing yet functional float. And it must have been pleasing because it won the President's Trophy.
* National Association of Music Merchants

Big Bird float - BEFORE

Big Bird float - AFTER

Before and After

This wasn't just random - the float was entirely conceptualized and planned out before it was built (structurally) and the flowers were glued on. You can see the scaffolding used to build the structure in the Before photo (on the left) and the final flower-decorated float in the After photo (on the right).

Blind Evolution versus a single Objective

But many websites have grown-up (evolved?) from initial ideas/concepts into something which might be quite different from what they originally began as.  These websites (yours?) weren't tightly themed, planned, and constructed with a sole purpose for a particular effect or goal (e.g., winning the President's Trophy).

"Now" is the Time to Step-Back and Evaluate your Site

No matter how your website got to where it is, now is a great time to step-back and evaluate it (or re-evaluate it). One way not to do this is to let your body go all limp, squint your eyes, and stare at your website for x minutes (like a "magic picture").

Ways to Evaluate (and Improve) your Site

Ok, so if that isn't the way to evaluate your site, then what is? One way would be to find a handful of brutally-honest friends and ask them what they think. A variation on this would be to find a handful of strangers and ask them what they think. The difference being that you'd have to reward the strangers in some way (free ____, pay them, etc.). Or you could simply evaluate it yourself by answering some questions or using a checklist.

See my next post for "10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website", or see free 77 Tip Checklist (77 Great Tips of Internet Marketing) (at top-right of web page) for a more complete checklist.

~~~

Have any questions, comments, or tips of your own for evaluating websites? If so, please leave a comment...

~~~

Next Post: Part II: 10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website
Next Next Post: Part III: Quick Questions for Podcasts

Welcome to the Attract More Visitors blog. The mission of this blog is to help you attract more visitors to your web site, blog, or podcast.

How?

• By using evil internet marketing techniques, vacuuming unwilling and unsuspecting innocent bystanders onto your site and holding them hostage until they buy from you?
  • No!

How really?

• By using proven e-Marketing, Social Media/Networking, and traditional marketing techniques.
• Of course any discussion about attracting visitors and increasing traffic wouldn't be complete without some SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), and SMO (Social Media Optimization).
• For more on this, see the About page.

Who reads this blog?

• Anyone who has a site that isn't performing to the level they'd like.
  • Maybe you have a business-card website that you set up years ago and have never done anything with since.
  • Or maybe your business has the obligatory stagnant website that no-one ever updated.
  • Or perhaps your business has a phenomenal web site, but not as many people come to it as you would like, so your chances of convincing them to buy from you are problematic at best.

Why does the Title of this post say "...or Else!"

• That's just a fun and humorous way of titling the post. Life is too dull and serious anyway. The process of attracting people to your web site should be interesting - to you...and them. Nothing says that you can't have a good time during this process. Part of this blog will be using humor, satire, irony, and roasting (there's nothing like "roasted web site"...ummmm!...until you've seen it) to make some points. So stay tuned and see if you can "spot the irony".

While the focus of this blog is to Attract More Visitors, the focus of our sister blog is to Create More Customers. Together these blogs and our upcoming web site are an integrated whole which will help your business achieve the success you desire. Well that is, if you take the techniques we show you and apply them.

Nike has a great slogan: "Just Do It". And you should do it too. We'll show you how - all you need to do...is, well, do it. By applying these techniques consistently you'll find success, which means that more visitors will find your site and choose to do business with you...over and over.

Sound like a plan?

Ok, let's get to it then...

Oh, and by the way, our IncreaseOnlineProfits.com web site will have a lot more techniques (with "how-to" descriptions, videos, etc.) available when it's up and going. If you'd like to keep updated on when these will be available, just subscribe to our eNewsletter and grab our free 77* Point Internet Marketing Checklist while you're at it. See the upper right corner of this page for the opt-in box to subscribe.

* 77 Points as of this post date. With the imminent roll-out of changes to Google's algorithms these points may also change somewhat, but if you continue adding true value and transparent usability of your site for your visitors then you should still be on the right track.

One last thing:

You might wonder why we're making the distinction between "attracting visitors" and "creating customers".

• First you have to get the people in the door, or in our case, in the "virtual door" of your web site. Then you can consider how to "convert" them to a customer or buyer of your products, services, ideas, etc.
• If there's no "there there", visitors will leap (bounce) out of your site and you won't have a chance to sell to them.
• The "creating customers" side of the equation involves everything that would give the visitor an enjoyable and informative time on your site, such that everything they're exposed to eases and smoothes their way to finding what they need (visually pleasing, intuitively organized, with great accessibility and usability) so they can make an informed decision and finally make their purchase(s) seamlessly and without a hitch.
• As my partner, Rick Henkin says, "Your competitors are only a click away." Getting your visitors to stay long enough to buy is critical to this process. Is every aspect of your site designed to lead visitors to this favorable conclusion? That's why the "create customers" part is crucial. For more on this see the Create More Customers blog.

And if you want to know who's behind this nefarious plot to make you successful, just see Rick's Create More Customers About page and my (Karl's) Attract More Visitors About page.

Best success!