Guidelines fail to mention the most important point for successful websites. Without doing this first, your website will lack resonance with your readers.
These are the 4 points given in most guidelines:
Clearly Define Your Website
Your websites goal has to be clearly indicated for immediate recognition. Confusion leads readers away.
Good Headlines
These are critical. If they don't grab your readers attention they will move on.
Easy To Read.
If your website is too busy, too messy, too hard to read - readers will move on.
Compelling Offer.
If you don't make your offer interesting to the reader, he will move on.
But most guidelines on how to write a good website leave out the most important element.
So What Is The Missing Step?
This is what you have to do before you start working on any of the 4 points listed above:
You have to know where your online visitor has just come from.
- Did he get to your website from a banner ad, or a published article?
- Was it the result of a Google search?
- What was he actually looking for?
- What was the exact phrase used to find you?
- What made him interested enough to visit your page?
The more accurate and precise you can be in identifying how your visitors actually get to your site, the better you will be able to write for your readers. The better you
Tool Of Persuasion
This is absolutely vital information if you want your internet visitor to do something:
- Read your page
- Sign up for a newsletter
- Learn about your product
- Buy your product
- Write a recommendation
Your website will not resonate with your readers unless you know how to develop that readership.
Creating The Right Transition
The smoother the link between all these stages the more success you will have:
- Your internet visitor's mental frame of mind
- The motivation behind his search
- The language on the the text that lead him to your website
- The search engine - one of the American big 3 or an engine serving only one country
- His expectations of what he is hoping to find on your website
- And how your website corresponds to his previous experience and desires
The only way to fully understand the full value of this is studying good web copy, and research in depth. This is something trained copywriters will not leave out. A skilled copywriter is trained to think of the reader from every possible angle. If you want your reader to do something you need to know what it will take to convince him to do what you want him to do.
Visualization Exercise
Imagine a huge department store with doors opening onto every different department. Someone finds your store when they are hunting for shoes. They come in through the door they think will lead them to the shoe department. But instead they come nose to nose with a mixed batch of articles nothing to do with shoes. Confusion.
Now imagine they find the door to the shoe section through a poster describing incredibly stylish red boots. They open a door to find a large display of the boots immediately as they walk in. And there is a big sign saying they could get the matching handbag for half price as well, and there is a pay plan available.
Creating The Right Online Experience
Your online visitors have the same contrast in experience. In order to create the right experience for them you need to know where they come from, what they are looking for and what their expectations are.
It is not always easy to know how your online visitors find your website, and which page they will land on. Visitors often come into your website through the side door, not the home page. Are you other pages clearly defined, or would they be confusing?
A Little Trick To Guide Readers
"Landing Pages" are popular because they help website owners to categorize and set up paths for specific visitors.
This allows the website owner to say the right thing at the right time. Online visitors are guided to come in through specific doors depending on how they find their way
If you start waving distractions at your online visitor when you are trying to make a sale, you will not make that sale as often as you can.
- It is possible to make your "Landing Page" part of your current website, if you are asking your reader to sign up for a free newsletter for example.
- If you are moving in for a sale you may want to use a specific URL domain and keep your reader totally focused on what you have to say.
Don't Forget This Essential First Step Before You Create Your Web Pages
This first step of understanding and identifying your readers' frame of mind at the moment he finds your website is vital for good internet marketing - for both your domestic and your international clients.
- Align your website with your foreign reader's search expectations
- Create a smooth continuation in the communication he is expecting to hear from you
All good internet marketers understand the value of knowing what your visitors did to find you, what they read, and use this information when creating their websites.
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Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural eMarketer & International Sales Specialist, aligning businesses with different cultures. She has over 25 years field experience in international business development and helps mid-sized business owners create international business development strategies that shorten time to profitability.
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