Five Ways to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Web Site

Are you getting what you need from your Web site? If your Web site is not helping to improve your bottom-line, then it's time to take action to enhance its value. Here are five ways to increase the effectiveness of your Web site:

1. Make Sure It's Goal-Oriented
Have you seriously considered the strategic role of your Web site? Those that have feel their Web site is their most powerful marketing tool. An effective Web site can help you achieve a number of business goals, such as generating leads, building a marketing database, enhancing customer service and selling online. You can produce results online. But to do so, you must make sure you align your Web site objectives with your overall marketing and business objectives to ensure you are on the path to success.

2. Design for Your Customers, Not Your CEO
This may sound like a ridiculous statement but all too often, industrial companies do not design their Web site for their customers and prospects. Rather, they take an egocentric approach to Web design. They are more interested in talking their company and their products instead of solving their customers' problems.

If your Web site does not serve your prospects and customers, then it is not serving you either. Make your Web site customer-focused by offering content and interactive features that speak to the needs of your customers and provide a solution to their problems. If your customers and prospects do not find your Web site helpful, relevant, trustworthy, and satisfying, they will leave. Remember, your competitor's Web site is only one click away.

3. Make an Offer They Can't Refuse
Lead generation consistently ranks as a top priority for industrial companies. However, most companies handicap themselves by relying on their Web site's 'Contact Us' page as the sole method for prospects to take action. To turn your Web site into a lead generation machine, pepper your Web site with a variety of relevant offers tailored to the needs of your target audiences, such as:

• Request a quote
• Buy online
• Online chat to reach out to salespeople
• Order free samples
• Register for seminars, webinars or events
• Request access to "premium content" – whitepapers, knowledgebase, articles, etc.
• Subscribe to your e-mail newsletter

Also, don't forget to prominently display your toll-free phone number on every page. More than half of Web visitors prefer to call rather than complete an online form.

4. Become a Search Engine Magnet
Is your Web site invisible to Google? If you want to succeed online, it better not be. Search engines are the most powerful way to drive targeted traffic to your Web site. But to be successful, you must make sure your site is optimized for search engines.

To turn your Web site into a search engine magnet, you first need to fill your Web site with rich content focusing on the keyword phrases your customers use most often. Second, code your Web site so it is "crawlable" by Google and other engines, including keywords in the page tags. Pay close attention to elements such as title tags, meta description tags, directory and page names, internal links, navigation and the site map. Third, build a network of quality inbound links to your Web site from reputable and industry relevant external Web sites.

5. Define success … Then Measure it!
How will you know if your Web site is a success? Don't rely on subjective measures, gut feel or esoteric statistics like "hits." Define your success measures based on the goals you want the Web site to achieve. Then identify specific, measurable performance criteria you can easily track to measure success. For example, if your Web site's goal is lead generation, track online form inquiries and in-bound phone calls (use a unique toll-free number for your Web site). If your site has a variety of offers, track leads generated by offer. These are just a few examples. By tying your success measures directly to your business goals, will be able to measure the effectiveness of your Web site. And, you will be able to leverage this knowledge to improve your results in the future.

Online marketing consultant and speaker Bob DeStefano writes about usable ideas and proven strategies for leveraging online marketing to produce bottom-line results. If you are interested in learning more about how to increase the effectiveness of your Website, visit www.svmsolutions.com/analysis or call (877) 786.3249 x3 and request a free Website Analysis.