Make Your Website Work For You

With the web becoming more and more influential in people’s buying decisions, you can can no longer afford to get your website wrong – it could literally be the difference between a flourishing practice and struggle street.

The good news is that it is pretty easy to ensure your website becomes your hardest working salesperson.

In this session we will break through the technical mumbo jumbo and help you understand how to maximise the potential of your website. You will learn:

How Smartphones and Tablets are changing the way your visitors see your site – are people seeing you in your best light?

How omitting this one crucial part of your site can mean your visitors won’t ever return to your site – AGAIN! Resulting in loss of revenue & reputation.

Why these 5 things will make visitors leave your site as quickly as they arrived – as well as how to change them to keep visitors for longer and start building loyal fans.

Transcript

1. Websites Aren’t Just Pretty Pictures Make Yours Work For You
2. A Bit About Me • Co-founder of DIY Website Coach • Building WordPress sites since 2008 • Regular speaker at WordPress conferences • 15 years as a business analyst • Not a designer :(
3. The Importance Of Responsive • > 50% of all browsing now done on mobile/tablet • Miniature versions of your site are a turn-off vs
4. The Importance Of Responsive Mobile friendly options: • Adaptive • Separate site for different devices • Multiples sites to update / branding inconsistencies • Responsive • Elements on site moved and resized to fit available space • Consistent site branding across devices
5. The Importance Of Responsive Make sure you test your site Test your website here: http://ami.responsivedesign.is
6. Opt-Ins And List Building Importance of building a list • Bring people back to your site • Build relationships • Promote your services to a warm audience • Opens the door to joint venture opportunities
7. Opt-Ins And List Building Place opt-ins where they are most likely to be seen Opt-in positioned at the top of the sidebar - visible when visiting pages within the website Opt-in positioned below the main header picture area - visible when first arriving on your site. After your posts is also a good option
8. Opt-Ins And List Building To bribe or not to bribe? • Tend to get higher conversion rate with a bribe • Bribe needs to be relevant • Can end up with a lot of “tire kickers” • Go with your gut, then test, test, test
9. Opt-Ins And List Building The pop-up balancing act • Shown to massively increase signups, but can also turn many users off • General guidelines: • Allow a reasonable time for a visitor to see your site first • Don’t display again for 7 days after a visitor closes it • Target to the page (or exit intent)
10. Opt-Ins And List Building Recommended opt-in tools Genesis eNews Extended
11. 5 Ways Lose Visitors In 10 Sec • Slow page loading • Confusing navigation • Inconsistent or un-professional look • Content that doesn’t appeal • Too focussed on Google
12. #1 - Slow Loading Why page load speed is important • Visitors hate waiting • Short attention spans • Plenty of other options • Big factor in Google rankings
13. #1 - Slow Loading Common Causes: • Too many images and/or fonts • Unoptimised images • Too many plugins • Poorly coded and/or feature bloated theme • Cheap hosting
14. #1 - Slow Loading Common Cures: • Caching (plugin or hosting level) • Offload file delivery (use a CDN) • Image optimisation • Better hosting
15. #2 - Confusing Navigation • Visitors don’t want to have to think too hard • Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for • Use terms they are familiar with (don’t get too creative with your menus) • Mimimise the number of choices (use sub-menus if necessary) Simple menu
16. #2 - Confusing Navigation Resource boxes make it easy to find your core content Resource boxes in a website sidebar
17. #3 - Unprofessional Look • A visitor’s impression of your site affects how they view your products/services vs
18. #3 - Unprofessional Look Common cures: • Consistent use of (minimal) colours and fonts • Get a branding expert to create a style guide - and stick to it
19. #4 - Content That Doesn’t Appeal • Topics not of interest • Difficult to read due to layout • Difficult to read due to language usage (eg, jargon) • No personality in your writing • Too focussed on you
20. #4 - Content That Doesn’t Appeal Common cures: • Hook in to THEIR problems and emotions • Use stories instead of lecturing
21. #5 - Too Google Focussed • Over “optimised” content is hard for humans to read - it doesn’t flow • Picking the wrong keywords can attract the wrong crowd
22. #5 - Too Google Focussed Common cures: • Write for humans. Google will rank you if you provide value • Use meaningful page titles • Useful meta description (2 line ad) • Provide Google with an XML sitemap (use a plugin)
23. Help Your Readers Promote You • People like to share things that make them look good to their friends & followers • Write content that is worth sharing • Make it easy for visitors to share - social sharing plugins • Don’t go overboard - focus on those channels that your target audience will use
24. Help Your Readers Promote You Recommended plugins: • Jetpack • Floating Social Bar
25. Behind The Scenes Security and Monitoring • The good news is most hacking attacks are automated - it’s nothing personal • A few simple steps will protect you from most attacks • Monitoring will alert you should the worst happen
26. Behind The Scenes Security and Monitoring Recommendations
27. Behind The Scenes Backup • Make sure you can recover should something happen to your site • Don’t rely on your host to backup/recover • Store backups offsite for extra protection • Make sure you can restore easily from your backups
28. Behind The Scenes Backup Recommendations
29. Need Help
30. Business Boost Pack • Secure WordPress installation • Backup and Security configuration • Premium responsive theme, fully configured • Opt-ins integrated to your list(s) • Migration of your content • Styling to match your brand • Integrated training videos
31. Business Boost Pack Bonus: 1 hour customised training session Investment: $1,199 + GST More details: http://www.diywebsitecoach.com/services/
32. Questions?
33. Connect With Us www.diywebsitecoach.com facebook.com/diywebsitecoach