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cornerstones of an effective website

Just about everyone has a website today. Certainly, if you're
in business one way or another, you have a website. And people
have different objectives behind their sites. Some are
content-driven. Others provide an online service and have
sophisticated user interfaces. Others still are designed to
entertain and amuse their visitors. But regardless what your
website is designed to do, there are a few primary objectives
you should keep in mind before you start building.

focus

This first website objective is FOCUS. Your site needs to have a
narrow and specific focus. Why is this? Because there are
literally millions of websites out there and the visitors
you're lucky enough to attract will only take a few seconds to
decide whether they'll stick around or whether they'll simply
click the back button and continue browsing elsewhere. Within
those few seconds, your site needs to communicate exactly what
it's designed to do so the visitor can decide if it meets his
or her needs or not.

One of the best exercises to enhance the focus of your site is
to establish a 15 to 25-word positioning statement that guides
all your development activity going forward. Think about it like
a mission statement. It should articulate exactly what your
website does in just 15 to 25 words.

Another way to look at it is to do a Google search for a keyword
in your field and see what comes up in the results page. Under
each listing, there's a short description of what that site is
all about. As it turns out, the search engines get that
description from the meta tags on those websites but it's
exactly the same thing. What do you want YOUR description to
say?

Once you've established a positioning statement, you should
display it prominently on your homepage. It should be one of the
first things visitors see when they land on your website. And as
I mentioned above, the same statement should be included in your
meta tags as your site description. That way, the search engines
know exactly what your site is about at the same time. And if
your site shows up in a search results page, that description
will show up as part of your listing.

depth

The second objective is DEPTH. Again, this objective serves your
visitors as well as the search engines. Build a massive amount
of content all about your narrow business focus. That way, if a
visitor lands on your website and decides in the first few
seconds that they need what you're providing, they'll go on to
find a ton of resources all about that topic, satisfying their
need and establishing trust along the way.

Depth of content helps your website with the search engines as
well. Google uses complicated algorithms to assess value to
different websites and one of the biggest things they look for
is content. If your website has a narrow focus and lots of
content about that focus, it will get ranked higher within your
area of expertise. Google will consider your site a good
resource for people searching for your narrow focus.

sticky

The third objective is to make your site STICKY. This is a
relatively new term that describes a website's ability to keep
a visitor on the site. A lot of sites do a fairly good job of
attracting visitors but many of those visitors take one look at
the site and leave within a second or two. As I mentioned
earlier, the positioning statement can do a lot to help someone
understand what your site is designed to do. But you need more
than that to keep them browsing.

The visitor needs to see immediate value when they visit your
site. They need to see something that will benefit them right
away. They need to see something they can use to make their own
lives better. This is the foundation behind today's value-first
marketing moniker. People have been over-marketed and have
become skeptical in clever marketing slogans. They want to see
the value. They want proof that you can deliver. They want to
sample your product or service before they buy anything.

You should spend some time and think about what you can offer
your website visitors as soon as they land on your site. It
could be information. It could be a tool or calculator of some
kind. It could be a free subscription. It could be an
entertaining video or an interactive game they can play.
Whatever it is, you need to capture your visitor within seconds
and guide them to something that will benefit them.

Once they've received one piece of value, give them a second
and then a third. Guide them through a maze of value,
encouraging them to continue browsing and discovering even more.
This is the key to a sticky website and you can get a good idea
of your progress by measuring your average time on the site
through your analytics platform.

There are a million different websites out there and they're
all designed to achieve different objectives. But each one of
those websites can be a bit better by incorporating more focus,
depth and stickiness. All three improve your website's
effectiveness and all three offer benefits with the search
engines as well.
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Tactical Execution with Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a strategic
company focused on growth marketing and program implementation across business markets. Visit the website for actionable guidance for revenue generation.
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