Seven habits for highly effective websites
Our recipe for a sustainable, results-driven website.
Jump To:
Sure, you can buy a good-looking website from a template. But will it bring visitors, delight them, and convert them to customers? Will it show up on Google?
Not automatically.
That’s the job of strategic, insightful planning and invaluable, must-have content.
Start here:
1 Know your audience
We work to understand your customers deeply. We gather data and nose around in countless ways to figure this out.
2 Have a process
Every piece of content that goes public is the result of a team effort. Sometimes it might not seem like that to you. Too often, vivid, compelling stories may be bottled up in different silos and published ad hoc without a plan. Content may be created by instinct.
But great, valuable, blood-pumping content combines the work of people with distinct roles –– whether strategist, creator, decision-maker, subject-matter expert.
We help you clearly define these roles and knit them into a workflow, a process.
Only then do you get the speed and volume of content you need, without sacrificing quality.
3 Gather the data
We don’t believe great business content is created by gut instinct. Instead, we gather information through in-person interviews, through web research via an array of analytics tools, and by brainstorming and evaluating what we’ve discovered.
That said, whimsy, personality, and yes, instinct, are also part of the magic of effective content.
But the driving force behind this content and strategic campaigns is based on data and what we know, for a fact, about what your customers want and need.
4 Keep it fresh
We want to be straight with you: your website is never done. New content is critical to bringing users back for return visits, and bringing them ever closer to converting.
This means new articles and posts, but it also means regular edits and new insights on old ones.
And then there’s Google: to see what we mean, please read our post “Surviving Google’s Freshness Test“ Because there is a test and it significantly affects your visibility on the search engine.
5 Keep it user-friendly
How does your website feel to a visitor? It will feel right if your website is easy to use, if it flows logically from one idea to the next, if it is downright delightful to use.
If its brand, the tone of voice it uses, is consistent.
If it feels right, you are way more likely to get the results you need. The science and art of website user experience (UX), is critical in creating that magnetic website you need.
Our dedicated UX specialists will make sure this comes about.
6 Get the blood running
We deliver content that avoids trite words and stock images. That gives your users an experience that fires off rockets of ideas and leaves trails of insights. That speaks in plain English and never in jargon. Now you’re talking.
7 Agree on success and measure it
Together with you, we’ll agree on the goals of website content in advance. These may be as small as increasing the amount of time people stay on a page. They may be counted in the number of people who visit and do something there –– convert –– on that page. Your goals may be to secure leads.
We will work with you, in regular meetings, to set these goals, and assess results.
Interested in digging deeper? Talk to an expert.