Probably the biggest mistake website owners make when they build their site is making the site about themselves instead of for their visitors. What do I mean by that?
For a site to be successful it must do two things.
1. Meet potential customers where they are now
2. Quickly convince visitors that you have what they are looking for
But most site owners build sites about them. They think the more they talk about themselves and tell visitors how cool they are the more sales they will make. But your visitors don’t want to know how cool you are, they want to know how cool you are going to make them. That’s why your site must be about your visitors and not you.
Meet Your Customers Where They Are Now
Where are your potential customers?
There in the search engines trying to solve their problems.
If you can’t connect with them there then you may never be able to get visitors to your site. This is why keyword research and Search Engine Optimization is so important. A big mistake site owners make is assuming that people will find their sites automatically.
Understand Their Problems
The first thing you MUST do is understand what the problems are in your niche. The more you understand those problems the more you can connect with your prospect’s and convince them you can help them. If they sense you truly understand them they may begin to trust you.
But first…
Keyword Research
Once you understand your prospects problems you must determine what keywords they will use in the search engines to begin to solve those problems. This is where Keyword Research comes in.
The keywords they use will mostly be about their problems. Occasionally they will be about a particular solution they may already be aware of. If you offer that solution you may be able to use those keywords.
At any rate, using your understanding of your niche and your customers you can choose a range of keywords that you think they will use. Then you must use keyword research to determine the best ones to use. You don’t want ones that are too competitive and already have lots of sites using tPhem. And you don’t want the ones that are being used so infrequently that you can’t get much traffic. You must find the sweet spot where there is enough demand but no too much competition.
Once you know those keywords you can build your site around them. Search Engine Optimization is the techniques you use to let the search engines know about the content on your site. Once you fully optimize your site using a wide-range of SEO techniques you can connect with your prospects at the search engines.
Convince Your Visitors You Have What They Are Looking… Quickly
Now that you know all about your niche’s problems and how to solve them, it’s time to convince your visitors. The only reason they come to your site is because they hope you can help them. If you can’t they will be gone in seconds — and off to your competitor’s site.
Make It A Straight Line From The Keyword To The Solution
Visitors will get to your site from the keywords they use in the Search Engines. That keyword implies a need or a question or a problem. That page must immediately convince them that you have what they are looking for otherwise they’ll be hitting that back button and be gone.
So be absolutely sure that your page doesn’t waste their time or offer confusing navigation that makes it difficult to find the answer they are looking for. Your page must be exactly about the keyword they typed in. If they type in “best golf clubs” your page better be about the best golf clubs. If it’s about “golf instruction” then you not only run the risk of them leaving but of never coming back. You’ve just lost theri trust.
If there are implied solutions that their keyword points to, make sure your site offers that solution and puts a link to in an obvious location on your site.
It’s About How You Treat Your Visitors
I’ll leave you with a great quote by Dale Carnegie that puts customer-focused marketing in perspective.
You can make more friends in two months by being interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get them interested in you.
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