Maybe you didn’t even get the details, and you just heard that “something” was happening between WP Engine and WordPress.

Tech folks like me had some Big Feelings about it. (nerds having strong opinions? Who could’ve predicted?! ) For business owners, however, it all probably just sounded like another potential stressor that you don’t need!

So, let’s just get this out of the way now: no, you don’t need to panic!

…okay, now that you’re breathing a bit easier, let’s distill all the mess down into what matters for You, a human whose organization may just happen to have a WordPress website:

A longtime beef between WP Engine and WordPress came to a head.

If not, here’s the abbreviated version: the co-founder of WordPress (Matt Mullenweig) has been big mad at WP Engine, a dedicated WordPress webhost. Mullenweig doesn’t love that WP Engine is, essentially, making big bucks because of WordPress, without giving more back to the open-source community. 

(side note: if you’re like, “what’s the deal with web hosting?” here’s an oldie-but-goodie where I explain what a web host is, and what makes a good one)

After Mullenweig called out WP Engine publicly, they hit back with a lawsuit claiming defamation, and even extortion.

So, long story made very short, WordPress.org blocked WP Engine from accessing their servers. This meant that, if your website was hosted by WP Engine, all of those quick-and-easy “Update Now” buttons on your Plugins page stopped working.

If you love other people’s drama and want to know the full story, here’s the top of the rabbit hole: WordPress’ post stating that WP Engine is banned from their servers.

“Wait, do I need to quit WordPress forever now?!”

I’ve talked for a loooong time about how outdated plugins can leave your website vulnerable to hacking. Not being able to easily update plugins is a big deal! Understandably, a lot of folks wondered what they should do in response to this drama. 

Is it time to run screaming from WordPress altogether?! In my humble opinion: no, you don’t need to cut WordPress from your tech stack.

• If your web host is anyone but WP Engine (or Flywheel, which is owned by WP Engine), none of that drama affects you at all!
  
• If you are on WP Engine and still feel concerned about this dust-up, you do have the option to move your website elsewhere.
  
• Hosting aside, WordPress is still a completely FREE platform, which lets you update content without knowing how to code, and it’s a powerful, extensible platform that can offer a lot of helpful functions for your business. 

So, yeah, take a deep breath and relax. WordPress is still a reliable tool, and you don’t have to completely rebuild your website anytime soon. (well, unless you want to)

You don’t really need to worry about moving to another web host, either (yet).

If you’re on WP Engine and you’re stressed about it, never fear: WP Engine has already created and deployed a workaround so they’re able to run automatic software updates again. That means things are basically back to normal from a customer perspective.

If you still feel uneasy after hearing all of this, though, I don’t blame you. I’m a longtime Flywheel fangirl from the days before they were acquired by WP Engine, and I feel wobbly about this situation, too.

The main thing to remember is that, if you were already thinking about changing things up, this could be a good excuse to start exploring alternatives. And, better yet, you have some time to think about and test those other options, and determine if they’re the right fit.

“So wait, how do I protect my website in the future?”

I believe that your website should be YOURS once it’s built, and there’s a lot to be said for being able to take your website wherever you want. There are a couple of things you should make sure are happening, so you can move house when it’s time:

• Regular backups. Most any decent web host will do nightly backups of your website, in case anything goes wrong, so if yours doesn’t, it’s time for an upgrade.
  
• Regular plugin updates. So many websites get hacked or break down entirely because their plugins weren’t updated regularly. You’re keeping your website more stable, secure, and easier to move by doing those updates–and some web hosts will do this for you.

If reading those two bullet points made you start sweating, I’ll point you towards Kronda at Karvel Digital, who wrote up an awesome overview of updating your plugins manually, setting up backups, and even migrating your entire website. Her Automation Club is a great resource for this and other time-saving integrations in your business tech!

If you just don’t want to tangle with ANY of this, however, you can always find a website pro to handle it all for you. As a starting point, take a peek at our very affordable and all-around-awesome WordPress Website Maintenance Plans.

Overall, I’m annoyed that this kerfuffle between WP Engine and WordPress caused so many small business owners to panic over something they may not even fully understand. But, hopefully this helps you make sense of it all, and breathe easier!

Find us on DesignRush: Discover web design services here.

Welcome to the land of “zombie websites” – websites plagued by outdated, lackluster content that drains the vitality from your business’ online presence. Oh no!

Your website serves as the face of your business, often helping potential customers form their first impressions. But, the face of your business could just as easily scare them away! 

Symptoms of a Zombie Website

Fortunately for you, brave zombie-hunter, zombie websites are easy to spot. They exhibit symptoms like: high bounce rates (ooo!), dwindling traffic (ahh!), and low engagement (oww!). 

Imagine this: You enter a grocery store with dusty shelves and expired products. You’d turn around and leave without a second thought, wouldn’t you? This is exactly how visitors feel when they stumble upon your zombie website. 

Customers want a brand that is posting fresh content that looks towards the future. They trust a brand that demonstrates it’s here for the long haul, and is on the hunt for innovative new ideas! An outdated website not only repels potential customers but also stains your brand’s credibility. 

How to Revive Your Zombie Website 

Want to bring your website back into the land of the living? Well, then it’s time to clear away those cobwebs and perform some CPR on your content:

1. Search for Inspiration: To inspire your efforts, take a look at before-and-after examples of websites that transformed from lifeless to lively. 
2. Content Audit: Track down the areas of your website that need some life breathed into them. Identify outdated blog posts, old product or service descriptions, and irrelevant pages.
3. Refresh & Rewrite: Update your website’s content with the latest information and bring it into the modern era, while being careful to maintain your brand voice.
4. Optimize for SEO: Incorporate relevant keywords and meta descriptions to enhance search engine visibility. Fresh content is the Google algorithm’s favorite snack!
5. Enhance User Experience: Improve readability by using shorter paragraphs, clear headers, and opting for engaging images and videos. 

Measure the Success of Your Revived Website

How do you know if your efforts have paid off? Here are a few stats to keep an eye on:

• Organic Traffic: An increase in organic traffic shows your fresh content and SEO optimization is working.
• Bounce Rate: A decreased bounce rate indicates that visitors are engaging more with your content.
• Conversion Rate: Improved content often leads to higher conversion rates.

Consistency is key to your website’s success. Don’t stop here, either: you’ll want to regularly update your content to prevent a zombie website relapse. Remember, your website is your business’ digital identity. Don’t be an unhelpful bystander and doom your website to a zombie half-life. Be the hero who resurrects it from the dead!

Does reviving your zombie website feel like too much to stomach? That’s okay! Our Upswept Team of expert zombie-hunters is here to save the day. We’ve got an arsenal full of tools that are sure to bring your website back stronger than ever. 

That kind of energy is huge this time of year, in life and in business. We want to make the most of it, so it’s tempting to do ALL THE THINGS… and yet, you probably don’t have room to do ALL of the things right now, right?

So, if one of your big changes is about a redesign of your website, I’m going to suggest you pump the brakes for a second. (A web designer telling you to slow down with your website? What?!) 

Yes, seriously, because as excited as you might be to dive in, it’s worth your while to do a quick sanity check! There are a few big things to think about that’ll help you decide whether the time is Now or Not.

Is your website actually reaching your goals?

Think about it: if your website is doing the job it’s designed to do, then there might be other parts of your business that need your attention more.

If it’s not bringing you those leads or sales or email newsletter signups, though, then now is the time to fix that!

If you’re thinking, “What do you mean, goals?” then the answer is probably No. That also means you have some thinking to do! 

Before you start to redesign your website, you’ll want to know what results you want to see from it! Even a simple website plan can be a huge help for the web designer you plan to work with.

Does your audience know how to find what they need?

Outside of serving your goals, your website’s job is to give your audience what they want. So ask yourself: can they find it?

If you’re getting constant emails and phone calls with questions that you know your website is supposed to answer, your website likely does need a tune-up.

Or, maybe your website used to be a great fit! …But now it feels more like you’re trying to fit an entire circus’ worth of content into a tiny clown car. If you’ve outgrown what you have, it could be time for something new.

Does your website feel like a maze? Simply sitting down and planning your website can help you and your web designer get a handle on what content needs to be there–and what’s most important.

Does it look appealing to you and the people you want to attract?

I’ll be the first to tell you that even the prettiest, most dynamic website won’t sell a damned thing without appealing and inviting content. 

Even so, I’m not going to tell you that looks don’t matter, because, well, they do. 

Good content does a lot of the heavy lifting on any good website, but it can’t do any lifting if you’re embarrassed to show your website to anyone!

It may be high time to redesign your website if:

• it doesn’t visually align with the look of your other marketing materials
• the design doesn’t appeal to the audience you want to attract (note: the audience you want may not be the same as the audience you’re already getting!)
• the look and feel doesn’t fit with where you want your business to go next.

So, how much do looks matter to you? They could be a good enough reason for a redesign.

If you redesign your website, do you even have time to think about it?

This is a really hard question for small businesses, because we always seem to be busy! Still, even if you hire a professional to redesign your website, it’s still going to take some of your time.

Any good web designer will at least some of your time for things like:

• giving them a sense of what you want your website to look like
• telling them what you want your visitors to do on your website
• giving them feedback about whether things are headed in the right direction
• making sure all of the information that needs to be there is included.

If it’s your busy season, and you don’t even have 5 seconds to reply to your web designer with a thumbs up emoji, you might have to put redesigning your website on hold for a bit.

Do you know you’re too busy now, but want to make sure you don’t put it off? You can book a web design consultation now, and let them know when you’ll be ready to start! Your dream web designer may not even be able to start right away, but even if they are, no creative is ever going to complain about being booked out into the future.

If all of this talk about website goals and content has you reeling, my Simplify + Sell Website Planner is just the thing! Get your own copy, organize your thoughts, and get clear on your goals for the new year.

A team like ours is ready to help, but good web designers can get it done better and faster if you have a good idea of what assistance you need. 

Before you start vetting web designers or jumping on consult calls, let’s discuss how you can start outlining a smart plan for your website design.

What Exactly Do You Do?

If you’re thinking about a website, your initial thoughts might lean more towards design elements – colors, fonts, logos, et cetera. While these elements are certainly important (and we’ll get to them!), your offering should take center stage. 

Start your design mission with clarity about who you are, what you offer, and who will benefit from this offering.

What Exactly Should Your Website Do?

Consider your website as your virtual storefront. If someone were to walk into your shop or office, what kind of experience would you want them to have? Would you make a great first impression if a potential customer had to wade through piles of boxes just to get to you? Probably not!

A physical storefront exists to feature what you’re selling, and make it easy to buy. From the customer’s perspective, they want a place where what they need is within reach and easy to find. Your online storefront should have the same intentions. 

As you embark on your website design project, be clear about what you want your website to feature and how you want your potential customers to engage with you.

Put the “Fun” in “Functionality”

With your offering taking center stage, you should also think about how your new website can improve the experience you deliver to your client. 

Having your contact information accessible and easy to find is an excellent start. Perhaps there could also be questions you can add to a contact form to speed up the onboarding process.

Can your website eliminate some extra steps for the customer as well? Functionalities like online scheduling or payment portals can help them start working with you quicker. 

Online stores or e-commerce plugins can also improve the shopping experience if you’re selling products. Again: the goal is creating a clear path for your customer to get what they need.

Good Design Solves Problems!

Remember when I said we’d get to design elements earlier? Well, here we are! Smart, intentional design sets you apart from your competitors. A unique look or brand can also help attract your dream customers.

You may be thinking, “Geez, if design is so important, why’d you wait so long to bring it up?” If you’ve chosen a smart design team, their goal should be purpose-driven design. You want the look and feel of your website to support your mission and vision, and to guide your site visitors on a clear path through your site. Yes, the design should attract your ideal folks – but it’s your offering that should keep them engaged and interested.

All of this said: it definitely helps if you have at least a general idea of how you’d like things to look. If you already have a brand kit, complete with a logo and color palette, that’s a great start. 

Maybe you’ve seen other websites that inspire you (or turn you off!). Sharing these with your design team can get the creative wheels turning. Don’t be shy about letting them know about your likes and dislikes!

If a new or refreshed website is one of your 2023 goals, you know we’re ready to help! If you want an assist mapping it all out, our website planner is the perfect tool to get that started. Or jump on a consultation call with us! 

So what’s the catch? Even if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, not every testimonial is gold for online marketing. 

Not every testimonial is helping your website sell for you, either. In fact, the way you use testimonials on your website could actually be hurting you.

There are a few things to watch out for when you’re choosing your next website testimonial.

Testimonials that are too vague

We know that a good testimonial can build a potential client’s trust in your business. 72% of folks say testimonials help them trust a business, in fact. Even so, some testimonials don’t do the best job of that.

Consider this: have you ever asked a friend about a service you’re looking for, and they give you a recommendation. They’re glowing with praise, saying, “they’re so great! Totally the best in town!” When you get that service for yourself, however, you find that it’s… well, not so great?

That’s because what makes them great for your friend doesn’t necessarily make them great for you.

Testimonials on your website are like that, too. All the “greats,” and “bests,” prove that someone loved your work, but they don’t tell your audience why that is.

When you’re choosing which testimonial deserves to be on your website, look for that why. Testimonials from clients who talk about the problem you solved, the positive changes they felt, or the parts of your approach they loved are way more convincing than a bunch of vague superlatives taking up space.

Testimonials that take up too much space

Speaking of taking up space, one of the biggest ways that testimonials can cost you sales is by taking up too much space–especially on your homepage.

I’ve seen testimonials that are practically a novella pasted onto a business homepage, and let me be real with you: nobody is going to read that testimonial. They may skip over it entirely.

And when they skip over it, they may also skip over something important–like that button to book a session with you. Or they could leave your website entirely.

So, keep it brief. Choose the one or two sentences from that endless string of praises that actually communicate what’s so special about your work. Give folks just enough to keep them interested, without distracting from the most important elements of your website.

Testimonials on your website that are hidden away

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I stand by it:

Testimonials pages on your website are a waste of time.

Sure, having a testimonials page is better than having no testimonials on your website at all, but you’re missing out on a lot of the benefits of a really juicy testimonial.

Having testimonials on their own separate page just hides them away from your audience, hoping that they’ll just happen to click on the right link to see them.

Wouldn’t it be much more powerful to share the details of one of your services on your website, and then have that perfect testimonial right there alongside it, telling your audience exactly why they should book you right now?

Yes, yes it would. 

If you have that social proof, don’t hide it away. Try pairing it with your other web content for that extra punch.

Want some help figuring out what should go on your homepage instead of that college-essay-length testimonial? You can try a Website One-on-One to get some of my quick insights, or book a Website Design consultation and my team and I will hook you up with a full project that guide you through it.

After searching far and wide, they see a sign in the wilderness. Is this what they’ve been looking for?

Well, maybe. It’s kind of hard to tell. The sign seems like it might point them to what they need, but it’s mainly talking about some wizard and how great she is. There’s not really any information about how she could help them, just a list of her credentials and some vague testimonials that aren’t relevant to their problem. 

This is what happens when you try to be the main character on your website.

Yes, your website is there to showcase your business and your expertise, but you’re not the main character here–your customer is!

Your role is the all-knowing wizard that helps the main character find precisely what they need. You are the one they come to when they don’t know what to do. You are the one that lays out the path, equips them for the journey, and protects them from harm. 

You are their secret to success.

Keeping the focus of your website on your customer is how they know they’re in the right place. They can see that you understand them and the problems they face. Keep your website copy customer-focused by providing information that is relevant to their problem and how you can help them.

Your Homepage is Your Introduction

Your homepage gives a brief overview of what you do and who you are—and how you will solve your potential customer’s problem. 

So you need to be super clear about who that customer is. Build a picture of your main character (customer) and what they’re looking for. What do they need? What is standing in their way? 

Your homepage should:

• Clearly communicate how you’ll help. Be specific!
• Highlight the benefits of working with you. Why are you the best choice?
• Show social proof. Testimonials that show how you solved this problem for others.
• Inspire visitors to go deeper into your website. Use compelling calls to action (CTAs).
• Introduce you. Be brief and focus on how you can help them. 

Your About Page Isn’t Actually About You

The about page is where you can go into more detail about how you started your business and why it matters to you. But keep the focus on your customer and what’s relevant to them.

What would they want to know about you? Offer some background information, but don’t tell your whole life story. You can definitely throw in some fun facts or personal information—you want to be approachable—but avoid telling stories that your customer won’t care about.

Reinforce your experience and how it will help them. Talk about the benefits of working with you that prove you understand their problems. Maybe you’ve been in their shoes, or you’ve seen this problem before. 

And don’t forget that CTA directing them to contact you or learn more about working with you!

Show Why They Should Work with You

Your services or work with me page is where you lay out your offering clearly and simply. 

It should communicate the value you provide to your potential clients. Remind them of their problem and how you can solve it. 

Why are you the best person for the job? What specific features of your offer do you want to draw their attention to? Laying out exactly what they’ll get is a great way to show value. And transparency builds trust.

Testimonials will remind people how they’ll feel after working with you. Focus on the emotional benefits of your offer—people buy with their emotions first.

Remove objections and risks by addressing potential concerns and directing them to schedule a discovery call or consultation. 

Are Your FAQs Actually FAQs

Your FAQ page has three main goals:

• It saves you and your potential customers time—spending your time answering the same questions (in your consultation or email) makes your interactions with your customers less productive. Addressing common questions and objections on your website saves time and helps your potential customers feel more informed going in. 

• It drives traffic to your website—by framing your FAQs from your customer’s point of view, and using good SEO techniques, you have the potential to rank high on Google searches for those questions. 

• It builds trust and authority—a well-written and relevant FAQ page shows visitors to your website that you not only understand their problems but you already have the answers. Potential clients see you as an experienced source they can trust.

Your customers are on a journey where they are the main character. 

You are the sign they’ve been looking for: the answer to their problems and the one to lead them down the right path. 

You’re not the main character, but you are essential to the success of their journey. Make sure your website reflects that!

If you need some help (in this case, you ARE the main character), we’re the friendly website wizards you’re looking for! 

Check out our Website Strategy Session and show up online with purpose.

Still, with this July being the 32nd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, now is a good time to think about website accessibility, too. Some accessibility issues can get pretty technical, but there are some simpler ways to improve website accessibility that will help other folks in your audience, too.

Headings can improve your website accessibility.

Using headings throughout your website is just good practice, especially if you have a longer piece of content. Larger and more visually interesting headings help break up content visually for everyone, whether they have a disability or not. 

If you’re using a website builder, making the text “look nice” isn’t enough for website accessibility. If you see text options in your builder such as Heading 1, Heading 2, etc., you want to use them! Those Heading options correspond to their own special tags in the website code, so assistive technologies can recognize them as headings, making it much easier for folks to move through your website.

An added bonus of using headings properly: they can also help your search engine rankings! Using key search terms in heading tags is great for SEO.

Use descriptive link text.

“Click here” is a frequently used phrase for links on websites, and I’m here to tell you: that is precisely what NOT to do for website accessibility. 

People who rely on screen readers to navigate your website won’t know what the purpose of the link is or where it will take them, if you just use “click here” for your link text.

Instead, be descriptive with the link text you choose. For example, you can let folks know that they’re about to learn more about web design services. For buttons, you can keep it shorter but still give a clue about what will happen when they click, like saying Book a Consultation on a button that leads to your bookings calendar.

Check your color contrast.

Colors aren’t just for making your website look engaging and pretty–they also help your audience easily distinguish different pieces of content! However, when folks in your audience have color blindness, or even just have trouble reading dark text on a darker background, you can lose their attention pretty quickly.

This is why it’s important to choose colors carefully. If you’re working with a good web designer, then they’re hopefully checking for color contrast already! If you aren’t, there are some tools that can help, such as this color contrast checker, or even a Chrome add-on that lets you see like someone who’s color blind.

Use Alt tags on your images.

Something we’ve definitely noticed in web design trends is a reliance on photos and graphics. And hey, I get it. They’re eye-catching and inviting when done right! 

Unfortunately, screen readers can’t interpret photos and graphics used on your website. (sad trombone) That’s where Alt Text comes in! In short, alt-text describes the photo that a screen reader sees when it’s on your website. That way, folks with vision impairments can at least understand what’s in the image, even if they can’t see it.

And, just as with headings, using Alt tags on your images can also boost your SEO, so it’s definitely worth doing. Just look for an area in your website builder (such as WordPress) for a place to type in the short description of your photo.

This post isn’t an exhaustive list of ways to improve website accessibility, but I hope I’ve given you a few ways to help make sure your website is inviting in all of the people who are looking for you. To learn more about website accessibility, take a peek at ADA Site Compliance’s 20 Ways To Improve Web Accessibility. If you’re looking for help from a website pro, give us a shout.

I’ll freely admit that I’m biased when I tell you that, well, I don’t exactly recommend it. Web design is my literal job, after all. And yet, I also understand that it may feel like your only option–especially when your business is young and you’re not raking in piles of cash yet.

So, I won’t tell you No, but I will say that there are important things to keep in mind if you attempt it, and they may not be what you expect.

Get organized before you build.

Nearly 20 years of designing websites has taught me that trying to create a website without knowing what kind of content you’re working with is very difficult. You need to know what content will be on your website before you can even think about the design.

When you build your own website, you know going in that it’s a design task, but it’s also an exercise in organizing! You need to choose what to say to get (and keep) your audience’s attention, and where to say it. 

The thing is, you can’t organize something if there’s nothing there to organize! Moreover, you don’t want your website to be disorganized, either.

Taking the time to map out what content needs to be on your website will save you a lot of time, and it’ll keep all of the important details on your website from looking clunky or feeling like an afterthought.

Know what you want to say.

I know what you’re thinking: writing website content takes SO MUCH time. This is time that, as a small business owner, you rarely have.

Before you talk yourself out of it, though, take it from me: good content is too important to gloss over or skip out on, if you want your website to be useful! 

Getting a clear idea of what your website needs to say is a great starting point to getting organized. If you’re not sure where to begin, think about your differentiators–you know, those unique-to-you aspects that marketers love to point out. 

You want to be sure the messaging on your website clearly communicates what you love to do, and who you love to do it for, while letting your authentic voice shine through. Content that’s clear, concise, and authentic will make sure that folks get what they want from your website, and that they actually take the next step towards working with you.

Know what images fit your business.

Words are important when it comes to planning your website, but when you’re trying to communicate a lot with a limited number of words, the right image can convey things that might not fit into your copy.

That’s also not to mention the fact that web design is more dependent on images than ever. Current web design trends show websites full of high-quality photos or bold, modern, and fun graphics and illustrations. So, if you do build your own business website, take the time to gather images that really speak to what you do.

Before you plop a stock photo into your new website, remember: images are another opportunity to stand out and differentiate yourself! Choose unique images, or even do a quick photoshoot, if you have the resources.

Know what your customers need to accomplish.

Speaking of taking the next step, what does your audience need to do to get started with you? “Send me a message” may seem like the simplest answer, but it’s often not very satisfying for you, or for your potential client. They’re left hanging out in limbo waiting for your answer, and you’re left with another email to reply to–and said email may not even be a request to work with you.

On a basic level, your current and potential customers need to determine if you’re able to help them with their problem. And, once they’ve done that, they’ll want a concrete next step.

So, think about this: is there a way for you to make that Get Started step feel more satisfying? Consider adding a few pre-screening questions to your inquiry form, or allowing potential clients to book a short consultation. 

And, most importantly, make sure they know how to GET THERE. Your inquiry page isn’t going to be useful if no one can find it! Some folks will need a virtual signpost to get where they need to go, so put it out there clearly and visibly. And don’t be afraid to put more than one signpost up along the way.

It’s no small feat to build your own business website, but taking the time to plan and create strong web content will make it more effective, even if it isn’t pixel-perfect. 

If you need some extra support to make it happen, try our self-paced program that guides you through planning your website journey and creating your content.

…but before you can take advantage of that, you’ll need to actually set up Google Analytics tracking on your website.

This process–and Google’s overly-complex web of sub-menus ;)–can be tricky to navigate, so this video will take you on a quick spin through initial setup, to help get you to the next step.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that it’d take a long time to teach you how to make your website look sharp. Still, there are a few basics of design that you can use to make your website more user-friendly.

User Expectations: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Most of us have been using the web long enough to see that there are certain patterns and trends to how websites are laid out. That’s not an accident! Experienced website experts have tried and tested a lot of different structures and design standards over the years, so we’ve learned a lot about what’s intuitive.

The good news: that means we don’t have to reinvent the wheel—in fact, we should avoid getting too wild with structural changes in your website design! Folks have come to expect certain structures because of the time they’ve spent on other websites in the past. When you stick with those patterns, your website is going to be more familiar, and users will have an easier time finding what they need.

Don’t be afraid to look at websites of other brands you admire, and see how they’ve laid things out and what they have in common with each other. They can provide clues for how you can make your own website more intuitive.

The Most Important Info Comes First

You’ve probably heard me say it before: you have a tremendously short amount of time to capture your audience’s attention on your website. Furthermore, nobody visits a website because they want to do things the hard way! Doing business online is supposed to make life easier for your audience.

You can make their experience with you easy from the start, by making it easy to find important information on your website.

Think about the last time you wanted to visit a local restaurant. You probably wanted to know their hours, their address, and maybe check out their menu. Did they make it easy to find that information? (A surprising number of eateries still don’t!) You probably didn’t want to read a whole page of information just to find a few small-but-necessary details.

When you’re planning out each page of your website, think about the information that your audience needs the most, and make it easy to spot. If getting vital information feels like a scavenger hunt, your visitors may just give up.

Fair warning: this can be a challenging task. Too much information too soon can intimidate your visitors. Still, planning your content intelligently in order to strike that fine balance does pay off, so it’s worth the effort!

Make Calls-to-Action Catch Their Eye

Remember what it felt like walking into the Apple Store for the first time in a long while? Did you look around and think to yourself, “I’m here… but what am I supposed to do next?” That feeling is exactly what you don’t want your website audience to have.

If we’re already unsure of how far the average visitor will read, they also may not read very carefully. That means they could skim right over that booking link or purchase button you’re dying for them to click!

Luckily, this is a problem that’s easily solved: a splash of color, a bold icon or border, or larger text are all ways you can draw more attention to that call-to-action. Catch their eye with visuals, and make it clear what will happen when they click through.

It’s natural to want to stand out online—we want that for you, too!—but we also want to be sure it doesn’t muddy your audience’s experience. If you stay in touch with what your audience needs, you can have fun experimenting with brand voice and visuals, while still giving folks an easy-as-pie experience that delivers on what you promise.

Want to know more about making your website serve you and your customers better? Our Purpose-Powered Website course is designed to guide you through dialing in your content strategy and structure, and our next cohort starts in just a few weeks! Learn more about the program and reserve your spot.