20 Questions to Determine If It’s Time to Redesign Your Website, Part 1

Your website should be your number one salesman 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If that’s not the case, then you need to find out why it’s not performing as it should. If your answer is “no” to any of these questions, a redesign might be just the right prescription to boost your site’s ability to attract new leads and cure what’s ailing your conversion rate.

1. Is the design beautiful?

Once upon a time, it was enough to simply have a website as the online outpost for your business – a virtual Yellow Pages ad of sorts. In today’s culture of the Web, that’s no longer the case. Just as design principles, interface conventions and programming languages have evolved, user expectations have become more sophisticated right along with them. Potential customers make no differentiation between the quality of your website and the quality of your brand. If your site is ugly and outdated, your brand will be headed for extinction right along with it.

2. Is the content beautiful?

The text on your website is just as much a part of its design as other ostensibly visual elements such as the color palette, typography, images and layout. If this seems like an oxymoron, it’s not. In fact, design is the packaging for the delivery your content. If a visitor to your site lands on a page and sees nothing but a disorganized sea of text, they’ll be immediately overwhelmed, and they won’t even begin to try to make sense of it. Good design applies content to the canvas of your site with the finesse of an artist. By augmenting your text with beautiful photography, illustrations, diagrams, infographics and pull-quotes, you’ll create a more pleasing user experience every time.

3. Does it reflect the personality of your brand?

In the age of social media, the walls that once existed between companies and their customers have been torn down. People want to do business with people, even when the actual exchange occurs between computer screens. It’s easy to let your corporate guard down on Facebook and Twitter. But what happens when your fans and followers land on your site and find it completely devoid of personality? The discrepancy will be off-putting. It will make your social media engagements feel phony and make the user experience on your website feel cold and empty. There are any number of ways to infuse personality into your website – blog articles, powerful images, video content, interaction with customers through reviews and comments...the list goes on and on. Make sure that your website has a pulse.

4. Is it built for your target audience?

A site that tries to serve the needs of every imaginable user will effectively serve the needs of none of them. Think about your typical sales prospect. How sophisticated are they? Where are they in their decision-making process? What are their questions and concerns? Do they know what they need buy not who they want to buy it from? If so, the most important objective your site needs to accomplish is establishing credibility and trust. Do they not know what they need? Or are you bringing something new to the market? Then your website must first lay a foundation of education while also building trust.

5. Is it user-driven?

Does your site serve you or your visitors? Before you answer, realize that’s a more complex question than it seems on the surface. A site that serves you goes straight for the kill with its sales pitch. It’s all about you, you, you, and how absolutely, indisputably awesome you are. A site that serves your visitors is built around utility. It speaks their language. It answers the questions and concerns that are on their minds. It helps them make decisions they feel confident in. It makes their lives easier or more fun. It gives them reasons to come back again and again. It offers them opportunities to interact with your brand and with other customers like them. It creates a place where the members of your tribe want to be. And, yes, it does sell. But it does so based on a foundation of trust and relationship-building.

6. Is the content-to-framework ratio in check?

Many websites devote far too much real estate to the framework, letting supersized logos and tag lines, multiple tiers of navigation, log-in and search fields, mammoth masthead images and trendy social media widgets become the dominant visual elements of the site. Remember that the framework of your website represents nothing more than a set of branding and navigational tools that literally frame the canvas on which your content lives. And just as a frame shouldn’t steal focus from a painting, the framework of your site shouldn’t steal the spotlight from the content you depend on to achieve conversions. Instead, it should remain as streamlined and unobtrusive as possible. If your visitors spend enough time on your site, they should all but forget it’s even there. If more than 20 percent of the screen is devoted to the framework, the only cure is to apply good principals of architecture and organization to rebalance the design.

7. Is there engaging content front and center throughout?

In today’s Web marketing universe, content is the catalyst of organic business growth. High quality, unique content that is updated regularly elevates you perceived authority with search engines, which improves your ranking in searches pertaining to your core offering, which brings more qualified visitors to your site. And when those prospects land on your site, your content builds trust, vets your expertise and motivates buying decisions. But remember, content is not just your brochure copy, nor is it just your blog. It’s your product descriptions, videos, images, customer reviews and reader comments. All of these elements must work in conjunction to allow your customers to connect with your company and your brand on a more intimate level.

8. Is it a slave to the fold?

For years, everyone obsessed over making sure every ounce of important content was squeezed into the limited real estate that falls above the mythical “fold.” Unfortunately, this is nothing more than a wide-spread fallacy of good website design and architecture. Think about it: which would you rather do – dig through page after page of content or simply scroll down? That’s right. Scrolling down the page is a perfectly acceptable method of scanning and seeking through content. This is all the more true now that touch-based interfaces have gone mainstream and scrolling involves the mere swipe of a finger. By contrast, pagination introduces a wait state which requires visitors to reset their viewpoint and mentally realign with your interface. This is a jarring and disruptive experience, and with every click-and-reset, you run the risk of losing their patience or attention. Simply put, give your content room to breathe and let your pages scroll.

9. Are your customers’ voices being represented?

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: in today’s consumer-driven marketplace, nothing holds greater sway than word-of-mouth. If you want to build instant trust and credibility through your website, find ways to let your customers do the talking for you, whether it’s through testimonials, case studies, ratings or reviews.

10. Does it stack up to the competition?

As we’ve established previously, you shouldn’t fall into the trap of including unnecessary bells and whistles on your site simply because your competitors do. Your site should be designed to serve your business growth objectives and no one else’s. But make no mistake: today’s consumer will shop around. You’ll will be compared to the competition. However, it’s important to scrutinize the fundamental elements of the user experience your competitors’ sites provide. If they’ve set the bar, you must raise it higher.

Did you pass?

If you’ve answered “no” to several of these questions, do not pass go, do not collect $200. You can’t afford to let another day go by with a website that’s not only underperforming but actually sending customers to your competitors. If you’re 10 for 10 in the “yes” column, don’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet. You’ve only passed the first half of the test. Next, we’ll take a closer look to uncover the insidious, silent killers that are harder to detect but equally deadly to your site’s performance.

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Guest Blogging 101 (Or How to Grow Your Audience by Giving Away Your Best Material)

Growing community and conversation around your brand is no easy feat; it requires dedication, focused effort and time. In addition to creating a platform that’s easy to navigate and top-notch content that drives engagement, you must constantly promote yourself to raise awareness and bring fresh eyes to your material. As counter-intuitive as it might sound, when you’re in the process of trying to grow a fledgling handful of followers into a thriving community of dedicated readers, one of the best ways to do so is by giving away your best posts. Why? Because in building relationships with bloggers who have already developed a community of followers whose interests overlap with your area of expertise, you can gain exposure to new readers who will then hopefully take an interest in hearing more of what you have to say. As a blogger myself, I've done this firsthand through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and strategic guest blogging opportunities. Though a bit intimidating at first, reaching out to bloggers I admire who cover similar topics has yielded valuable guest blogging opportunities that have helped me to steadily increase my reach and gain new readers for my own blog. Based on that experience, here are five secrets to success in scoring great guest blogging gigs that will help you grow your audience:

1. Know your niche.

What topics do you cover? How often do you post? What are your visitor stats? Who is your ideal reader? You need to have a strong grasp of these things so you can identify the right bloggers to connect with whose audience will most closely align with your own. It’s also important to make sure that somewhere on your site – whether it’s in the sidebar of your blog or on your about page – you have an introduction that’s crafted to quickly and succinctly orient new readers to your community. Focus on the reader’s interests by briefly explaining who you are, what topics you cover and what qualifies you as an authority in your niche. Point them to your most popular posts and invite them to subscribe to your content. And don’t forget to include a way for them to get in touch with you to pave the way for conversion from causal reader to paying customer.

2. Do your research.

You don't want to connect with just anybody out there with their own platform; you want to be strategic with the relationships you build. As a creator of content, you likely read quite a few blogs yourself. What are they? Do they cover similar topics? Is their demographic the same as yours in any way? It may be helpful to make a spreadsheet with these details, along with contact information to make your life a little easier when it comes time to reach out.

3. Become a prolific commenter.

By commenting, I mean both on your own blog in response to comments from your readers and also on blogs that you regularly read and follow. The blogging world is all about connection, community and driving conversation. If you stay silent, you’ll cut yourself off from opportunities to cultivate a more deeply engaged reader base. Although it may be impossible or impractical to reply to every single comment on every single blog post you write, you should make a habit of checking the comments section and replying to readers directly. Better yet, see if your platform has a tool that will alert you by email whenever you receive a new comment so that you can reply quickly and boost the chances of keeping the conversation going. When commenting on another author’s blog post, be sure to leave a thoughtful response. Avoid generic feedback like, “great post,” and opt instead for noting what what you found uniquely insightful or inspiring about the post, asking a question that provokes further debate and discussion or even answering a question the writer might have posed within the post itself. By doing so, you not only contribute in meaningful way to their community, but you also encourage them to check out your own blog as well.

4. Make a pitch.

Once you’ve acclimated to interacting with other bloggers and have a strong grasp of blogs that are aligned with your own blog’s niche, it’s time to reach out and make a pitch. By now, you should be very familiar with the content on the blogs you’ll be pitching to—what topics they cover, what they’ve written about recently, who runs the blog, etc. Not sure where to go from there? Here are some suggestions for crafting your message:

• Employ a tone that’s personal and friendly while keeping your request brief (no more than two paragraphs).
• Reference some of their recent posts so they can see that you are a real follower of theirs and you’re not just sending out the same pitch en masse to anybody with a blog.
• Provide links to your blog, portfolio and social media profiles to help them get a feel for your expertise, writing abilities and point of view.
• Be specific about what you’d like to write about, whether it’s a certain topic where you have expert advice to give or a series they’re doing where you can offer valuable insight.
• Follow up if you don’t hear back, allowing a week or so to make sure they’ve had time to review and process your request.

5. Become a contributor.

If you happen to have a little extra time on your hands, becoming a regular contributor on a high-traffic blog is a sure-fire way to connect with new readers who otherwise may not have found you. In addition to building your portfolio and legitimizing your expertise, being a contributor ensures major publicity for your content and exposure on a much broader level. Although developing an organic following will take some time, defining your blog’s niche, finding similar blogs to strategically connect with, engaging in the blog community through comments, pitching ideas to bloggers and contributing to high-traffic sites on a regular basis will help you develop valuable connections that will lure new readers to your blog. And when you feed these readers a steady diet of insightful, conversation-provoking content, you’ll find they’ll not only become a regular fixture in the burgeoning community that’s developing around your content and your brand, but that they’ll also become your allies in recruiting new members by sharing your great stuff within their own circles.

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