Chapter 19
Website Conversation
What do you want your website visitors to learn about you?
Whenever someone stumbles upon your website, a “conversation” takes place. In fact, even before the conversation starts, there's a first impression, just like in the offline world. Consider these dynamics when building your website.
Let's start with the first impression. This relates to the three important questions we covered in Chapter 15. Your website needs to answer the first question, Why am I here?, right away. Your visitors need to find out if your website has what they are looking for . . . or not.
The way to do that is to put your positioning statement front and center on your homepage and then offer a few clear choices so visitors can navigate to an area of the website that addresses their needs. If they click on one of those choices, they're telling you that they still believe your website has what they are looking for. That's great news! This is where the conversation starts taking shape. As visitors navigate through your website, they learn things about you. They learn what you do and what you offer. You have control over what they learn, and in what order. Yet, few business owners take advantage of that opportunity.
Whether you already have a website or not, take some time to write down a series of statements that you'd like your website visitors to learn about you. Don't worry which are the most important or what order the statements should be in. Just write them down. Try ...
