How To Generate Better Leads By Building a Better Website

Optimize sales by optimizing your web design practices.

Ask any novelist.

You have one page to grab your reader — if that.

Some otherwise excellent books fail to gain fans simply because the reader wasn’t engaged right at the beginning.

When building leads from your business website, a similar philosophy is in play. You need to make a positive first impression and demonstrate right away that your service stands out. What you want is a practical (meaning it works and is easy to navigate) website that’s also visually pleasing.

Effective web design

When laying out your website, consider these points.

Consistent branding and design

A consistent web presentation gives the impression of stability and thoughtfulness. It means you’ve planned ahead and aren’t just doing this on the fly.

In branding your website, keep the following in mind.

• Use the same font selection use consistent across all pages
• Use the same color scheme across all pages
• Place your logo in the same location on each page
• Clicking the logo should always take the reader back to the home page

Shiny, happy people

People like smiling faces.

Including photos of happy people (or, at least, not sad-looking people) not only adds some personality to your services but also sets up a story. You’re not just car mechanics, tech support, or financial advisors. You’re a person or persons looking to provide an important service.

If you can use actual photos of real people, that’s great. While stock photography will work in a pinch, authentic pictures of you and your staff are always preferable.

Don’t overwhelm the reader with too many options

You probably offer several different tech services for your customers. Or your accounting business covers many additional services, likewise with your auto body shop.

But having too many options to choose from on a single page can be a bit much for website visitors. It’s best to break those services down by directing visitors to pages focusing solely on that category of service.

This makes it simpler to navigate the site.

Here’s an example of grouping service options. Using a tech support business as an example, a business offers data protection, IT procurement, and cloud services broken down into topic pages.

Customers will spend less time searching for what they need more time finding out how you can help.

Use negative space

Do not fear the white space.

Write in short, punchy paragraphs. Avoid long, solid blocks of text.

As for graphics, don’t crowd your text. Space pictures or infographics out a bit — leaving some space free on the page. This makes it easier for viewers to pick out the information you want them to focus on.

Offer useful content

Good design is essential and all, but what good is it if you don’t have decent content? Here are things to remember.

Who you are and what you have to offer

Three critical elements to include on your website are a concise description of:

• Who you are
• What products/services you offer.
• How you work

A company bio should present the impression that you’re a professional organization. Your listed products and services should be organized into categories that are to find to learn more information about them. Finally, presenting your business philosophy can tell your potential clients more about your approach to offering solutions.

Providing resources for customers

How did your client find your site? Did they Google “auto body repair hail storm”? Maybe they came across some helpful advice published on your company’s blog? Valuable content draws visitors to your site organically.

What’s considered helpful content?

The best is content that offers actionable advice readers can put to use immediately. For instance, a short article about converting leads using best web design practices might be considered useful content.

While many companies offer informative blog posts, some also provide downloadable ebooks or whitepapers that take on customer-relevant topics in greater detail.

You may even want to make an effort to include infographics. If you don’t have anyone in-house to work on these, you can often hire outside assistance for reasonable rates. An infographic adds professionalism and also helps readers who process information more visually than in words alone.

Be easy to reach

Nothing kills leads faster than making it difficult to reach you.

Have a clearly labeled Contact page that offers multiple methods of getting in touch with you, including a phone number, address, e-mail contacts, or an online contact form.

Make sure there’s a link to your Contact page on each page.

Building profitable leads

It’s a simple two-step goal.

Step one, get their attention.

Step two, lead them to action.

A solid website strategy can help accomplish both. With planning and forethought, your website can attract and retain customers. You don’t need an expensive, boutique web design agency to meet these goals.

Assess your website and see how you might tweak or reorganize it to bring in more views. Later, you can explore what outside services exist to maximize your reach and build even stronger leads.

Good luck and good business!

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