Having a beautiful looking website is just one piece of the puzzle. It's true that an ugly website effects your credibility, but just having a nice website also won't do anything for you.

When you undergo a website redesign, you should be doing so with one goal in mind: generating leads and growing your business. These are some ways we've seen websites go wrong, so keep these in mind when you make changes to your website.

Give-and-take

Websites need to operate on a give-and-take economy. Simply asking users who visit your website to contact you or connect isn't enough. You need to give them something they can use, and something that's beneficial for them.

The best way to approach this is to give this to your users in the form of content. On your blog, offer your website traffic information they actually need by thinking about how to choose a blog post topic they want to read. Offer them resources that they can download so that they can get the answers, and you'll find yourself with more leads.

Who are you giving to?

First things first when you start making this content for your leads: who are your leads anyway? Create your buyer personas and figure out who they are, and quickly. If your website doesn't speak to your target market right away you're going to lose them.

Every step of the way you need to put yourself in their shoes. If you can't find what you need easily, how long are you going to take to hit the back button? It's probably faster for your buyer personas. Once you know who they are, start talking directly to them and leading them through your site to the content you know they want.

Guide them the right way

One way to guide them is to move them through your website with CTAs. Have them placed strategically so that the right offer for the specific buyer persona is always in the right place.

Your CTAs should guide customers to landing pages, which should be clean and simple so that they are easy to understand. This landing page should have a contact form on it so you can get that information from your customer and generate that lead.

Always be strategic

If your website just sits online and looks nice, but you're not seeing any leads generated from your site, it's time for an upgrade. This website redesign needs to be done with a strategy for increasing website traffic in mind, however, or you'll be back at square one with a website that isn't working effectively.

Not sure where to start? Luckily for you, Hughes & Co. does. If you're not sure where your website is going wrong, contact us for a free inbound assessment.