Do they Visit, but don't call? Better web design can produce more qualified leads. Here are some Don'ts and Do's for converting a Visitor to a Qualified Lead. Clients often call us right after we do a website upgrade to say thanks for the increase in traffic. The trouble is, there has been no increase in traffic; it takes weeks or months for search engines to index and rank changes. What there has been is an increase in the number of Visitors who take action and call. It seems that improving web design can be a faster and more reliable way to generate more leads than building web traffic.

By John Corbett, Meetinghouse, Inc.

Your home page is your one second opportunity to communicate to your website Visitor/prospect your professionalism, efficiency, transparency and relevance. That back button is never far away for the web Visitor who is seeking specific information. Can you tell a bad, annoying or difficult website at a single glance? So can your web Visitor. Your Visitor is a busy building professional who doesn't like it when you make her or him work extra hard to get information.

The best web design is that which best converts web Visitors into ready leads. It is not always the prettiest. I mention this because when I ask my architectural artisan web development clients what they like on the web, they often refer me to impressive (and expensive) websites that are pretty to look at but often difficult to understand. The problem with challenging Visitors in this way is that they have other options. They can't be relied upon to work hard to get your message. They are impatient and if you don't address their concerns quickly, they will go away. To make the most of the Visitor's attention, keep things simple, straightforward and transparent. Simplicity highlights your message, emphasizes your photographs and is generally easier to look at.

We suggest modeling web pages on the front page of a daily newspaper, which displays at a glance quite a bit of what you wanted to know plus links to almost everything you could want to know. Other common website design models you can find (the magazine cover, the TV ad, the corporate brochure) don't support such a dense cluster of information. Every good design requires some compromise between "best practices" and individual needs. When it comes to your Visitor's concerns, you know best, but consider the rules and why they came to be before you break them.

Assume that your web Visitors are ready prospects prepared to take action. Make it easy for them to research your company, order information or to pick up the phone and call you. Deliver your message without requiring the Visitor to click to another page or even to touch the scroll bar. Here are four things that qualified, ready Visitors like to see at or near the top of every page:

1. A statement in plain english describing what you can do for them.
2. Complete contact information.
3. Links to your most important pages.
4. One strong photo that sums it all up for those who respond best to visuals.

A productive website practices the Golden Rule: treat your Visitors as you would like to be treated. The best way not to alienate your Visitors is for you to assume that they are busy building professionals who hate websites that waste their time. Spare them as much clicking and scrolling as possible. Remember that they are seeking information, not a challenge. Don't assume that the Visitor knows your website as well as you do. Repeat the contact information and links at the bottom of every page so that it will be there if the Visitor needs reminding. Don't impede their access to information by forcing splash pages or flash programs on them. Don't make their eyes hurt by camouflaging your text on a patterned background. Making things easy and efficient for your Visitors is not just the right thing to do, it also demonstrates your professionalism, concern for them and your ability to communicate.

Web traffic questions? You can't convert the Visitor until he Visits.

Qualified Visitors are indispensable to a productive website. Read our Search Engine "whitepaper" for some Don'ts and Do's for drawing more qualified traffic to your website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John M. Corbett is president of Meetinghouse Enterprises, Inc., a website consulting and hosting company serving the needs of the architectural preservation and custom building specialists exclusively. He has written numerous published articles about working with the artisans on design issues. He also consults with publishers on building web traffic to their websites. Before Meetinghouse, he worked for 30 years as a preservation tradesman, owning and operating his own steeplejack company.

Phone: 413.586.4748
Fax: 413.586.2954