Fix Your Website

By Sanya Weathers

You’ve knocked yourself out tweeting, Facebooking, promoting, and media courting. You’ve engaged people, you’ve built relationships, you’ve started conversations.

Why?

Because you wanted them to go to your website and buy something.

This is not something to be ashamed of or avoid speaking of in public. Unless you are independently wealthy or content to live in a packing case under a bridge, you need to make money. Even if you are wealthy, or just a man of simple needs, money functions as a very effective method of keeping score, and a high score is a nice shortcut to creative freedom, credibility with people who aren’t as bright as you are, and explaining to other people that this is an actual career path.

So you’ve got all these people at your site. Pop quiz:

How many unique visitors did you have today? How many sales did you have today?

How many of your visitors are returnees? (Conversely, how many people come once and never again?)

Where did your visitors come from?

How much time did your visitors spend on your website?

If you cannot answer those questions, stop. Do not pass go. Do not talk about sticky factor, outreach, conversion, or whatever the heck is the trendy buzzword when Google sends you to this link in 2014. Go build those tools into your site, because you can’t set goals, measure improvement, or have context for user feedback until you have metrics.

All right, you have metrics. Now what?

Here is why I went to your website today:

–    To learn something about you. I wanted more information about you and your product before I forked over any money. Did I find it? How hard did I have to dig? (Hint: I’m not going to dig hard.) Did I have to enter very precise search terms, or could I use a misspelled synonym and still get an answer? If I couldn’t find the information, did you give me a contact address? Is there a human being reading mail sent to that address?

–    To learn something that had nothing to do with you. Maybe I googled “the mating habits of ferrets” and found your ferret-themed Facebook game. Do you have a clear and simple hook to let me know what you are and why you are interesting? Did you put up any hurdles to my being intrigued, like some stupid mime I have to punch (read the link for context) before finding out what you do? I didn’t mean to go to your site, so I’m more likely to bail quickly, but my money spends just as well as the intentional visitor’s.

–    I want to sample your product. The ice cream shop doesn’t make me buy a double scoop cone if I just want a taste. If you’ve got a game, I want to play the first level. If you’ve got a book, I want to read the first chapter. Is my free sample up front, or do I have to dig for it? Hint: I’m not going to dig.

–    My friend wants me to buy your product. I’m already sold because my friend is. Is the buy button big and obvious? Were there any hurdles in between me and my ability to press that button? Did you waste my time trying to sell me a product I’d already bought inside my head?

–    I need help with your product. Maybe it’s not working quite right. Maybe I want to know more about it. Now that you’ve got my money, I’m willing to do a little digging through the site. If all I find when I dig is a database last updated in 2008 and a hard sell for your next expansion, I am not going to be amused, and I’m not going to tell my friends to buy it unless everything else about your product is top shelf.

–    I saw a tweet/Facebook post that was written by someone with an interesting “voice,” and that person made me want to check out your company. Does your website have the same voice? Does the voice fit the product?

If you failed me at any point, I’m probably gone. Sorry. The internet has given me the attention span of a caffeinated gerbil. On the bright side, a new shiny thing will totally wipe your old dull thing from my memory. If you fix the site, the next time I land on your site, I just might stick.