The website strategy pyramid allows you to ask the right questions to develop an effective website that produces tangible results.
Start with the results you want the website to produce for your organization. Then answer who you most want to reach and what is it they want. When they arrive how will you get them to take action? The last step is to plan where your targeted traffic will come from.
Website Strategy Pyramid
Website Purpose: Start with your primary business purpose for building the website. What measurable results do you want to produce such as generate leads or produce direct online sales? You can use the website to educate and build your brand. Websites can process applications and provide order tracking and other customer service functions. Appointments can be booked online; online classes can be signed up for. In any case, start with the measurable results that you want.
Buyer Profile: Don’t make the mistake of trying to sell to everybody. Instead focus on your best buyer. Look at who your best buyer is. This is your targeted buyer that is most likely to buy from you. Who are they? How do they make their buying decisions? What are they seeking? What problem are they trying to solve? What are their “hot buttons”? What is their main concern or objection to buying and how can you overcome this?
Conversion: Start by thinking of your visitor motivations and triggers. You need to grab their attention by showing that you not only understand them, but that you have something they want. You need to entice them in with carefully crafted benefits, advantages, images and videos. You need to calm their apprehensions with trust building techniques such as trust logos, social reviews, return policies and testimonials.
Good informative content helps educate and engage visitors. Your content strategies are very important.
You want to entice them into taking action. Remember it is easier to get people to make smaller commitments such as signing up for an eBooks than getting them to request a quote or buying a big ticket item.
Traffic: You want to attract targeted traffic that will be likely to want what you are selling. This should include organic SEO where the keywords are selected early in the project. Keyword research gives you insight into what people are searching for. Use this to plan your web pages, selling sequences and the messaging you use in your website. Content growth strategies such as adding a blog to your website is very important in today’s SEO.
Website strategy planning takes planning these four major areas. You will find that you develop effective website strategies simply by asking the right questions. This framework helps you ask these questions.