Your company\u2019s website isn\u2019t a single entity, it is part of an interconnected system. Strategic website optimization is not only how it looks and performs, it\u2019s the voice and tone; content, cross-channel marketing, assets, and UX strategies; retail partners, sales teams, and vendor partners; personalization; development; website, company, and customer goals; internal politics; management and stakeholder expectations\u2026[BREATHE]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without all these interconnected pieces working in unity, websites inevitably fail. Getting them in agreement requires blood, sweat, and tears. It requires a strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Planning for just one website element or project\u2014a redesign, a new product launch, a new campaign\u2014is really re-planning the entire universe of your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disrupting one element causes other elements to spin differently, changing the course and trajectory of your website (for better or worse). Each piece is dependent upon the other to be successful and for a website to work well, all the parts need to be in harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While this may seem daunting (it is), dividing the universe of your website into zones can minimize the chance of an extinction event. It’s a great first step in a strategic website optimization<\/a> process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With these smaller Stuck Zones\u2122<\/a> you can systematically examine, experiment, and ultimately improve the way things evolve in your website\u2019s universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNASA may look at the whole universe, but their main focus is on smaller experiments (Mars Rover, Pluto New Horizons, the moon).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n We have identified seven Stuck Zones\u2122 to your website\u2019s universe. Each is connected and overlaps, but each can be explored and improved on its own. Let\u2019s look at each separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality is that your website is not a marketing tool. It is a selling tool. Your marketing\u2019s job is to get customers to your website. It is your website\u2019s job to sell your products and services to your customer and it does this by helping your customers get what they came for, do what they came to do, and get them on with their life. Throw marketing into this mix and you\u2019ve got a problem. It\u2019s time to evolve beyond the flat-earth, marketing-centric website strategy and accept the customer-centric approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Review your website for heavy-handed marketing and brand-first content. Does your homepage<\/a> make it easy to 3-click to checkout our is there a field of jargon to navigate through before a customer finds what they are looking for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ever try to find an answer on a cable company\u2019s website? If you have, you know it\u2019s like looking at the moon with a microscope. Too often company websites are not geared towards their customers, but are designed to meet the agenda of stakeholders within the company who either don\u2019t understand the web or subscribe to the old idea that website visitors want to know all about the company when in reality customers really want to research and buy products and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your website makes this research and decision making process difficult or frustrating, it\u2019s time to give your customers the right tools for exploring, viewing, using, and searching your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your company sells online and in retail stores or through channel partners, there is inherent (perceived and real) conflict. Most brands solve this conflict by taking the easy way out; creating and maintaining a website that does a poor job of doing anything. Channel partners don\u2019t like you selling online. Make the website terrible. Channel partners complain you are siphoning customers away. Make the website unusable. Channel partners having a bad month. Crash the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality is that your channel partners revolve around your brand. Without your gravity holding them in orbit, they would drift off into the vacuum of space. The stronger your website is at helping your customers, the stronger your brand\u2019s gravity becomes, the more customers and channel partners will take orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a customer is looking for a product or service you sell, their first instinct is to look at the brand website. Don\u2019t make that first impression terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content is the oxygen your website requires to survive while also acting as the corrosive element that can erode sales, leads, and your team\u2019s morale. Too much content is unsustainable. Too little content is crippling. Fighting off stakeholders for a share of the website\u2019s content can be exhausting. But offering the right amount content at the right time is the key to a customer-centric web experience and successful website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales and leads are created when content helps customers accomplish their goals. Content that distracts or derails those goals can kill your conversions and harm the success of your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having the technology infrastructure in place to create a successful customer-centric<\/a> experience only gets you into orbit, but without a solid infrastructure your website can\u2019t even get off the ground. Solid infrastructure doesn\u2019t mean having a website full of bells, whistles, and red buttons. In fact, a website that is full of features that are not important to your customers is a website full of obstacles that only slows the website\u2019s load speed and your customer\u2019s conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evaluate your website\u2019s technology and features for mobile friendliness (even if you only sell to businesses who are desktop dependent) and feature effectiveness. Having an effective website is more than just having cool features, it\u2019s about having effective architecture and navigation design. It requires constant refinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your customers will chart their own path through your website. Knowing what that path is can tell you all that is right and wrong about your strategic website optimization<\/a>. Customers who are constantly looping between the homepage and a product category page<\/a> indicate that they are not finding what they are looking for. Loops are a visual representation of the ineffectiveness of many websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideal customer paths should be linear with a clear starting page and finishing on a transaction page (whether that is a checkout or a field submission).<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a customer makes a purchase or submits a form, they are voting with their mouse (and their wallet) what content they want. It also indicates opportunity for your brand to follow-up for reviews, complimentary products, and future business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forgetting your already converted customer while in search of life in the Internet ether is a mistake made by most brands. Don\u2019t forget your already converted customer, they are more likely to convert again (and spend more) if treated right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is an art to following up with converted customers. Too many emails can cause irritation and spam complaints. Too few or no follow-up at all is a missed opportunity. Discover your right mix through constant testing and iteration of frequency, quantity, and content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dividing your website into seven Stuck Zone\u2122 areas can help focus your attention away from the vast universe of your strategic website optimization and towards smaller, important targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Begin with one page, one line of content, or one headline and A\/B test variations. Limiting your testing to one thing eliminates the chance of making a conclusion based upon bad data and false results. If there are too many variables, how can you confidently say a particular headline works better when you also changed the navigation structure and page design<\/a>? Start small, test thoroughly, and act on the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using the data from your small tests, begin to broaden the scope of your testing. If your original testing was on the homepage calls to action, look next to CTAs on subsequent pages. Do the CTAs that work on the homepage also work on secondary pages? If so, great. If not, find out what does. Use each test to broaden your scope and refine your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The universe of your website is vast and expanding. Before embarking upon wholesale website changes, focus instead on the smaller Stuck Zone\u2122 areas of your website. By prioritizing experimentation, iteration, and improvement within each zone, you will effect positive change on the entire website\u2019s universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDivide your strategic website optimization into habitable zones<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stuck Zone\u2122 1: Brand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stuck Zone\u2122 2: Customer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stuck Zone\u2122 3: Channel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stuck Zone\u2122 4: Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stuck Zone\u2122 5: Technology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stuck Zone\u2122 6: Customer Path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Stuck Zone\u2122 7: Post Purchase \/ Follow through<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Start small with your strategic website optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Broaden your tests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n