3 Things to Clarify Before You Touch Your Website

Have you ever sat down to build or redesign your website… and suddenly realized you have no idea what should actually go on it? 

So you start choosing colors. 
Maybe picking a theme. 
Maybe even hiring a designer. 

But the problem with most websites is not the design. 

It is the lack of clarity behind them. 

Today we are talking about the three things every business owner should clarify before they touch their website. 

Because when these things are unclear, the website becomes confusing. 
And confusing websites do not convert. 

And I will also share one quick test you can run to see if your website already has this problem. 

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Transcript

Why Most Websites Fail

Carrie Saunders 0:00

Have you ever sat down to build or redesign your website and suddenly realized you don't know what should actually go on it? You start choosing colors, you might pick a theme, you might even hire a designer. But the problem with most websites is not the design, it's the lack of clarity behind them. That's what we help fix here in our business. Today we're talking about three things every business owner should clarify before they touch their website. Because when these things are unclear, the website becomes confusing and confusing websites do not convert. And I'll also share one quick test you can run to see if your website already has this problem. Let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to the show. So this next statistic I'm going to tell you kind of blows my mind every time I think about it, but I've run the numbers and we've been in business almost 24 years now. But we've helped over 16,000 clients. Some of them came and just bought, you know, a small plug-in to their website. Some have been with us for over 20 years doing full custom websites for them, full e-commerce, WordPress, et cetera, type custom websites. And there's a pattern we've seen time and time again with websites that we've actually dug into and really truly helped. And when someone says to us, I need a better website, I start then asking questions. Who's the website for? What action should visitors take? What problem are you solving? There's usually a long pause when I ask them this. And that's not a failure. It's something most people are never taught and don't think about. But if you skip these decisions, your website ends up trying to do everything and helping no one out very clearly. So before we talk about platforms of design, let's talk about the foundation. This is why when somebody tells me I want to change from this software to that software, I first start with these questions right here. And I also start with business questions as to why do they want to change? I hate to see a client move platforms if it's not necessary and if we can just adjust what they already have. So, first question is who is this website actually for? This is sometimes one of the biggest mistakes people do is they don't really nail down who it's really for. It's one of the most common things I see in websites when I'm trying to when they try to speak to too many different audiences. For example, a website that says it helps entrepreneurs, small businesses, corporations, startups, nonprofits, and anyone who wants help online, this might sound inclusive, but it does create confusion. Because when someone lands on your homepage, they're silently asking themselves, is this for someone like me? So that's what you really need to answer. Is this for someone like me? Whether you're selling products or for serve or services. And if they cannot answer that quick question quickly, they will leave. So is this for someone like me? This is what they're asking themselves in their brain. So before building your site, ask yourself, who is the primary person this website is for? Not 10 audiences, not five, just one. You can help the others later, but messaging needs to feel like it was written for a specific person. So for us, for example, we sort we serve several different softwares out there. We served three kind of to five e-commerce shopping carts when you know old clients want us to help them with them, um, to one or two uh course creator and coach software. Now, keep in mind that's not where we started. We started with one shopping cart platform, just one. We were with one shopping cart platform for, I believe, almost 10 years before we branched into another one. And that's because a very long-term client let us know ahead of time they were moving from shopping cart, this shopping cart A to shopping cart B, and they would no longer need our services, and they were really sad that they were having to move to this other shopping cart. Well, six months later, they came back to us and they're like, Carrie, can you guys please learn this new shopping cart? We really miss you. So that's how we branched into another shopping cart. We had our eyes focused in the one shopping cart. Now, that's not necessarily one um say audience per se is like people who sell cars or people who sell uh clothing, but it was one audience in that it was people who only use this shopping cart. So it was still narrowed down and narrowed down very well enough for a startup business. That's what really got our feet off the ground. So you can help others later, just like in our case now, we support Xcart Software, Magento software as of this recording. Um, these are the ones we support. Uh, we also support uh WooCommerce, those are our top e-commerce ones we support. We also support WordPress itself, as well as Kajabi, and we have our own Go High level called Course Creative Suite. So that's the software patent which we support as of this recording right now. A few others are dabbled in there. We will work on Shopify some and BigCommerce, but those aren't quite as much of our focus as the other ones. So note that you can help others later, but the messaging needs to feel like it was written for a specific person. Later in the episode, I'm also going to share a quick homepage that helps you know whether your messaging is clear enough for that person. So stay to the end. And then the second thing I want to talk about is what problem do you actually solve? Now, this might sound really obvious, but many websites describe services instead of outcomes. For example, we offer website design, SEO, consulting, and strategy. That tells someone what to do, but it doesn't tell them why they should care. Visitors are not looking for services, they're looking for solutions. So I want us to shift the focus. So instead of starting with services, start with the transformation. Ask yourself, what problem does my audience have when they arrive at my website? For example, they might think they need more leads. They might want their website to convert better. They might want tech to feel simpler, they might want their business to scale online. That's some examples of what we might have on our websites. So when your website clearly connects a problem to your solution, everything becomes easier to write. Your headlines, your call to actions, your pages, everything. So instead of saying we build WordPress websites, I might say we help service-based businesses turn their websites into their best sales tool. Because that's what we love to do. That's what we want to do. We want our customers to be successful and have the best sales tool out there. When one of those items that can be that is their website. It's the same service, but I'm delivering those words a lot more clearly and having a lot of clarity behind them. So then number three, what's the one action you want visitors to take when they arrive? Here's where many websites can break down and really miss the mark here. They give the visitors too many choices. Book a call, read the blog, follow on social, join the newsletter, browse services, download a freebie. Sound familiar? It's so easy to want to have all these things in there. It really, really is. I completely understand the, you know, the business owner of psychology behind wanting to do this because you want to meet somebody where they are. But when everything's an option, nothing feels very important to those who are on your website, especially those not familiar with you. So your website should guide visitors towards the one primary next step. So this is for those people who don't know you very well. What is that one primary next step that's going to help them to get to know, like, and trust you better and help them see that you might be able to help them? So then I want you to ask yourself, what's the most valuable next step someone could take after visiting my website? Maybe it's booking a consultation, downloading a resource, joining your email list, buying a product, but that action should be clear, repeated, and easy to find. Your navigation, buttons, and messaging should all support that one goal you want them to do. So that homepage test I promised you earlier. I want you to pull up your homepage and look at it like you're a first-time visitor. Ask yourself these three questions. Who is this for? What problem do they solve? And what should I do next? Let me read that again. Who is this for? What problem do they solve? And what should I do next next? Look at this. This is the first time you visit a website. If a new visitor cannot answer those in a few seconds, your website probably needs more clarity before it needs more design. So before you rebuild or redesign your website, I want you to clarify these three things first. Who is the website for? What problem are you solving for them? And then one action you want them to take next. When those three things are clear, building the site becomes much easier on you. Mac agrees if you didn't hear him in the background. And more importantly, the site will actually work. And if this episode got you thinking about your own website, I'd love to help you take the next step. Inside my converting website course, we do this and we go over the fundamentals of this even deeper. And I will even hot seat look at your website and give you some suggestions based upon the main principles of having a converting website. So if you want more information on that, just go to smarteronlinebusiness.com forward slash TCW. Or you can jump on over to our Facebook group. It is a smarteronline business.com forward slash Facebook. Thanks so much for listening today. And remember, a great website does not start with design. It starts with that clarity. It starts with knowing who we're talking to. And we will see you next week.