How to make a good website that gets traffic and converts

“Good” can be a subjective term: everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a good website, for instance, based on their tastes, preferences, needs, and personal experience. But a good website can be measured objectively in terms of delivery: does the website rank in Google searches?

This is a useful benchmark, and it’s what we use to define our websites as good – or in need of work.

Often, what makes a website rank well in a Google search seems counter-intuitive. It’s not how pretty it looks, or how many flashy widgets it includes. Google cares about content. The text on your site needs to be highly readable, well-written, and relevant to your target audience.

To ensure that your site meets these criteria, it’s important to know which words people are using to look for people who do what you do. That’s why every new web project needs to start with intense SEO research and analysis. Based on what you learn from Google, you can then write copy that includes the keywords people use to find you. (Or hire a professional!) You need to ensure that the copy is very well-written, and extremely readable. (Remember: we’re talking to ordinary people. Trying to sound too smart is a proven way to lose viewers – and ultimately, clients!)

Next week we’ll look at tools that make it easy to measure the quality of your content.

Only once you have the content in hand should you begin the design process. The content needs to lead the design.

At the Digital Coach 101, we use WordPress as the website engine because it is robust, scalable, and mobile responsive. We have a number of premium themes that you can choose from – or you can find your own.

Once you’ve made your choice, a graphic or web designer can modify the design to suit your corporate branding, logo, and imagery. You can then approve it or make changes before construction begins. (Contact us if you need help hiring a designer.)

When you know what you want the site to look like AND you have great content, it’s time to build your website. This process includes tagging the backend of your site with keywords relevant to Google searches for what you offer. Once it’s live, we recommend that you submit your site to Google, so that you can rank even more quickly.

Even with all of this in place, ranking on Google can take up to nine or more weeks. And it’s very important that – every week – you’re sharing new, fresh content relevant to what you do. If you can post an article more often than once a week, that’s even better.

With the right combination of identified keywords; mobile-responsive design; and fresh, relevant content, you will start to see visitors to your site increase over time and, with them, great leads.

If you need help with articles for your site each week, give us a shout. Blogging is our passion!

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.