Creating a Captivating Website: A Checklist for Success
Most of my clients want to know how to make their website more captivating - more attractive, compelling and sticky.
So I naturally have a lot of conversations about it. I do plenty of website consultations and audits to help my purpose-led businesses get more traffic, cultivate more ‘leads.’ and ultimately make a bigger impact with their services and programs.
In this work, I don’t ‘wing it’ or work purely intuitively. I follow a checklist.
I take a strategic approach because the strategies for creating a website that works as a marketing tool and brand-builder are numerous, evolving and sometimes technical (vs. aesthetic).
And lucky you - I’m going to share the checklist!
So you can follow the exact process I use to create captivating websites. I’ll break the checklist down into bite-sized pieces over time here on Substack. But if you want the whole Kahuna, I’m offering it for free in my shop right now. Go get it.
Who’s your website really for?
Is it for you? Do you want a kind of Wikipedia page that contains all the historical 411 about you and your business? Do you simply want a digital brochure you can hand out to people who look mildly interested in what you offer?
It’s ok to build a website for yourself. We obviously want all the information about our business to be available to those who want it.
But I’ve personally never been CAPTIVATED by ‘white pages’ or Wikis.
And if you really want to get more traffic to your site, it’s important to shift the purpose of the website toward how it can serve your visitor. Build it with your user in mind, and your website will start to have greater resonance and power of connection.
Here are FIVE ways we can build with the user in mind:
Create Comprehensive User Personas
Understanding who your visitors are is the first step in creating a website that truly resonates with them. User personas help you tailor your design and content to meet the specific needs and desires of your target audience.
Once you have depth of understand about WHO you’re building your website for, your ability to create messaging and a ‘journey’ across your pages gets super focused and speaks right to the hearts and minds of your visitors.
Tip: Include demographics, behaviors, motivations, and goals in your personas to make them as detailed as possible. I give my personas names and introduce them to my GPT so it can help give me even more insight and ways to make connections with them.
Test Your User Experience
Before making any changes to your website, test it with a group of targeted customers.
The feedback is invaluable and can highlight areas that need improvement. You’ll also end up with the EXACT language your visitors are using to describe their tensions, desires and questions - pure gold for creating website copy that resonates.
Action Step: Organize a review of your site with a group of people who align with your personas. Gather feedback through structured usability testing sessions.
Analyze User Metrics
Data is your best friend when it comes to understanding how visitors interact with your site. Key metrics like page views, user paths, bounce rates, and acquisition sources can provide insights into what’s working and what isn’t.
It’s sometimes challenging to assess whether your data is ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ I think the key is to look for continuous improvement over time. Is the data trending better? Or is is flat or worsening?
You can’t notice change if you don’t measure.
Tool Suggestion: Utilize tools like Google Analytics for comprehensive insights.
Leverage Content
Content is key to keeping visitors on your site longer. Offer value through blogs, videos, ebooks, podcasts or whitepapers that address common questions and needs.
Your visitors will be looking for ways to assess your credibility, generosity and ability to inspire. You don’t have to create a LOT of content. Yet, think about creating the content you think your visitor wants most or the content that can serve to fill a need they didn’t realize they had.
What are the THREE pieces of content you could create and offer freely for your visitor persona? What is the content they would be eager to share with a friend or colleague?
Benefit: Content not only helps in SEO but also establishes your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
Use a Lead Acquisition Strategy
A strong lead acquisition strategy ensures that visitors can easily connect with you. Your visitor isn’t always ready to buy or sign-up for your offer. But if they feel they know, like and trust you, they are going to want a way to stay in touch.
Give them a way to stay connected by including an opt-in form prominently on your home page.
Best Practice: Offer something of value, like a free guide or a discount code, as part of the sign-up process to increase conversion rates.
Just the tip of the iceberg
Building a captivating website requires thoughtful planning, a deep understanding of your audience, and an ongoing commitment to testing and optimization.
But you’re probably sensing - there’s a lot more to consider, right?
Stay tuned and subscribe to get future posts where I’ll share more of my checklist, The Captivating Website. Or, if you need the whole thing right now, go grab it for free in the shop.
And let me know in the comments if your website is built with your user in mind or if you have questions about how to make changes that captivate your ideal audience.
Happy to help.
Want to create a more captivating website? Book a 90 minute Solutions Call to collaborate, take action and get more traffic from you ideal clients and supporters.