Making Sure Your Website Isn't Crappy (L...

Do you know the importance of an awesome website?

Well, it’s kind of a big deal… if your website sucks, you’re NOT going to get leads. And without leads—you have no deals.

In fact, I think that having a terrific website is so important, I devoted another entire lesson to it recently, where I covered the 3 basic components every site needs—and I also touched on the 2 kinds of site options you have (catalogue vs. squeeze page), plus info about widgets, the art of the ethical bribe and more goodies. Make sure you check it out here.

Hey Moguls, Cody Sperber here and for today’s lesson, I want to dive back into this topic, but with some really helpful visuals that’ll drive all this useful info home (or so I hope).

Perhaps you can think of this as a case study in website crappiness vs. genius.

Away we go to the internets…

Crappy Site

Okay, so I am totally allowed to say how bad this site was because it was mine! Yep, my first website sucked. Big time!

I want you to take a look and see if you can spot all the ways this site just wasn’t cutting it…

site 1

Ugh, I cringe a bit when I look at this old site I had. But, at least I learned how to make it better.

So, here are the issues (just to name a few):

it’s overloaded with info and lacks direction
no call to action
it’s confusing, difficult to navigate and clunky
weak, pointless photos

And this is really interesting to me…

It did rank well on Google—yay.

Want to know what’s not so yay?

It sucked from a conversion standpoint. So while it’s all fine and dandy that people were seeing the site—it didn’t matter… because the people viewing the site weren’t being converted to leads.

The Better (aka Not Crappy/Redemption) Site

Man oh man did I redeem myself with my next version of the site! Like I said, live and learn…

site 2

So, take a gander to see the awesomeness in this updated site:

Here’s all the wonderous glory of this site:

it’s got an offer right smack at the top in big, bold lettering
the page is clear, concise and clutter-free
it’s easy to read

IMPORTANT: Make sure to place the key content in order of importance and the same way that people’s eyes naturally flow: left to right and up to down—especially the critical lead capture information.

And, of course, the real magic is that every page on the site has the same goal: to capture leads.

Site Summary

Okay, so you can clearly see that my first site sucked. (*Shiver*)

It was confusing with poor visuals and no direction—which makes web traffic suck, which makes lead gen luck, all of which makes your REI biz suck.

Harsh, but true. I’m just here to help, folks…

My lovely re-invented second site was clear, easy to read and directed readers to the important info in a natural, visually pleasing way.

Remember: Creating a website that leads to conversions and drives business is all about simplicity and strategic placement of key information.

And above all else—your end goal is to capture that precious data, so make sure you have places to do that on every page and make sure visitors to your site are directed right to ‘em.