Jan 12
24
Four Things to Change About Your Website in 2012.
size-full wp-image-1156″ title=”web” src=”http://lncpracticebuilder.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/web.png” alt=”" width=”400″ height=”300″ />We’ve all been there. You’ve gone to a site that you’re sure has the information you need and when you click on it all you see is…craziness! Blue background with yellow font, type crooked and out of line with other copy, photos that don’t make any sense, and recently, I went to one Legal Nurse Consulting website that also sold decorative soaps. As your small practice’s “webmaster”, if you’re are going to do it yourself then you will need to not only have potential clients flock to your site, but you also need to keep them there so they will hang around and look. Yet I continually run across poorly designed sites where I see the same mistakes repeated over and over again.
What follow are four common ways written by Tim Eyre, the Marketing Manager at Extra Space Storage, which show how small business websites in particular can lose visitors within minutes, if not seconds. I have added to his concepts for use within the LNC arena but they are almost universal.
1. Aggravate eyestrain
Nothing is more unappealing than a website with a cluttered look. Nobody wants to see a page filled to capacity with boring text; even worse is a page that is hard to read:
- Although it might sound colorful, blue text on a purple background is a nightmare to the human eye. So is a gaudy font that is as illegible as it is fancy.
- Long paragraphs present a daunting challenge to many readers.
- And why would you even consider burdening your viewers with tiny text?
So often I find Legal Nurse Consultant sites that are built on “do-it-yourself” software that aren’t actually finished, still have placeholders floating about or are simply overcrowded with information. If you only decide to pay for one area of marketing help…this would be the one. An attractive site is VITAL to any LNC practice success.
2. Make content hard to find
Site visitors typically have a good idea of what they are looking for. It’s your job to make it easy for them to find it!
All too often I see pages designed with the expectation that the viewer will read the entire page to learn what to do next. Most people don’t want to do that; they’d much rather skim the page to find a link that takes them where they want to go.
A link that reads “click here” doesn’t tell your viewer very much at all. Instead, you should clearly describe the destination within the text of your link. For example, a link that reads “Learn more about (name of service)” works much better.
You would think that this one would be self-explanatory but it is not. So often I see sites that don’t even tell a visitor what to do or worse yet are filled with so much information not related to the services that the potential client just goes to the next name on the list.
If your website isn’t crystal clear on every page, then it’s time for a change!
3. Don’t provide alternatives to audio or video content
Nothing slows down site performance more than large video or audio files. Without question, audiovisual content has value—if you use it the right way.
Include a brief description of each video clip you post on your site so you save viewers the frustration of loading and watching content that turns out to be irrelevant to them.
While as a professional marketer and web designer all of the flash and glitz of multi-media tools is wonderful, it can be very aggravating to clients. Flash on an intro page has gone by the wayside in many industries; as well as large photographs or videos. Remember, a good many clients may be checking out your site on their mobile phones or tablets which may not be compatible with Flash. If you have no other alternatives, those clients won’t stay and probably won’t remember to check it out on their laptop later.
4. Take away control
Visitors who feel they are in charge are likely to stick around and become interested in what you are offering. Don’t turn their site exploration into a navigational nightmare. When they make a mistake, don’t transport them back to the homepage or never-never land. Instead, tell them what they did wrong via an error message so that they can correct it.
This is a big one for me. So often when LNCs are doing their own websites, I find that they don’t properly know how to do a 303 or 403 error page and instead it takes the client into an endless loop of errors or they have to log out and go back to the homepage again. Make sure that if you do choose to do your own website that you understand the way that different browsers handle different error pages; especially when dealing with hose potential clients that may be browsing from their smartphones.
Websites are a huge part of marketing to the attorney clients population out there. That being said, there are a few things that you can do to make yours more streamlined, effective and more easily navigated by the very people you want to stay around a while and check your out.
For more on building a remarkable Legal Nurse Consulting or Life Care Planning practice, subscribe to the RSS Feed for the Blog and my Email Newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, join our LNC/LCP Group on LinkedIn, or friend us on Facebook. We also offer one on one practice coaching as well as amazing LNC/LCP marketing materials, website design and social media page designs. Email us or call (317) 426-1170.
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