(bonus – what are web content accessibility guidelines and why they’re important)
First, who the heck am I and why should you listen to ANYTHING I say?!
So glad you asked. My name is Julia Baldini Brain. I’ve been a digital marketing and web developer for the last 10 years. I make the complex simple and I’ve found all the WRONG ways to do things before I found the right way.
Essentially, I learned the hard way so you don’t have to! Now. Let’s get into it.
Your site visitors should know in 3 seconds what you do when they hit the homepage.
If you don’t nail this, you’ve already lost them. I don’t want that for you. Here’s a formula to help:
(what you do) for (your ideal client) who wants (desired end result)
Example: Virtual Assistance for busy, working moms who just want to not lose their sanity by the end of the day.
The next section should outline where they are and why they haven’t found relief before YOU. We’re going to continue the example from the virtual assistant site:
You wish there were more hours in the day. By the time you finish a single work task, you’re already behind in your emails, not to mention your kids have been asking for a snack for 20 minutes, and you’re pretty sure you smell poop and you don’t know if it’s a diaper or the dog.
You’ve tried other assistants, but they don’t GET how mom brains work – or maybe they’re looking for you to hold their hand the entire time and it creates MORE work.
What do you think? Would you look for more? Do you feel seen? That’s what we want! Your ideal audience needs to feel like you understand them at a level others haven’t. Then they’re hooked!
Easy navigation
Your audience does NOT want to work when they come to your site. There are some standards that help with that. Our brains are literally wired to put it into categories so that it can process the new information on the page.
The Navigation Bar (where your menu is listed)
Logo on the left. Pages on the right. Call to action on the far-right.
Single Call-To-Action on each page (excepting the homepage)
A confused customer always says no. Too many calls to action – Click here! Download this! Contact me! – and your site visitor is unsure which action to take to move to the next step.
Keep it simple. One Call-To-Action per page.
Blogs and Social Feeds are great… If you’re consistent
Please… Do not start a blog or your social feeds unless you can keep a consistent schedule.
NOW. With that said. Your schedule can be once a week, and that still counts!! Here’s what we don’t want:
You have 3 blogs hanging out from February and it’s June with no other update in sight…
Your people wonder, is she still in business? What happened?
It has a two-fold impact. Trust for your site visitors, and it impacts your SEO. Google looks to see consistent updates and to see if you’re still relevant for the keywords you’re trying to rank for.
Wrap Up: Keep it simple
The only pages you need are the homepage, a product page/services page, and a way to contact/purchase. That’s it.
Want to blog? Great! It’s extra. Want to include social feeds or downloads? Fantastic! That’s a bonus.
Go for the bare minimum and then add from there. Keep it simple and you’ll find it’s a lot easier to scale. 🙂
Julia Baldini Brain is a content concierge and web developer. She helps people implement their website and put together high-quality content that their followers actually care about.
www.brainstospare.com | brains2spare [at] gmail [dot] com
BONUS: What Are Web Accessibility Guidelines and Why They’re Important
Google will penalize you if your site is not accessible, and when we use universal design it raises everyone’s experience.
Accessibility guidelines tell you what design elements to include, and what screen readers and other assistive technology solutions need to be able to access your site.
Here’s a brief summary of the bare minimum you need for your site to be accessible:
- High contrast colors
- Use header tags to outline and describe the content on the page – not for making it look a certain way
- Don’t use “click here” on your links. Use descriptions: “Schedule your free consultation” “Download the freebie here”
- Include descriptive alt tags on all your images
Here’s a link to the full accessibility guide if you’re curious for more.