In an effort to be unique, informative and persuasive, many businesses can end up with overly complicated and wordy websites that may be doing more to push customers away than pull them in. When building an effective website, often simplifying its content and design is the most effective approach, giving visitors the space they need to find the answers to their problems.
But when you’re trying to ensure visitors have all the information they need to determine your product or service is the best solution for them, you may not know where to start reining it in. To help, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council each offer one piece of advice they’d give well-intentioned business owners for simplifying their websites and why these tips are so effective.
Young Entrepreneur Council members discuss website best practices.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Put Search Functions Front And Center
If you run a product-based business, focus on the on-site search functionality of your website. Putting search front and center allows your customer to be the driver in finding exactly what they want fast. It is more important than any visuals you can offer or any verbiage you can put out there. – Vanessa Nornberg, Metal Mafia
2. Focus On Your Target Audience
The advice I would give a business for simplifying their website is to focus on their target audience. Who are they trying to reach with their website? What does the customer need or want to know? How will the website serve and benefit them? Once they have a clear understanding of this, they can make sure that the content on their website is relevant and geared toward meeting those needs or wants. – Sujay Pawar, CartFlows
3. Apply Storytelling Principles
We find that technically minded founders tend to think detailed explanations of features will make their product’s benefits evident to the audience; however, the opposite is often true. Our advice is always to apply principles of good storytelling to any website narrative. Human psychology dictates that we best interpret things relating to past experiences. By employing comparisons, use cases and metaphors, you can often convey benefits in fewer words and make them more relatable to the audience’s actual experiences. As with any good story, it’s better to show, not tell, so employing images and videos makes the benefits even more tangible and cuts down on the word count, making for a more seamless user experience. – Daria Gonzalez, Wunderdogs
4. Eliminate Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is the biggest issue right now. You must create a sitemap and see where you can merge content. Cut and edit to make the articles succinct. It is fine to have FAQs at the end of pages; those do very well for search rankings and readability. However, you need to cull your website, especially if you have been blogging for years. You probably have duplicate content and pages that are competing. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
5. Plan Around A Single Call To Action
When designing a website and thinking of copy, clear your mind and think of the one thing you want your visitors to do when they visit your website. Create the website with that simple focus. Most businesses want visitors to do multiple things like read the blog, subscribe to the newsletter, learn about the product, reviews, the team and more. This steals focus, and readers usually lose interest from the get-go. Also, limit your website menu to five items or fewer. Too many choices can cause a decision paradox. Finally, don’t miss doing usability testing for your website before launch. Listen to the feedback on functionality, layout, content flow and design. Implement those changes to adapt to what users want and desire. – Brian David Crane, Spread Great Ideas
6. Consider Keywords That Stand Out
Some brands over-communicate on their website because they feel some terminology may be unfamiliar to their buyer. Others add extra copy to try and explain technical features and information. The key to simplifying a website is prioritizing copy that prospects can immediately appreciate and understand on important landing pages. That can drive more interest in diving deeper into the product and brand. With the right keyword focus, you’ll attract more customers who are willing to read longer-form articles, infographics and e-books about your product or service. – Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep Mattress
7. Write About Your Product’s Core Benefits
Focus on the core benefits your product is going to deliver to your potential customers. They are simply looking for those. Ask yourself, if you are looking for a service for your business, what would you like to read? Can you define your entire product in one sentence or two or three words? This should be your approach while writing your website content for your customers. Use clear language; your customers should be able to understand what you’re saying without needing a dictionary. Use short sentences and paragraphs; long blocks of text are off-putting and difficult to read. Be clear about what you’re offering; your customers should know exactly what they’re getting from you. Organizing information in a logical way is the trick. – Kelly Richardson, Infobrandz
8. Clean Up Your Navigation
You can include as much content as you want, but it has to be easy for visitors to find and digest. Navigation plays a crucial role, so you need clear menus and breadcrumbs so that people can move back and forth between pages. Don’t overwhelm readers with long pages. Break content into smaller bits. Make sure the content is well organized and easy to understand. If you’re covering a technical subject, it should be understandable to a beginner—unless your primary audience is experts. You should also include vital information such as your contact number or sign-up form on every page. – Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
