PART 1 of a 6 part series
Part 1: Data Gathering
Everyone wants a successful website – one that will bring in sales or sales potential. Unfortunately, many people think in terms of how the site “looks” will make a difference. To some extent, they are not wrong. A professional looking website that is easy to navigate is going to be a more successful website than one that looks amateurish and is difficult to navigate.
With that said, however, there is far more information needed to build a better website. Think in terms of mice and building a mouse trap. You wouldn’t build a mouse trap that is the wrong size for the mouse you are trying to catch, nor bait it with food that wouldn’t attract the creature.
A website is no different. You need to understand your potential customer and how they are using your current website. What pages are they lingering on? How far down are they scrolling down the page? What path are they taking through the site? Did they even see your contact form? What’s the most popular page after the home page?
Fortunately, there is a simple way to gather up this information. Using a service like HotJar (hotjar.com) you can look at heat maps of specific pages of your website and view recordings of visitors navigating the site. These will tell you what the visitor is interested in and if he/she is able to find the information easily or if they are confused.
You can even track the way the visitors use your forms – on what field are they abandoning the form?
And, let’s go one step further. Let’s ask the website visitor if they found what they were looking for. A simple feedback form tucked into the side of your website will give those who are frustrated using your site a voice to express that frustration. (I know everyone wants just glowing reviews, but we learn more from those that are frustrated.)
I would recommend setting up this data gathering about a month before you start to build a new website. Now, with at least a month’s worth of data you and your web designer/marketer (I would never hire just a web designer when I know I need the insights of a marketer as well) can review this information and make plans to address the problems in the new website.
On part 2, we’ll discuss setting goals for your website and explore some ways to achieve them.