Is it time to Slim Down Your Website Content?
Is your Website feeling stuffed to the breaking point like your pants after a Thanksgiving meal? Maybe it is time to slim down Your Website!
Many websites out there are sharing everything they can think of from every possible perspective a person may have. This is A LOT OF CONTENT that can leave a website overstuffed and the website visitors overwhelmed!
So today I am here to remind you that your website doesn’t need fat pants and it is time to do a little slimming down. So grab your laptop and cup of herbal tea for that slim down inspiration and let’s get started.
Your 2021 Website Slim Down Plan…
First thing to do is to open your laptop and pull up 3 of your most important pages. The pages that offer the key details your dream clients want to know.
Contact Page > Services Page > About Page
(And don’t worry I have a little bonus to help you with the home page in just a minute!)
It is time to take a look at these pages and make sure they have the information your website visitors are looking for.
The Contact Page
One of the best things about Thanksgiving is that feeling of welcome you receive when you show up for dinner. In my family there are lots of hugs, compliments and a genuine happiness to see each other. If feels good to be welcomed like that and it makes an impression. Your contact page can do the same.
Most Contact pages have some kind of form embedded where website visitors can submit questions, and that isn’t very welcoming. Plus your contact page is more than just a place to gather questions and inquiries.
Your Contact Page is a place to…
Share how you can help. One simple sentence is all you need to capture this! Something like…
- If you are ready to start planning your dream kitchen, let’s chat!
- Are you ready to take charge of your health and love the food you eat, let’s chat!
- If you are ready to find your dream home in the neighborhood you can’t wait to call home, let’s chat!
Set clear expectations. Do you want to be available through every possible communication channel every second of the day? Of course not! So share when you are available (business hours) and how you can be reached in the way that works best for you!
Remember YOU get to decide what is the best way to communicate with you. Phone, Email, Voxer, Scheduling Link, Social Media are all great options, but you don’t have to use them all. Choose the ones you know will be the most effective for you.
Inspire your dream clients to take action. Make your call to action clear and instantly visible by making it a button.
The Services Page
The Services Page to me is like the appetizers served on Thanksgiving before the big meal. A little teaser of what they can expect in the main event to come!
Your dream clients aren’t ready to know everything the second they land on your services page. Just like you don’t want to hug Aunt Ethel at the door and immediately plop down at the dinner table. This is too hard to digest and not a lot of fun.
Your website visitors simply want to get idea of what to expect so they can decide when and how to move onto the next stage of working with you where they will learn more of those details.
Defining Your Services
First I recommend keeping your service options small like 1 – 3 options for service based businesses. This gives your dream clients options without overwhelming them.
Share a little about the features you offer and the benefits they will receive. Keep your descriptions short and to the point and use bullet list to highlight key features and benefits. Again, you are simply giving your visitors a teaser of they can expect when working with you. The bigger details will come later when the time is right.
Your About Page…
The old About Page written as a personal resume, in the 3rd person and paragraph form is the candied yams of the Thanksgiving table. Everyone feels they have to have it, but nobody is really interested in it.
Today your website visitors are looking for something a little more personal and they want to know about YOU. Not your degrees, certifications and awards. Those all may certainly have a place on your website but it is not the main content on your About Page.
Writing Your About Page
The first step to writing your About Page is to know who you are talking to. When you know this, you know what to share and how to share it better.
For example… My dream clients are female service-based entrepreneurs looking to have a professional website that support them and their business. If my About me page focused on the challenges I once faced being a woman in the military, I wouldn’t be talking to my dream customers. Sure, a few may be able to relate, but it wouldn’t necessarily inspire them to hire me as their web designer.
Instead I talk about the amazing smart, creative, driven, and successful women I support. The ones who worked late nights, woke up earlier than anyone else, skipped weekends, cut holidays short, never settled for good enough. These are my people, because this is my story too.
Other things you could share…
Your Core Values… I live my life and operate my business by my core values and sharing this openly on my About Page has actually brought me clients.
Share the story of your professional journey… one of the best ways to show you are the right person for the job is to share the journey that has brought you to where you are today.
Be clear how you can help… your degrees and certifications aren’t the reason you are so amazing at what you do. They are simply the foundation that lead you to gaining real world experience, and your experience is why you are amazing. So share how you can help by sharing your experiences.
A little more slimming and trimming on the home page…
Now that you have slimmed down these 3 key pages, it is time to review your home page and make a few tweaks. And since your home page is most likely a quick overview of these three pages, you can use them as inspiration for the changes you need on your home page.
About section… share a paragraph or two from your updated About page and don’t forget to give them a button to read more about how awesome you are.
Services section… share your key services with a brief description! We are talking one simple sentence and maybe 3 bullet points. And of course, give them a button directing then to your services page to learn more on your actual services.
Contact page… remember that action you inspired on your contact page? Why not copy and paste it here to inspire your dream clients to get started right from the home page!
Don’t forget to sprinkle in the good!
No Thanksgiving meal would be complete without a sampling of desserts! And no website is truly complete without sharing a sprinkling of testimonials.
As I have shared many times testimonials are the golden nuggets you get to leave throughout your website, that share how awesome you are from the words of your happy clients. So scan through those testimonials and grab some snippets from your favorites that capture what sets you apart from your competition and sprinkle them throughout your website. Check out my blog Using Testimonials on Your Website if you need a little help doing this!
Need a little help trimming the fat off your website?
We could all use a little help once in a while in certain areas of our lives. If you are needing help with your website, I would like to invite you to take advantage of the Free Mini Website Audit that is currently available! But do it quickly as this offer won’t be around for much longer!