YOUR WEBSITE IS NOT A BILLBOARD: 9 Qualities of a Lead Generating Website

In my job as a digital marketing professional, I often meet a lot of Marketing Managers and Business Owners who eagerly admit having a website when a marketing discussion is on the table. But when I probe further by asking the following questions;

Is your website mobile responsive?

Do you have analytics software installed on your website?

Do you update the content (Resources and Blog) or add new content frequently?

Most of the answers I get are NO or I DON’T KNOW and I am sure a good number of people reading this will most likely respond the same way. If you answered NO to any of the questions, then you have a billboard, not a website.

Your website ought to be your business home on the web, a virtual office of sorts with a smiling receptionist (navigation tabs and great content) waiting to greet visitors and direct them to the appropriate office. It is supposed to be your number one sales tool; constantly on duty.

It should be able to attract and keep the attention of your prospects, sell your products and services which are tailored to meet the needs of your prospects and existing clients and have great content that is known for problem-solving or being educative.

Let’s review a couple of qualities that a good and business generating website should have.

9 Qualities of a Lead Generating Website

1. It should be mobile responsive

Your website should be compatible with mobile devices both in the area of display, screen resolution, and loading speed. This will give visitors the ability to read the content without having to scroll sideways to finish a sentence or zoom in to make text or pictures legible.

It will also help your mobile search optimization as Google ranks mobile compliant websites high in mobile search.  That is; when a user uses a mobile phone to search the web, mobile websites and websites that are mobile-friendly appear first and at the top. With 85% of Nigerians accessing the internet through their mobile phones today, you will knock yourself out of the market if your website is not mobile friendly.

2. It should focus on your customers

Your website should be built with your customers and prospects in mind. The content shouldn’t focus on your press releases, laurels and news about you. Your customers and prospects are not interested in that. Instead, your content should be geared towards identifying their pain points and proffering solutions to help solve these pain points.

3. It should add value to the visitors to keep them coming back

So you have launched your website, it has an impeccable design, it is mobile responsive and you have analytics set up. What next?

You have to keep updating your content regularly (I am assuming here that your website has a blog or a section for Resources). Whatever content you launched with will become stale after a couple of weeks. You need to keep adding content weekly or fortnightly to keep your visitors coming back for more informative and educative content.

There is no hard and fast rule to the frequency of posting. You just have to work out something that is convenient. However, consistency is key and subsequently, It is expected that your frequency will increase once you find your rhythm.

4. It should have analytics to monitor your visitors and their patterns

This is simply monitoring your visitors to understand their patterns: the number of people visiting your site, the pages they visit most, Content they read, the website that referred them to your site, the device they are logging in from etc.

This will help you understand their drivers and help you solve their pain points accurately. There are several tools to help you keep track of your site’s visitors, e.g. Google Analytics, Moz, Compete etc. Some are free while some others are paid. You can also use the information to tailor specific ads to specific groups or people and sync your paid advertising to help you track effectively.

5. It should have call-to-action buttons to aid the conversion process

Your website should have call-to-action buttons and they should clearly state what action you’re asking the reader to perform. For example, if you want users to subscribe to your newsletter or blog posts, put a stand-alone subscribe button. Don’t hide it under the “Contact Us” tab or use one tab for “Contact Us” and “Subscribe“.

6. A lead generating website should load speedily

In this age when people have extremely short attention span, a website taking ages to load is one of the main reasons it’s abandoned by a prospect. People don’t like to be kept waiting and loading speed is one of the criteria for ranking high on google searches.

A study has shown that the estimated loading time of the top ranking sites on Google is between 9-15 seconds. In addition to this, some areas in Nigeria still experience less effective Mobile data connection compared to some countries that have more advanced mobile data connection. It is common knowledge that the slower the data connection, the more time it takes a page to load.

Already have your website up? You can use Web Page Test, Pingdom, Load Focus and many other tools to measure your website loading speed.

7. A lead generating website should be optimised for search engines

A good website should be optimised for the relevant keywords and links. This will help its page ranking and visibility.

The key to this is to do a keyword research before you begin your website development and then build it into your website content.  You can use Google AdWords, keyword Tool or even Google Search for your keyword research. These tools will show you specific keywords that your prospects are searching for and the search volume for those words.

8. It should have an eye candy design

Having a great website design and color palette astronomically increases the chances of getting and keeping a prospect’s attention. It makes them curious to see what you have to offer and more willing to respond to calls to action. This is important because there are millions of businesses out there offering the same services and products as you, so you have to rise above the noise and be unique.

Remember to keep it professional though, as it reflects your company’s image and consumer perception is key. Most importantly, you need to use colours and designs that will appeal to your target audience.

9. It should be easy to navigate

Organise the information on your website in a simple and structured way that will help your visitors find what they are looking for. Have clear tabs that lead visitors to relevant sections of your website. Direct your call to actions to relevant links so they can get things done with one click.

Lastly, make sure that no links are broken as this may be frustrating and make the customer abandon a purchase or an enquiry thus making you lose business.

Looking for help with developing a lead generating website for your firm? Talk to us. We can help. Here are some of the websites we developed for our clients