Current business owners or new business owners may look to building a website as a way to increase online leads, but the one thing that they may be missing is the fact that a website is more than just a portfolio– it’s a channel to reach customers.

Of course we get wrapped up in aesthetics and the way something looks, an idea that can extend to a websites as well, but a fancy website can be just like a shiny gift-wrapped empty box– very pretty on the outside, but absolutely worthless beneath the surface.

So how do you keep your business’ website from being a fancy empty box? Easy, make sure that it always remains a bridge to customers through engaging design and content.

How to NOT Lose Website Visitors

Build Websites For Clients- One way I feel like business owners lose visitors is when they create websites that are more for themselves than they are for the client. When you’re making something you prefer over what your customers prefer, you’re creating a barrier between you and your potential customers, leaving them feeling lost and disconnected. You may love a particular design, but will your visitors love it? Will they get it? The only way to accurately match your vision with theirs is to combine the two in the perfect way to where you feel like the website is all yours, but it’s still doing the job of garnering business by connecting with clients.

This is just as complicated as it sounds, after all you’re trying to keep your business’ identity while trying to please the customer. The best advice is find a web development company that can help perfectly mold the two.

Let Customers Reach You- Another way you don’t want to lose potential customers is by not providing a way for your target market to get in touch with you, whether it be phone numbers, contact forms, direct chats, email information, even address. Make sure people can find you no matter what! If they’re already on your website, then they’re already interested in your business, even on the most basic level. Capitalize on this by creating ways for them to easily get a hold of you and ask you more information. These online leads are the way that you will essentially build your business online.

I’ll even admit that contact forms may seem like a little much at first, but they are absolutely essential! Just make sure you have a container for all of these contacts so you can track how many people are contacting you through your website.

Create Motivating Content- Let’s just face it, if customers don’t find what they’re looking for on your website, they move on unbelievably fast, so they main purpose of your site is to create a place where potential customers find exactly what they’re looking for and you motivate them to act with calls for action. Your content needs to be informative but succinct, and as copywriters like me would know, that it need to include keywords that will help your page appear in related searches.

The website should be built around converting web viewers into customers, so don’t leave them lost on your website. You have them, they’re engaged, make sure that they follow through by pointing them where they need to go.

Share the knowledge of your business and create a lasting connection with a client based on trust and transparency. You want your website to be more than a pretty face, right?