Hello!
My name is Joshua Novak and I run an agency Main St. Media House serving businesses and organizations with their digital marketing and content creation. One big staple of any digital strategy is having a website that works. Not works in the sense of just exists but actually works toward generating future revenue for your business.
“But Josh it’s 2020… who doesn’t have a website anymore???”
Great question. Most do. But if you haven’t given it a refresh in a while it might be time.
Here are 109 steps to make that happen.
Some of these are simple. Some are complex. Some even might be a no brainer. Either way, these are all steps we go through with a client when handling their web needs. I hope you find them valuable and think about how you can implement them in your business.
If you have any questions, comments, complaints, or just want to say hi, shoot or send me an email at josh@ms-mh.com.
So go hide in a coffee shop. Read through this and maybe jot some notes down. I hope you enjoy and have an incredible 2020.
– Josh
Here’s what we are going to go over:
Let’s get started.
1. Know what your site is trying to accomplish.
This is honestly the most important part of this entire list. If you don’t know what your site is trying to accomplish you can’t measure its success. Maybe your goal is e-commerce sales. Maybe it’s phone calls or people downloading a free resource. Whatever it is, your site needs to revolve around this purpose.
2. Fix your call to action button.
Large and in charge. Make it clear and a priority on your page. Typically set as your accent color as long as no other buttons around it are the same color. This call to action button needs to directly correlate with your site goal.
3. Tie in ads to landing pages.
If you are running ads to your page make sure that your landing pages have what your customer would be expecting. Matching headlines, similar colors, and relevant imagery is important to consider.
4. Have a free offer.
“Enter your information for a _________” vs. “Stay Up To Date”. Reward the behavior you want visitors to take. Leads are valuable so giving away a free download or consultation is worth it. There is a good chance that’s how you even got this list.
5. Above the Fold = Most Important
Not everyone is going to scroll down very far. So give them what they want or expecting right there at the beginning.
6. Below the Fold = Relevant
Let your potential customers learn and explore as much as they want. Keep it relevant and point them in the right direction when they want to dive into more specific questions.
7. Put the focus on the customer. “You” language.
Make it personal for the customer by using the word “you” instead of “we” or “customers”. You only care about the person actively on the site.
8. Utilize Testimonials
These are so powerful and so easy to get. Shoot a message to some of your best customers and ask if they would be willing to write one. Or just pull them off of Facebook and Google to use on your site. Having someone else brag about how awesome you are can be much more impactful than a list of features.
9. Use a call to action multiple times.
Have that call to action a couple of times throughout your page or lander. People might just need some more convincing before they are ready to move forward. Have it in the middle and for sure have it at the end.
10. Use landers not home page for paid traffic.
Your home page should be seen as something for the casual browser. Paid traffic needs to go to the specific thing that your ads are pointing towards. (Running a great paid ads campaign could be its own deck… I maybe need to make that next…)
11. Utilize pain points.
Pain points can be much more effective than just talking about your product. “Tired of dirty floors? Tired of spending hours cleaning?” is better than “We have the best brooms”.
12. Feature features, not just the function.
“Easy to grip handle ensures maximum cleaning ability” vs. “This will clean your floor!” The first puts the focus on what makes it possible to clean that floor fast.
13. Have an email opt-in.
It’s simple to have and the more information you collect on future customers the better. It allows you to maximize the opportunity and expense of whatever it took to get them there in the first place.
14. Research your colors.
Believe it or not, the colors used on your site matter. We won’t get into it here but do a quick Google search for your industry and colors associated with it. Typically that is what customers will be expecting. It also matters when thinking about your call to action. Green might be a lot better than white when trying to signify “Click Here”.
15. Ask questions?
Yes. Qualify your visitors through questions. The more you can get them to say yes, the longer they will stay. “Do you want to simplify taking care of your home?” “Well by golly I do. Might stick around a little and see what this is all about.”
16. Tell a story.
If you are like me, I’m getting kind of tired with marketing people (like me) saying they are “storytellers”. The thing is it’s a pretty perfect description for this type of work. Sharing your story about why you do what you do can create a powerful connection with your future customers. They want something to believe in. Give them a reason to.
17. Make it personal. You are awesome so just own it.
No seriously. If you weren’t awesome you wouldn’t be in business. So let it show that a little. Throw a photo of yourself on your page. Write some features about the staff. It’s just a website so don’t take yourself so seriously. 🙂
18. Understand their commitment.
Language is important. People might not be ready to “Submit Your Info” but they might be ready to “Learn More”. “Add to Cart” is much less of a commitment than “Buy Now”. Understand where people are at in their journey with your brand.
19. Split Test
Woah, we getting pretty advanced now. This simply just means to take one of your landers or pages, duplicate it, change a heading or color and see which one performs better. There are a lot of software options out there on how to easily do this.
20. Change the pricing.
No, don’t lower your prices (unless you want to I guess). What this means is get creative with how your pricing is presented. In order to sell an $89 vacuum, you might need to compare it to a $29 vacuum and a $299 vacuum. (Read the book “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely to have your mind blown about this.)
21. Stop exaggerating.
If you are claiming you are the #1 carpet cleaning company in the world there is both a really good chance you aren’t and that people won’t believe you. It’s easy to be grandiose and sometimes it might be true. But don’t go so far that people stop believing in the honesty of your product.
22. Let people message you.
Be accessible. If people want to reach out and ask questions before they make a decision, let them. There are a lot of great solutions for this beyond just a contact form. Zendesk is a paid option that perfectly integrates support chat software. Facebook Messenger can also be easily integrated right on your site for free.
23. Have an FAQ page.
Want to decrease the number of emails asking the same questions or frequently asked questions? Create a FAQ page. Super easy to do. Allows visitors to educate themselves and for you to focus on sales.
24. Have a contact us page.
You want people to contact you. Make it easy.
25. Have an about page.
You want people to know about you. Make it easy.
26. Privacy policy page.
The legal stuff that your lawyer will say you need because you do. Most privacy policies can be created from a template online. But do I look like a lawyer? No. So talk to one if you want to be airtight.
27. Royalty-free images.
I have run into a situation where someone has come to me because they built their own site and got a cease and desist letter from whoever they ripped photos from. There are so many great resources out there to get royalty-free images. Use those. Unsplash and Pexels cover almost all of my stock photography needs. (And their photos aren’t creepy looking people looking into the camera.)
28. Take your own photos.
I could not recommend this enough. If it is your brand that you are trying to build, truly make it your brand by getting great photos taken of what you do. This will make it unique and 100% yours.
29. Social proof it.
You have people interacting with your product or services every day. So prove it. Showcasing humans actually interacting with what you do will have a much bigger impact than just talking about it.
30. Let it breathe.
This is a goofy one that I feel like I always have to convince clients of. Give it some space. Add some white space or padding between your elements. One thing at a time.
31. Contrast is good.
Break up a black and white section with a white and black section. Add a banner image before your next list of features. Encourage that eye to keep scrolling.
32. Seriously. Give it some white space.
This is like the third time I’ve said it but almost guaranteed your site needs some more white space to balance things out.
33. Font should adapt.
This goes with making a site mobile-friendly but I find a lot of sites still struggle with this. Sometimes when the site is viewed on mobile the text is just a tad too big that it feels uncomfortable. These days our phones are big and we are used to reading on them. Decrease the font size a bit. Or vice versa if it’s unable to be read.
34. Let your photos read – use overlays.
Text over photos always looks great… except when it doesn’t. Make sure whatever overlay is on your photos you can read that text easily.
35. Stop with all caps.
When someone texts you in all caps you think they’re yelling. Same on your site. That header probably doesn’t have to be in all caps. (Unless that is the font. Sometimes it makes sense.)
36. Stick to black text, white background.
Always. Almost. People are used to reading text on a white background. All black background sites are rare. Mostly because they are rarely enjoyable to read.
37. No, you won’t make money from ads.
Take that with a grain of salt. But there is a very good chance that if you are just starting your site you will not have enough traffic to even begin to make money from ads. Let customers focus on the content you are creating not the distraction of ads.
38. Anticipate user questions.
Most people know how sales conversations go. Anticipating what people will want to know is important to how you prioritize your content.
39. Length matters.
This is especially true for a product or service that is more on the technical side of things. Let your future customer learn. This takes creating long, well thought out content.
40. Content for personas.
Think about the different people that you serve. Try to make the content for those specific groups. Sometimes that means even having different pages or sides of the site to provide the right context.
41. Keep navigation super simple.
Keep options to a minimum. Landing on a site and seeing 10 menu items can be overwhelming. Stack them or combine them.
42. Burn the slider.
You get an average of a 1% click-through rate with those silly sliders with all sorts of different options to pick from as it goes past. I will concede to a photo carousel but most of the time a slider isn’t worth it.
43. Brag. If you’ve done or won it, share it.
Your site isn’t the place to be humble. Let people know where you have won awards, had successes, or times you have been in the media.
44. Don’t panic.
A lot of these tips sound more complicated than they actually are. Most tracking code stuff is just copy-paste but kind of nerve-racking if you doing it the first time. Reach out to your developer or me if you need any help.
45. Facebook Pixel.
If you plan on ever running ads it’s better to get that pixel on your page right away so it is gathering data. This will allow you to do retargeting and track conversions down the road with no problem.
46. LinkedIn Pixel.
Same as the Facebook pixel. Get it placed and forget about it.
47. Google analytics.
Track your traffic and know whats going on with your site. It’s free and a no brainer.
48. Mouse Flow.
If you are paying for traffic to the site or just want to know for sure how people are interacting with your site, this type of software is a must. It allows you to watch recordings and heat-mapping of how people are interacting with everything. Know what’s working and know what needs work. Mouseflow is my favorite but there are many others out there.
49. Google Tag Manager.
Pixels can get annoying. Especially when you need to add more down the road from verification codes and everything. Google tag manager makes that easy. Manage all of them from one place.
50. Use GTMetrix.
Throw your domain into GTMetrix and know how well you are doing. The biggest thing to pay attention to is that load size and speed. If you have a couple of categories that are getting an F, take it with a grain of salt. Not all of them are going to make your site dramatically faster.
51. Google Search Console.
Submit your site to Google Search Console and know how people are finding your site and how Google is indexing it.
52. Keep it updated.
Seriously. Just click those little update buttons on WordPress or plugins. If it’s a custom site your developer should be taking care of this.
53. Keep it secure.
I know you think its cute to put your dog’s name in for your password but in reality, that password probably sucks. It might be time to change it up.
54. Use LastPass.
Seriously, keep it secure. I use LastPass for every password. That way my passwords look like 4rPvMKJ1!LW%i not “JoshRocks2020”. It makes life wayyyyy easier.
55. SSL is free so use one.
See that little lock icon before the domain? Good, then you don’t have to worry about it. Don’t see it? Then it’s time to get an SSL certificate. I love using FlyWheel for most of my hosting because they just do it automatically and for free. Else there are a lot of free and very cheap options out there you can add manually.
56. Death by plugin.
If I were to open up your WordPress site and see 50 plugins something is probably wrong. It might be time for a better, all-inclusive theme or to cut the fat on some of those.
57. Stop paying so much for your domain.
I highly recommend Namecheap or Google Domains. I hate paying for WhoIs protection (hiding your email and address) and they offer it for free along with some of the cheaper domain costs.
58. Hosting matters.
The domain is the address. Hosting is the house where your site lives that the address is on. Spending a few extra bucks on hosting is always worth it for fewer headaches down the road. Like I said before, I use Flywheel for most of my hosting. They have great customer service and have created a really easy platform to work with. (In no way am I paid to say that. I just use their services. And they are just cool people.)
59. Set up cashe.
It’s great. So use it. Most hosting services provide it. A cashe can speed up that site and create a better loading experience.
60. Domain emails.
It’s 2020 so get rid of that Yahoo or Gmail email address if you running a business. info@YourAwesomeDomain.com can be a very inexpensive and simple reality. Google My Business makes it insanely easy to do this.
61. Have a plan. We can tell when you didn’t.
When it comes to functionality this is a big one and a precursor to everything else. If you can’t draw out the general structure of your site on a whiteboard it might be too complicated. Have a plan for how everything interacts and works together.
62. It’s gotta load fast.
There are a lot of variables to this. But it just has to be a priority in your mind. If it’s not loading fast it’s time to change something. Smaller images. Better server. Less complexity. Whatever it is, you will lose visitors if it’s simply not loading in a reasonable time frame (AKA a few seconds).
63. Mobile First. Not mobile-friendly.
Once again, it’s 2020 so we shouldn’t have to even say this. If your site doesn’t work on a phone its just time for an entirely new site. But more importantly, if the design isn’t focused on people using a phone it’s past time to start thinking about that. So let’s take care of that.
64. Hover won’t work on mobile.
A lot of people love having stuff change when you hover over it with a mouse. Make sure this isn’t necessary when using a phone. Because uh you don’t use a mouse on a phone.
65. Don’t go deep on the hierarchy.
If your structure is starting to look like /services/local/cleaning/house/weekly/contact we’ve got a problem. People shouldn’t have to get too deep into your structure to get what they want. Get visitors to your call to action as soon as possible.
66. You shouldn’t be able to notice the design.
It can be easy to get over-excited about creating some super complex design and functionality of the site. If that becomes a distraction you aren’t doing yourself any favors.
67. People expect the burger.
On mobile, those three little lines almost always signify a drop-down menu. I typically just stick to that. It’s what people expect.
68. Error messages should be functional.
Errors happen. Wrong links or deleted pages will give a 404 error so make it interesting. OptinMonster made a great post about some of their favorites.
69. Links should look like links.
When you embed a link on your page for people to click, it should look like a link. Sometimes a darker grey isn’t necessarily enough to say “click me” on a blog post. Underline it, use bold text, or maybe your accent color.
70. Test everything — browsers and devices.
It can feel annoying but quickly popping your site into different browsers on your computer and on your phone can bring up some simple fixes. Have some friends with different phone sizes bring it up too. It might be as simple as just making some buttons bigger or smaller to accommodate more devices.
71. Easy to share.
If you run a blog or create any kind of content, the goal is that people would share it (also please share this list ❤ ). Adding social share buttons to your blog is super easy and makes it simple for visitors to do just that.
72. Button to open a form.
Sometimes instead of just having a boring ol’ lead form on your site you could have a button that opens that form up. This can increase conversions as it creates a smaller level of commitment (a button click) and leads them to a larger level of commitment (a form fill). Test it out. Sometimes this works better.
73. Create a visual hierarchy.
Every element should lead into the next element naturally. Break up lots of text with some images or larger text. Create sections. Have colors interrupt the eye. A page of text isn’t interesting. Add some flavor.
74. Does it feel ok.
This is a bit of a soft point but it’s true. The weird thing about design is that when done well it should feel right. Trust your designer on this one for the most part if you are apathetic towards any of this.
75. H1 Tags
Ok so with SEO we are going to get a little technical but this is important. For the most part, on every page you should only have one <h1> tag. This tag should also best describe what is on that page of the site. Google uses H tags to better understand the structure of text on a page. The H1 is arguably the most important.
76. NAP Pack
The NAP pack. Otherwise known as your Name, Address, Phone Number needs to be at the bottom of all the pages of your site. Search engines use this and any directory listings or citations created.
77. Same info everywhere.
“Why do I need that NAP at the bottom of my site?” What a timely question. Search engines use this along with citation building you do (which would have that same information) to use as a variable when ranking your site. It has to all match.
78. Page Keywords
Choosing what keywords you want to focus on is difficult and important. Inchpinseo.com has good write up about this where they say a keyword really is defined by its traffic value, persona value, brand value, and its conversion value. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to help you with this.
79. Metadata
This is what describes the page to search engines and should include your keyword in it.
80. Images all have descriptive alt text.
That’s it. Give your images descriptive alt text.
81. Fix / Create any redirects.
If you are using a WordPress framework download a redirect plugin and make sure anytime you change a URL or delete a page there is a redirect in place.
82. Link to external and internal pages.
Your page content should have links to both other pages on your site and to other websites as support material to what you are talking about.
83. Use breadcrumbs.
If you have subpages on your site use breadcrumbs so visitors can always go back or understand where they are relative to the rest of your site.
84. Unique content.
Google knows all. If you are just ripping content from other pages they will see that as duplicate content. Write it yourself or have someone else write it.
85. Write out long content.
Search engines like to see content with depth. Take some time to explain yourself.
86. Short descriptive URLs.
Avoid URLs that are just a page number (yoursite.com/2415364) or something not relevant to the page. The URL should almost be seen as a header.
87. Use multimedia to decrease bounce rate.
Make it visually interesting so people keep scrolling and want to learn more. Your bounce rate is the percentage of people that land on your page and then don’t do anything after that.
88. Keep it consistent.
Google likes to see consistent content going out and activity happening on the site. Consistency establishes authority and credibility and search engines value that.
89. Think about external SEO work.
Onsite SEO work is just the tip of the iceberg. Creating citations and link building is where you are going to see active growth with your rankings.
90. Track your progress.
Use software like NightWatch to track how you are moving up on your keyword searches. If you have a company like ours running your SEO then you should be receiving a report monthly about growth and changes.
91. Make it unique.
There are 1.5 billion websites out there. Plus yours. So try to make the look of your site at least somewhat unique. Buy a theme. Have someone custom build it. Whatever you need to make it stand out a bit from your competition. Just don’t sacrifice functionality because of it. (More of that later)
92. The Five-Second Rule
Someone once said that a customer should be able to know it’s you and what they are supposed to do within five seconds of landing on your sit. Honestly don’t know if that’s true but it sounds good. Get that logo and name prominent.
93. Why you do what you do.
“Know your why” is trendy because it’s true. Make it known why you do what you do on your site. If you are selling vacuums we still want customers emotional about how you are saving the planet one clean house at a time.
94. Use accent colors.
Typically an accent color will come from your logo. This isn’t always the case but there should at least be one color that is used as an accent piece throughout the site.
95. Fonts make sense.
Your font should make sense to your industry and brand identity while also being easy to read. Avoid condensed fonts that are hard to read and use italics conservatively.
96. Icons make sense.
It is easy to get excited about icons but use them sparingly as just a way to feature headlines or sections.
97. Stay on brand.
Know what you want to represent and how you want to present it. Leave all that other stuff out of it.
98. Keep it clean.
Not talking about profanity. No matter what your brand is, your site should feel clean and approachable.
99. Make it match.
Try to stay consistent across all social media and places where your logo would be. Stick to the same colors, fonts, and style as much as possible.
100. Research your competition.
Don’t steal what they are doing. See what you can learn and see how you can differentiate yourself.
101. Tell yourself, “My site will not make me money.”
This sounds funny but I find myself reminding people of this all the time. Just because you start a website does not mean customers will just flood in and start calling or buying. There needs to be a strategy outside of the site itself from paid advertising, organic marketing, and SEO.
102. Create a story video.
These are incredibly helpful to get to the true essence of your company. They can feature you, your staff, past customers, and what makes you so great.
103. Have an effective AdWords campaign.
If you have a budget and ad words are right for your company, this is a great way to get immediate traffic to your site. The key is setting everything up correctly and managing it right so you aren’t wasting money. Our team would love to help if this is something you are looking at.
104. Use social media.
Social media is the modern-day PR strategy. It’s your front-facing representation for your brand. It’s creating opportunities for organic growth. It’s a necessity and when done well can be incredibly beneficial.
105. Create a follow-up sequence.
Have that email opt-in form set up? Create an email to automatically go out after they put in their information. After that, you can get as complicated as you want when it comes to building a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. (Again, I could create another entire deck on this)
106. Set up a retargeting campaign.
Retargeting campaigns are perfect for converting those people that land on your site but didn’t purchase or fill out a form. Remind them of why they visited the first time on social media with some simple retargeting campaigns.
107. Step up the imaging.
We mentioned this before but it’s worth saying again. Your brand is represented in the imaging. Make it count and have some professional photos on your site that you can also use on social media.
108. Do something different.
At the end of the day, with everything mentioned here, you need to make it yours in some way. So do it different. Iterate on what was said and do what is right for your company or organization. There really are no rules, just what works best for you.
109. Get a little help.
Maybe you have better things to do than mess with all of this. So get some help! Hit up your designer and let them know what you want done. Looking for someone new? My team and I would love to help you. We have solutions for every size of company so shoot me a message and lets set up a call. This stuff shouldn’t be a stresser but something that supports everything you are great at.
Wooooow. Ok, that was a lot. If you made it this far thank you! I hope you found at least some piece of value in this.
If you went through this entire article and feel overwhelmed, that is ok. Break it down and tackle one piece at a time.
If you went through all this and said to yourself “no way am I doing all that”, our team would love to help you because that’s exactly what we do. We work with companies on their web presence, digital marketing strategies, and content creation.
Shoot me a direct message or email me at josh@ms-mh.com and let’s set up a time to talk.
Wishing you an incredible 2020! Hope to talk to you soon.
– Josh
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