“What do your website visitors want to accomplish?” is a question I ask almost every business owner as part of some initial information gathering during our meetings.
- “They want to learn more about my products.”
- “They want to see what I have to offer.”
- “They want to learn about my company.”
Wrong, wrong and wrong.
The goal of your website visitor is not to help you out, but to help themselves out. Learning more about your products or services is only a byproduct of their need to accomplish a goal, overcome an obstacle or fulfill a need.
Seeing what you have to offer comes only after they've been directed to your site by a search engine that's already visited your site and (hopefully) returned relevant results. And nobody but people looking for a job or a new customer care anything about your business.
As you ask yourself the question, “what do visitors to my website want to accomplish?” put down the mirror and pick up a pair of their shoes. This isn't about you…your website isn't about you. It's about getting into the head of your website visitor and understanding their problems.
By doing that, you can better understand what their goals are at your website, and build your site around that. Create paths that help your visitors get to where they need to go as efficiently as possible. Those paths become your most effective sales funnels.
If you don't truly understand the goals of your website visitors you can't provide the answer they seek, and they'll look elsewhere.