3 Tips For Making Your Website A Destination

The same way that a hot vacation spot or an amazing restaurant brings people in from a variety of sources and places, a great website should do the same. Create something of value, entertainment and enjoyment and you’ll get a faithful following, a great reputation, referral business, buzz and profits.

Your website can be this same type of destination on the Internet. A solid website builds repeat users and conversions. The site’s goal or conversion can vary greatly from being an online purchase or simply filling out a short contact form. Website owners are always interested in what they can do to first generate more users/visitors to their website and secondly increase the conversion percentage.

So what can you do to make your website a destination?

1. Become a resource. Being the website that has the best answers, examples or links to where users can find that information is a great value. Having stronger and deeper information than your competition will strengthen your resource value.

Example: If you were a plumber, you could link to a number of do-it-yourself websites for common problems and fixes. While you may lose a few small jobs, you ultimately will earn trust, brand recognition and referral business.

2. Show them the difference. When value is visible it puts you ahead. If your website offers better photos, videos or graphics, the user will better identify with your offering. Put to use all of the forms of media today to crush your competition for visual value. Seeing is believing to a consumer.

Example: A car dealerships main product is it’s vehicles. In putting together numerous high quality photos and even a video on each vehicle a dealership can attract more Internet shoppers to their lot. Don’t let other industry websites like Autos.com or CarSoup.com have better info than your own dealership. If a consumer wants a 2005 Honda Accord and your site has more photos and a video on that car, their trust will be much higher to visit you then having to guess on the condition or features from another website.

3. Build a relationship. Generate and execute ideas to not just get a user to your website once but to continue a relationship. Having an e-letter to sign-up for can help with this, or a weekly blog post to bring them back to your site. Set goals for repeat traffic and conversions and build content or functions that encourage this.

Example: An e-commerce website would be smart to do a weekly “hot product” that they review, write a blog post on it and offer a discount on it for the next week. You could take it a step further by having sent out 3 samples to good customers and get them to review it as well. This not only engages your customers but offers new users a few other opinions than your own. Not an e-commerce website? No problem, use a monthly or quarterly e-letter with tips that relate to your service or industry.

So start thinking of your website as a Ski Resort or a Beach Front Hotel. Think about what will attract users, what will turn them into repeat visitors and what will get them raving to their friends about you. A great side benefit to strengthening your content or media is that it will benefit your SEO and link building when done the right way.

With some simple processes and additions to your website you can become a destination on the web.