If I was to ask you: “What’s the primary goal of your website?” Would you say words to the effect of “To help people find my business?”

If you answered YES, you’re not alone in thinking that. It’s a commonly-held belief that our websites exist so when people do a Google search on our particular product or service, our business comes up in their results. But what if I told you this was only a part of the role of your website…

The primary goal of your website is not to help people find you. (That’s what marketing is for.) The goal of your website is to convert your ideal customers once they’ve discovered you. 

To put that in other words, your website is a part of the sales funnel that you draw your potential customers into. In order for your website to do its job of converting visitors into inquiring clients or purchasing customers, your MARKETING needs to direct an audience to the top of your funnel (your website) in the first place. 

A great website without an effective marketing strategy is nothing more than a (cyberland) billboard. You’ve just put it up in the hope that people will drive on past, which is something you have zero control over. UNLESS, that is, you become the traffic controller and have the power to divert people the route you’d like them to take. 

Well, great news! You can be the traffic controller! 

• SEO (search engine optimisation) gives you traffic controlling powers. The catch is that effective SEO is always changing and it isn’t something that’s easily DIY’d. Many businesses have an SEO expert as part of their team that makes monthly recommendations for ongoing improvements. It’s definitely not a “set and forget” option as some people might tell you.

• The option you can do yourself is your MARKETING! You know where your ideal clients hang out whether that’s in online groups, forums and social media platforms, or in physical locations like particular stores, programs or networking groups, for example. Knowing this gives you the power to show up in those locations and divert that traffic directly to your website. 

Now that your ideal client has discovered your business and “driven” to your site, your website can do its real job of converting those visitors, whether that’s onto your email list to be nurtured, or into a relationship with you as a potential client. 

You can hire the best website designer you can afford, but they’re only going to be able to do their job well if you’ve done (and continue to do) yours. 

Embrace your traffic controlling duties, friends, and don’t put all the pressure on your website to do a job it wasn’t born for! 😉