How to Take Your Site From Good to Great

By Kevin Nunley

In the past decade I've seen more websites than I can count. Plenty of them were terrible, and a small percentage of them were excellent. But for the most part, what I've seen are a lot of mediocre sites that are just, well...good.

But if people knew how simple it was to take a site that is just mediocre and make it great, the Internet would be overflowing with phenomenal sites.

So, what makes a website great? Is it the content? The navigation? The graphics? Well, those elements factor in. But what really makes a site great is its ability to cater to the needs of both the visitor and the owner. Those needs include content, graphics, navigation, and whole lot more.

I heard from an online business owner recently who was having much less success with his site than he'd expected. "My site is everything I wanted it to be, but it's just not pulling in any visitors," he explained. I took a look at his site from the perspective of a visitor and saw the problem immediately. What he said was true: his site did have everything he wanted it to have. The problem was, it didn't have everything visitors would want it to.

To create a truly great site, you have to know what your visitors want. Most site owners rely on a few paragraphs describing their target demographic, and then assume they know what their audience wants. That is exactly why there are so many mediocre sites on the Internet today.

You can't assume your visitors want this or that; you have to find out first hand what they want. In order to do this, you have to transform that bunch of web pages and graphics into an interactive experience, so you and your visitors can communicate openly with each other.

The point of a website is not simply to put up pages and graphics in an attempt to sell products or get people to subscribe to your newsletter. You need to communicate ideas and concepts to your visitors, but you also need to listen.

I recommend adding an email form and guest book, or even a forum, to give visitors an opportunity to tell you what's on their mind; what they want from you. Because when you know what they want, you can give it to them.

Encourage questions and comments from visitors so you can get involved in online communication. When you have an open communication with your visitors, you take that essential step toward knowing who they are, which enables you to provide them with what they want and need.

Once you've wooed your visitors with open communication and shown a genuine desire to help them in any way you can, a "tell-a- friend" feature will come in handy. Word of mouth is one of the most important elements of successful marketing. But on the Internet, we don't have mouths. We only have words. With a "tell- a-friend" feature, you capture the essence of word-of-mouth by enabling visitors to pass on their positive opinion of your site. If people have a good experience with your site, or see that it would benefit others they know, they will share that experience with others.

If you want to take communication a step further, include a message board. People will come to your site to post messages for each other, answer questions, and discus subjects related to what you're doing. And while they're there, if they just so happen to purchase your products, subscribe to your ezine, or donate money to support your cause, all the better!

If you want to find out even more about how visitors view your site, use polls and surveys. If someone feels strongly about your site, they will take the time to fill out the survey. But if you want to motivate them even more, try offering a free report or a free subscription to your newsletter, anything to make them consider filling out the poll.

There is no one thing that will make your site one of the best: not the best graphics, or the most informative content, or the most in-demand products. There are plenty of sites out there that have some or all of these elements, but they still aren't making it to the level of excellence they could.

If you really want to take your site from good to great, you have to know what your visitors want. In order to do this, you must communicate openly with them. Give your visitors many different options for communication so they will be more likely to visit and communicate with you. In no time you'll see your site go from good to great, and your sales will come along for the ride.

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