- A clear goal: If you’re not clear on your top goal(s), you’re sure to confuse your audience. Visitors to your site should be able to tell what your site is about in 3 seconds or less.
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- A clear call to action: What is the thing you most want visitors to your site to do? Buy something? Sign up for your newsletter? Call you? Make sure you include a clear “call to action,” inviting visitors to do just that.
- An Appropriate Design: How your site looks may be subjective, but the message it conveys comes through loud and clear. Make sure your site design reflects the quality and style for your work and will be appealing to your target audience.
- Your contact info: Improve your trustworthiness (and your success) by making your contact info easy to find from any page on your website.
- Images: Web surfers prefer web pages and blog posts that include images — and so does Google.
- Video: Studies show adding video to your website is one of the best ways to tell your story.
- Testimonials or Social Proof: Don’t just tell me how great you are, show me that other people think you’re great, too.
- Deadlines: Nothing ever gets done without a deadline. Set yourself some deadlines and stick to them, or you’ll never get anything done on your own website.
- Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions: It may seem like just a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, but these two documents should be linked from the bottom of every page on your website. You’ll protect yourself, and you’ll reassure your visitors, as well as Google, that your legit, especially if you’re selling things on your site or collecting any kind of information (newsletter signups, comments, etc) from site visitors.
- Someone who cares: Seriously, if you’re not that into it, how can you expect anyone else too?
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Thank you for this very helpful checklist. The goal of my website at this point is to share my growth in photography and get an early start on building SEO. I haven’t figured out what my call to action might be. Try to get comments on my photos? Any suggestions?