Imagine having a business that ran itself when you weren’t around, attracting new customers 24/7, even while you slept.

Creating a website that attracts and converts allows your brand to be within easy reach of new and existing customers anytime, anywhere. The problem is you need a site that works for you, not against you.

Your business needs a site that naturally attracts new visitors and keeps them on your site. More importantly, the ideal website converts visitors into customers and consistently growing your business and brand reputation.

Attracting More Visitors

Before converting visitors, your site has to attract them. Attraction is half website optimization and half content. For instance, if you write highly useful content, but your site doesn’t meet search engine standards, searchers might not see your site near the top of their search results. You need both to attract more visitors.

For best results, ensure your site follows Google’s latest guidelines for content, coding, linking, and design. Google offers basic tips and more a more in-depth guide for mastering website optimization to rank higher. Even if you’re not designing your own site, it’s a good idea to review these guides to see how your brand’s site stacks up and determine if a re-design might be necessary.

Mastering The Content

The second part of the attraction equation is content. This includes content on your site and the content you share on social media. Consider three things before creating any content:

What your target user wants to read/view
How to insert marketing into useful content
What types of content will you publish

Start by studying your target audience. Research competing sites to see how their content performs. Your content helps increase brand awareness organically. The more targeted the content, the better it performs and converts.

Though it might seem tricky at first, your brand should focus on creating useful content with hints of marketing. For instance, if your brand sells hats, write a blog post on the dangers of UV rays and link to a few hats with wider brims for better coverage. This type of content is more shareable and leads visitors to products more naturally.

Finally, mix up your content. For instance, your homepage might have more visuals while your blog has more text. Currently, the most popular forms of content are:

Blog posts
Case studies
Infographics
Videos
Press releases
Memes (ideal for connecting your brand with current trends)

The more varied the content, the wider audience you appeal to. Share your content automatically to social networks and let your followers and fans lead more traffic to your site.

Design For Visitors

It’s easy to get caught up in creating a site based on what you want. Your website isn’t for you; it’s for your visitors. This means taking into account what they want. Are they more used to traditional menus or do they prefer slide out menus? Something as simple as that could mean the difference between a visitor becoming a customer or not.

Your site should naturally guide visitors from one page to another. You want your brand to have a reputation for being customer-friendly and your site could be their first impression. Making it easy to use and still representative of your brand turns that crucial first impression into a good one.

If you don’t think that matters, consider that 11% of adults in the US left their online shopping cart because sites ask for too much information or require them register. In 2014 alone, 74% of US shoppers abandoned their carts.

Use Clear Calls-To-Action

Once you’ve attracted visitors, tell them what to do. Sometimes your CTA can be just as important as the site’s design. From choosing the right button style to placement of text, focus on crafting the perfect CTAs for your brand. Make it obvious, yet unobtrusive for best results.

Utilize Analytics

Analytics, such as Google Analytics, give you valuable insight into how various aspects of your site and marketing efforts are performing. You don’t have to just guess what is and isn’t working. Though it’s a common mistake, analytics help guide you on improving your site to better attract and convert. It’s data your brand should never be without.

Start Attracting And Converting

You could just hope your site is doing its job or you could be proactive. Optimize your site and content. Turn your site into a tool that works for your brand all the time. Why accept anything less?