Website Persuasion Checklist
This guide takes you through the steps required to establish a highly persuasive website. This guide explains exactly how to establish a website that will persuade its visitors to take action.
Print out the checklist, check off each task as you go. keep it handy.
If you would like further help with improving your website persuasion, we offer a number of products and services that are designed to assist you in this area. All the different options can be reviewed by browsing our online store for Zeald clients. You can review the options available by going here – http://store.zeald.com.
| Step | Check | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Check and compare your products and services. Check that there is a genuine market for the product or services that you are offering. Check that you are selling products or services that customers actually want. If you are promoting something online that no one is remotely interested in then it doesn’t matter how good or bad your product or service is or even how persuasive your website is you are in for a lot of heartache and a lot of wasted time and money. Check that there is a market for your products and services. Compare the pricing and features of your products and service to your competitors and make sure that what you are promoting is inherently attractive to your market. | |
| 1.1 | Market exists for products and services. | |
| 1.2 | Product & service is inherently attractive to target market | |
| 2 | Establish your trust & credibility with your visitors. Check that you are successfully establishing your trust and credibility with your visitors on your website. If your visitors don’t trust you and believe what you are telling them, you will never persuade them to take action – no matter how amazing your products or services are. Make sure you have included in your website a number of the trust building elements that are listed below. Remember you can never 'over-establish’ your trust and credibility. To learn more about establishing your trust and credibility online, click here. To learn more about pre-sales content, click here. | |
| 2.1 | Guarantee | |
| 2.2 | Testimonials | |
| 2.3 | References | |
| 2.4 | Partners & Affiliates | |
| 2.5 | Certifications | |
| 2.6 | Awards | |
| 2.7 | Case Studies | |
| 2.8 | Company Profile / History | |
| 2.9 | Staff Biographies | |
| 2.10 | Contact Details | |
| 2.11 | Privacy Policy | |
| 2.12 | Terms of Trade / Returns Policy | |
| 2.13 | Client List | |
| 2.14 | Helpful Articles | |
| 2.15 | Other Pre-Sales Content | |
| 3. | Spark the visitors interest. Check that you are successfully sparking your visitor’s interest on your website. On a website you spark interest using a 'headline'. Most websites just use the following headline 'Welcome to our website!' This is a very poor headline because it doesn't spark interest! You homepage needs to have a fantastic headline that sparks interest and grabs the visitors attention. Further to that, every key page on your website needs to have a great headline that continues to spark the reader’s interest. Make sure you try to different headlines to see which ones work best. To find out more about our copywriting services and how we can assist you to create great headlines, click here. | |
| 3.1 | Homepage has great headline. | |
| 3.2 | Other key pages within the website all have strong headlines. | |
| 4. | Persuade visitors to take action. Check that you are successfully persuading your visitor to take action. Visitors are persuaded to take action by good website content and lots of it! Most websites don't have enough website content - they don't provide their visitors with enough details. And most websites have poor sales copy. To find out more about our content creation services and how we can assist you to create great website content, click here. | |
| 4.1 | Good well written sales copy. | |
| 4.2 | Lots of information provided for all key products and services. | |
| 5. | Have a clear call to action. Check that you are clearly telling your visitors what you want them to do. Make sure you are saying things like, ‘Click here to buy now’, ‘Do this to sign up now’ or ‘Click the 'Add to Cart' button to add this product to your shopping cart’. Make sure you close the sale. Many websites don't have a clear 'Call to Action'. Make sure your website has very clear 'Calls to Action'. The clearer the better! To find out more about our copywriting services and how we can assist you to create great calls to action, click here. | |
| 5.1 | Clear ‘Calls to Action’ | |
| 5.2 | Visitor knows what I want them to do. | |
| 6. | Test, measure and tune (TMT) all key areas. Finally, make sure you are testing everything as you go. A website is comparable to just about any business. If you set up a new organisation it is impossible (even for the most experienced professional) to establish any organisation that runs perfectly from day one. Good organisations become great only through consistent ongoing improvements. A website is no different. It is impossible to get a website perfect from day one (no matter how good you are). A fantastic website only becomes so through careful TMT! Test the different items that you are using to establish your trust and credibility. Test your headlines. Test your website content and test your calls to action (even test your prices if you are selling online). To find out more about our test, measure and tune (TMT) consulting services and how we can assist you to substantially improve the performance of your website, click here. | |
| 6.1 | Trust building elements TMT’d | |
| 6.2 | Headlines TMT’d | |
| 6.3 | Key website content TMT’d | |
| 6.4 | Calls to action TMT’d |