Website Optimisation Guide: Meeting One – Boring Technical Stuff.
As a dynamic ‘don’t trouble me with detail’, business leader, this will bore you, but it’s got to be right.
One of the main reasons your website may not be featured as heavily on page one of Google as it should be is it is simply very slow to load, has some bad design flaws that Google doesn’t like, or has some other technical problem.
You’re not going to fix this, but you are going to make sure it gets fixed.
Leader’s preparation for the meeting
Visit Google’s Page Speed Insights and test your site. My experience tells me that if you have a fail, you will likely fail on the site’s load speed. Website load speed is critical though so that’s the first thing to fix.
You are going to task your team to do anything they can to make the website load faster.
Who’s in the meeting?
You don’t want to get sucked into some terrible technical website stuff, BUT you do want everyone to know that it is important.
Get your IT person involved and get marketing involved. If you use an agency or they built the site – then they certainly need to be there. Does your website agency understand Google?
The brief
We need the site to pass Google Page Speed Insights. We don’t need green on every indicator – certainly, getting that on mobile for website speed is tough. But let’s get nice, solid passes across the board.
Desired Outcome
Site passes Google’s test. Simples.
Useful Reading
If you are considering building a new website then here is a guide to preparation for that task
Hubspot have numerous useful resources on website optimisation such as this guide.
Website Optimisation Guide: Meeting 2: Is our website content tedious and self-obsessed?
Answer: Probably.
I’m sorry to say this, but nine out of 10 businesses…no, make that nine point five out of 10 businesses, especially in engineering, manufacturing and professional services, tend to create websites which are dull.
Don’t believe me?
Do this quick test:
- Go to your company website homepage and count up the number of times you use the company name or the word ‘we’.
- Now count the number of times you have the word ‘you’.
- The word you should outnumber the references to your own business by around about five to one. If it doesn’t, you’re going on about yourself too much, and you need to stop doing it.
Leader’s preparation for the meeting
Be clear that your website has these types of pages, each with a distinct set of rules and purpose. A book called ‘Building a StoryBrand’ is a great guide at this point. For your service pages we have this guide.
- Homepage
- Service pages or product pages
- Contact page
- About page, team page, mission etc.
- Guides, FAQS etc.
- A learning centre or content hub.
- Pricing (just kidding – only the very best sites have these!
Be clear that in 2024 video rules. Each key page should have a video.
Who’s in the meeting?
This is a marketing job, but I’d advise you to bring in sales too. Salespeople meet your prospective clients every day. They hear the worries and concerns and are likely pretty clear that the website could do more. If you’re picking a new web design agency at this point, here are 5 web design agency red flags
The Brief
Review the website with an objective, dispassionate eye.
Desired Outcome
Make a decision to improve the content.
Life Hack (how to skip this meeting)
Phone up a good content agency that understands StoryBrand, and They Ask You to Answer and ask for a content review. They’ll a) be objective and b) have experience.
We offer this service for FREE – you’ll get a video in your inbox in 24 hours. Just ask.
