I’m currently working with a new client re-developing his website. We’ve identified a number of things we need to do in order for him to generate sales leads. Every time I do this it’s a learning experience for me.

I was quizzing my client on his product and what made it different and stand out. I got bombarded by all its features. This guy really knew his product inside and out. He had an intimate knowledge of how it worked and performed. I was truly amazed by his wealth of knowledge.

But I wanted more than just features, I wanted to know, and I wanted him to understand that we needed to translate each of these features into real tangible benefits for his market. This was where the hard work began. But in the end we got there. We both gained a lot from this exercise

As I was reflecting on this experience I had a “eureka” moment. I finally understood something that has been on my mind for years. We are the majority of us such awful salespeople. It’s not as though we don’t know our products. Obviously, from the experience I have just related, this guy did, and no doubt it’s something we can all relate to.

The reason why we find it hard to sell is because, despite having a great product knowledge, we often have a very poor kmarket knowledge. That is, we don’t know the needs, wants and desires of our market, and as a consequence we don’t know how our products or services can actually benefit that market.

I’m constantly amused by the number of  web design and developer sites I go to, where wearing their expert status hat, they pontificate to us mere mortals that you need to have original content on your website. And that’s as far as their advice goes. Period!

Apart from copying content from one website to yours, I’m really at a loss as to what these guys mean by “original content”, they don’t explain what they mean. If you compare their websites directly you’ll quickly conclude (and at the same time become bored out of your tree) that there is nothing terribly original in any of their content. It’s the same-old telling us how marvelous they are.

So, what is original content?

To find out what “original content” was, I had a look at Google’s advice to webmasters and site owners. It’s pretty clear that what they mean is “authentic content”. That is, it’s your content and not copied and pasted from some other site.

I think website content must be defined who you are writing for and their needs. It may be that you’re not offering anything different to your other online competitors.  But, because you are marketing to a distinct audience, the difference will be reflected in the content, and hence it should be authentic and unique.

You need to keep your content “fresh”

We often hear web designers and developers say that you’ve got to keep your content fresh. If you don’t, not only will Google punish you, but so will everyone else by not visiting your site. I think we need to examine that notion in a but more detail.

For me, this notion of “fresh” is a load of rubbish. If your site is to generate leads or make sales, the only time you want to change your content is to improve its rate of conversion. If the content on your site is pulling in the punters, why would you want to change  it? All that you’re is the ability for that particular page to generate traffic and convert lookers into buyers.

To change what working is just sheer lunacy.

Not being one to eat my words, I do think there is a place for fresh or new content on a website. So, it probably is a good idea to designate pages or sections of your website where you are constantly updating content with new articles or news releases. But, it’s important to make the distinction between these pages and the pages that are designed to pull the punters.

There are any number of websites that haven’t changed their content for years. To my knowledge thay have not been penalised by the search engines and appear high in rankings. This can only happen because they are wll optimised and pull in the punters for their owners.

I do think it’s important to challenge the notion that visitiors won’t return to your site if there is nothing new there. May be, may be not. Let’s look at visitor behaviour (or rather our behaviour) on websites.

Why I visit a website is because I want something. In many cases I’ll hardly revisit that website again, or only because it has got something that I want. The fact that it has or hasn’t got new content is probably not going to matter that much, as long as my first experience was good. As a general rule, I’m not going to be going back to the site in the hope of finding “fresh” content. I don’t know about you, I’ve got better things to do with my life.

Now there are exceptions. What I have been talking about has been about websites whose sole focus is to generate leads or make sales. Other sites, like informational sites, there is definately the need for the continual and regular update of material.

In a previous blog I talked about promise and fulfillment and I thought because it was so important to the user experience we should talk about it in a bit more detail.

When a person is searching it is usually for a reason, they want something to  make their better, easier, more prosperous easier or to take away some pain they have got. Usually most surfers will start by using a search engine (probably Google!).

The promise

The search results are options for the surfer and every result is one that he could click on. What appears in these search results are assolutely pivotal to the success of any website. Most website owners would be absolutely flawed to know that what appears here is the first and only chance that they have to get these surfers to open their site. But, what’s more every website owner has the ability to manage and control what appears in this introduction.

The search results are comprised of two elements:

• The Title tag
• The Description tag

In the search engine results the title tag will appear at the top and will be the hyperlink that will take the surfer to your site. The description tag will be the two lines that appear beneath. These threee lines are going to be the first contact a surfer (and someone who is actually looking for what you sell).

If you are going to use these two tags well, you’ve actually got to think carefully about how you use them. They actually have to be a total and tantalising summary of what a person will see if they click on your link.

I believe these two tags actually have to be a promise and create an expectation. If a surfer click on this link they will be under no illusion about what they will see when your site opens.

Fulfillment

Fulfillment should be realised when a vistitor, who has clicked on your search engine link arrives at your website. Their expectation should be immediately met.

Unfortunately most people who click on a search engine link do so out of desperation and are only hoping that their expectation can be met, because in most cases they are not. In many cases there is a total mismatch between what appears in a search engine listing and the content of the page. The the cases where there is a match,  the adrenilen of the visitor is not pumping, simply because both the title and description tags have been poorly written.

You don’t have to be good to be the best

For many website owners this will be put straight in the too-hard basket because they think it is too hard to do. Let me tell you straight, you are either lazy or just don’t understand that just about any change you do that sharpens up your title and description tags (as long as you remember to keep your keywords in tact) will lift the click through rate of your pages. By creating interesting descriptions that grab the attention of your market, you will obtain a higher click-thru rate than your competitors.