How do I get my website to perform better?

Are you not getting the leads you think you deserve? Are you an expert in your field, want to know if your website is too? This blog will help you.

Before we start, I want to explain that most people I meet are an expert in one area or another, but the vast majority don’t think they are. Being seen as an expert can be daunting for many, but the reality is if you have been doing what you are doing now for 5+ years you will have learnt things many, many other people don’t know as well as you!

Secondly, there’s a quick trick to find out how well your website reflects your authority - by checking your Domain Authority. Semrush has a tool that allows you to get a score out of 100 for how well regarded your website is as an expert, with the Domain Authority score, which you can check for free here.

If you score is less than 50/100, here’s some practical tips to help you improve before you engage a technical expert to help with your backlinks, page redirects and meta data (more on that later).

What's the best way to solve this?

1. Start with an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

   • The easiest way is to look at historically who you have dealt with that you would like to deal with again, and build a complete profile of them to find others similar

   • For the best results, interview prior clients to understand some key information - below are my top 10 case study questions here to help get you started

   • From these, create the top 3-5 profiles with as much persona detail as possible (e.g., background, personality type etc.) - this will be used to find others like them

2. Identify their top 3 pain points (what questions keep them up at night)

   • Case studies will help provide this - you really want to know what questions they are asking, that you are best placed to answer

3. Create content that answers their questions about their pain points. I'd suggest doing these at the below levels, starting from the highest/overview level, to the deeper/complex level:

   • Blog - overview to share the insight on the question and high-level answer, with a call-to-action to download a whitepaper to find out more (exchange their email for more comprehensive, well-thought-out piece on the same/similar topic)

   • Whitepaper - to answer the question in greater detail with a more thorough, thought-out answer, ideally with steps that can be taken to address, with a call-to-action to listen to a relevant podcast/download first chapter of the book/sign up to a relevant training course

   • Podcast - detailed discussion to dig into the question with an expert, to validate your thinking and theirs and build a more complex answer. Opportunity to cross-promote relevant whitepapers, books or courses

   • Book - well thought-out, researched and detailed read about the issue, context and related questions with clear steps on what can be done to address, with a call-to-action to join the community to turn words into action

   • Course - step by step guide on what the issue is and what can be done to address in bite-sized chunks

4. Manage the value exchange & feedback loops

   • Offer people more value than you ask in return, so when you do ask, reciprocity makes it a no-brainer

   • Be confident in your expertise and share it to educate as many as possible with the aim to help them - this ensures you become a 'trusted advisor' on the topic - which ultimately increases your domain authority

   • Once you have a suitable mass of digestible content, create a community that people are willing to pay to be part of

   • Constantly add value to that community so people never question the exchange, do this by always getting feedback on what they like, and what they want more of (feedback loop)

   • This builds a scalable, sustainable recurring revenue business that cannot easily be imitated, and ensures maximum return on effort for the work to create good content

   • Add value on-top of the community through courses and books, offering the community early insights and discounts for being a part of the community - also presents an opportunity to gather feedback before wider release

That's a lot to take in right!
So, here's what I'd suggest you focus on now to get started:

• Actions for next month:

  • Identify top 3 Ideal Customer Profiles & create a hypothesis of their top 3 pain points as questions

  • Summarise regularly asked questions and answers from your clients/prospects (use courses/podcasts/interviews if you already have them) and turn it into blog content

  • Publish the content in some way (ideally on your website), promote it to your audience so you ‘learn fast’ and find out if it resonates or adds value.

• Actions for next 3 months

  • Create a whitepaper on the above to bundle similar questions into a 3–5-page document

  • Allocate time to create content each week based on your Ideal Customer Profile and top 3 pain points

  • Summarise those insights onto your website homepage to increase your domain authority

How hard can it be?! In all seriousness, just break it down into bite-sized pieces and dedicate a little bit of time each day or week and you’ll be amazed and what you can start generating.

Want some additional help to get kick-started? No problems, we have done this more than we care to think about! Reach out to have a quick chat about you and your business today.