Relevance…

The first question that you should ask when considering your website is “why are people looking for me?” So tell them who you are, what you do or sell and where you are located or offering your service, right there on your first page; and preferably within the first paragraph.

Tell people what you sell and why you are different to others who sell the same thing.

It seems ludicrously simple, but if it is, why do so many forget it?

Some people try to get just a bit too clever with obscure wording, cute phrases or tricky navigation. It just complicates things from your potential client’s point of view, so make your site easy to read (see readability) and easy to navigate.

For the vast majority of businesses physical location is important and people will search using the terms “Adelaide Hills” or “Hahndorf”, so these should be on your home page.

Think from the customer point of view. You know you sell a model “XYZ123 thingummy”, but the customer doesn’t necessarily know that this is what they are looking for. So think in terms of the service you offer rather than the specific products.

If you start from this point of view, determining what your keywords and phrases are going to be for search engine optimisation (SEO) will be much easier.