Does your website have curb appeal?

​If you're like me, then you're obsessed with decorating TV shows. Bargain hunts. Fixer-uppers. Makeovers. Flippers. You name it. Although I am always thrilled to see the final results, I am just as drawn to the home buyers' faces when they arrive at a new property and size-it-up for the first time.

Now pretend you're a client, visiting your website for the first time. That website is your company's front door. Your welcome mat. Your landscape. Your style and personality.

It's the way the world usually meets you now. Not in person. Or via phone. Or in a brochure or catalog. But online. And they can choose to enter, or keep on driving by, just by the looks and the lure of your website front page.

I was meeting with a new potential client last month about his website and other marketing projects. He thought his website might need some "sprucing up." I asked when was the last time he updated it. He hadn't. (Heavy sigh. Yes, I recommended that be a priority.)

My point today is that this new generation of buyers are making buying decisions online by what they see on your website. Is it current? Give them all the information they need to get to the next level? Easy to use? Logical? Complete? Have lots of photos? Short captions or copy (instead of long, droning paragraphs no one reads?) Links to other helpful sources? Links that WORK?

Business owner friends... go to your website. Examine your front page. Is everything right there on the single screen? (If prospects have to scroll down, they most likely WON'T. That front page real estate is GOLD.)

Then click inside. Surf your site as if you were a new prospect. Or better yet, get someone else who doesn't know you to shop your site. Can they find what they need? Was it easy? Fun? Informative? Tell your full story? Was it targeted to the right prospects? Was there a call to action to bring in a lead or a purchase?

Your website is your business' calling card in this new digital shopping world. Mobile curb appeal of your business is essential. (And probably a lot cheaper than a home makeover, for sure!)

Happy makeover!
Scarlet