Remember the days when it seemed as if every Web site began with a home page that featured some sort of animated flash, with the “skip intro” link as a way out? With all due respect to some highly creative interactive Web designers, today's Web sites need to be highly focused, content-rich, and finely-tuned in order to achieve maximum impact, visibility, and usability. In my own experience working with our clients at Nowspeed Marketing, we have found that most companies can take their existing corporate Web site and optimize it for effective lead generation.



Below are five best-practice tips you can use to help turn your Web site in to a lean, mean, lead generation machine.

Tip #1: See your Web site through the eyes of the visitor

Visitors to your Web site want to understand immediately who you are, what you do, and, most of all, what you can do for them. They want clear, logical paths for navigating through the site to get more information. This means you must design content and offers that speak directly to different target audiences, in terms of their demographics and job functions, and that also ork well across the buying cycle (“tryers” vs. “buyers”.) Start with your home page, but don't stop there. Make your interior pages content-rich and offer-specific as well.

Tip #2: Keep it clean, clear and concise

A common mistake is to put so much information and so many links on the home page or interior pages, that they quickly become cluttered. Think of the page in terms of valuable, limited real estate. Utilize it wisely. For the home page, Include an SEO-optimized description of who you are and what you do. Provide short blocks of text and clear click-through paths for different types of visitors (customers/prospects/info seekers). Place high-performing, relevant offers where the eye can see them without much effort. Whenever you can, avoid making the user scroll down the page.

Tip #3: Balance search with simplicity

Optimizing your site for organic search is critical. Jupiter Research estimates that organic indexes generate 87% of commercial referrals from search engines. However, you need to weigh the benefits of high keyword placement with simplicity and usability from the visitor's perspective. Don't go SEO-overboard. Our advice is to SEO-optimize your copy and tags around keywords that have the following characteristics: high traffic, low competition, and are a good fit with your business. For example, the keyword phrase “B2b lead generation agency” works better for our marketing agency than “interactive agency.” Keep copy targeted around these parameters, and you will not only connect well with your audience, but your will also rank high in organic search.

Tip #4: Evaluate traffic patterns for best offer and content placement

Use a Web analytics tool to see where people are clicking through from your home page, and which interior pages are receiving the most click-throughs and/or longest retention. Then, place your best offers there. You may be surprised to find that what you think is important, such company news links on the home page, is in reality a low traffic area. If that is the case, consider replacing that link with one to a page that is more relevant. Or, if your “About Us” page is getting a lot of traffic, place more links and offers on that page to encourage them to explore other areas of your site and request information.

Tip #5. Test, update, and fine-tune

Once you've got a solid, lead-based architecture in place, monitor visitor behavior and fine-tune various elements of the site until it is performing at the highest possible level of effectiveness. Utilize Web analytics to perform offer and message testing. Remember that, like content, offers can become outdated fairly quickly. As their popularity begins to wane, refresh your site with new offers.