By Kurt Krejny, Fathom SEO's Sr. Account Executive

It's time to start thinking of your overall website experience as a five-course meal: an exquisitely presented and mouth-watering experience from start to finish. From the moment a customer walks through the door of the restaurant – or lands on your website – until the time they leave, each component needs to deliver an experience that entices the senses and leaves a lasting impression that will ultimately result in a return visit or referral.

And just as fine-dining restaurants offer a limited selection of meal choices so as to not overwhelm the customer, so too should your website. While some customers know exactly what they want, others need to be guided along the way in order to make the right decision for them.

The ultimate goal of a restaurant – and your website experience – should be to leave customers satisfied. Give visitors what they want by paying attention to their needs.

The Soup
Start the meal off right and whet your visitors' whistle with your search engine result displays. The formatting of your Page Titles and Meta Descriptions should include relevant keywords, business attributes and a call-to-action while reinforcing your brand. Test various versions with special characters or a phone number. Place highly searched keywords at the beginning of your Page Title and Meta Description to increase click-thru rates. Remember to keep Page Titles under 70 characters and Meta Descriptions under 160 characters.

The Appetizer
The appetizer is a meal item that is typically meant to be shared. In addition to your listings in the major search engines, share and submit you website with industry directories, local search websites, video-sharing websites and relevant social media channels. Expanding your online footprint ensures that your business can be found in more ways than one. People do perform searches outside of search engines.

The Salad
Think of all the salad toppings as sections of your website. Croutons, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cheese, etc. - they are all different but should be combined together with your choice of dressing to taste well and prepare for the main course. All of your website sections should be cohesive and work together to drive people to take action. Are you selling products, obtaining leads or creating awareness? No matter what your online objective is, you need to reinforce it throughout your entire website.

The Main Course
Visitors that convert are the meat and potatoes of online success. If you fall short on the delivery of the main course, your customers are not likely to visit you again. Your website's objective needs to be supported with solid mechanisms to continually obtain revenue driving leads. Capture your visitors by giving them the easiest possible options to take action or contact you for more information. Is your contact form and phone number easy to find? Will an engaging video or live chat feature help your visitors make a decision? Do you have strong calls to action to get visitors to take action?

The Dessert
If the main course meets the customers' expectations, they are more than likely looking forward to dessert. Provide excellent service and give them the information they want to satisfy their sweet tooth and end the meal on a positive note. Post-click marketing to website visitors who have taken action confirms a product purchase, contact form or a guide download. Your ‘Thank You' or ‘Confirmation' pages are an excellent opportunity for the visitor to take further action, provide feedback, subscribe to your blog or return to the website. Consider using an automated email follow-up system to stay in touch with your visitors. It is a cost-effective way to stay top of mind in their email inbox and get them to click back to your website.

Strive to deliver an outstanding website experience for your visitors that can lead to repeat business or referrals. Turn your website into a finely tuned online marketing machine with multilateral online marketing services from Fathom SEO

 Subscribe to the Fathom SEO NewsWire RSS feed