hey friends welcome back to the channel in this video I'm going to cover one of the most important things I consider when I'm building a website for a client so if you're a designer this is going to help you a ton to really clarify the purpose of a website and if you're just working on your own personal website and you want to get some value from this video this is the one thing I recommend to every single client who comes to me for a site audit or an SEO project if this is not happening I definitely recommend that they make this happen as soon as possible for their website [Music] so here's the problem what ends up happening when someone's building a website for the first time or you're building a website off of client content that they sent over and they're doing this for maybe the first or second time it's very important that you clarify where the site is going way back in the day let's call it 2002 when you were building a website it was just very informational today websites are directional and this is an underlining principle that is on every single website that you see that you absolutely love that you buy from yet isn't really talked about often with such Clarity okay you want every part of your site to point in One Singular direction from there when everything points to One Singular Direction you could have transitional call to actions that lead to that main focus Point what we'll call the Main call to action but there shouldn't be any other directions this gets hard when you talk about like a school website a non-profit website even a Church website it gets a little confusing sometimes because the purpose of going to the site could be a few different things if you have an e-commerce store it's shop now if you have a Blog it's sign up for the newsletter or if you have like a specific product you sell it's like buy the product if you have a sales page it's book The consultation those are your main call to actions and the entire website should point in that direction often for people building new sites or content that is new for them they're building a site that goes to multiple directions so one call to action is book a consultation another one is contact us which they lead to two different spots and then there's another one that's like learn more about the specific service and then when you go to that service the service says learn more about separate service and that service points you to another service but it never points you to take that Final Call to action you always want a period at the end of a sentence anytime you start writing a sentence when you create a page you want there to be a period at the end of the sentence the best way to do this when you're creating sections on a page this is very practical the very last section may be a huge Banner image behind it or just maybe like a darker section that says contact us today with a button to contact or whatever that call to action is and then just repeat that through the site yes you could repeat it through the site just because it shows up on one page doesn't mean the visitor has seen that page you repeat the call to action throughout and if you really want to dial this in you have the main call to action in the top navigation which I'm going to show you an example right now of what this looks like and you have it throughout your site so we're going to take a look at the one and only Squarespace website their own personal website and show you how they do it so what does Squarespace want you to do well they want you to get started so you'll see up here in the top corner it says get started it and that's with you everywhere you go from there the call to action right here says get started a big note that again if you're brand new to designing websites or you're you're just building your site and you've never really done this before big tip is that you'll see a get started right here and in the top Corner some people are like oh it's in the top Corner people know it's actually really important to point people in the direction and then you give them free control to do whatever they want so they can be like no I'm not ready yet I want to scroll and learn more again what ends up happening another button here that says get started this section create a website super cool all these different stores now this is what you would call a transitional call to action explore all templates and then again browse website templates e-commerce Made Easy start selling again it's a little bit different verbiage but that leads you to the same spot getting started takes you and that's okay it's okay to be able to like adjust that a little bit but they're also pointing in the same exact Direction then here again transitional call to action for e-commerce specifically explore Commerce alright explore scheduling browse membership sites now Market your business create email campaigns now this is kind of like different parts of the company so they're just highlighting that try unfold modern solutions explore the blog great here are some websites that are on the platform that you could take a look at and then learn how to get started they give you these five steps of getting started or if you want to sell online how to get started or if you want to start a blog how to get started again all pointing to getting started and then final call to action this is the period at the end of the sentence start a free trial today get started now let's take a look at a few of their other pages so if I go to products and I go to let's say four blogs let's see how this one's structured again get started it is right here then they show you transitional call to action browse templates here's some more content but get started again transitional call to action learn more what do they have here more content testimonial great how to get started and then down here final section start a free trial same exact call to action for getting started it'll lead you to the same spot this is so important and valuable when you build a website for a client you want to Define that goal before you get started on even building the site because if you're building a site and there's five goals it gets really confusing really fast on where everything is leading every page you create every section you create should lead somewhere specific everything is directional every word you write in some way and some form is directional pointing you in a specific Direction honestly I wish I knew this tip sooner and I would have thrived so much faster in my career as a designer if I was able to really dial this in sooner now if you're working with like a school or a church or they're just organizations that do have three to four different call to actions for example a church could be watch online or donate or it could be if it's your first time signing up and like filling out a form when they have multi multiple things if it's a school it's like a elementary school middle school or a high school all in one well their sites are going to be a little bit different and you're going to want to make sure that the site overall has a clear direction for all the content and then the specific Pages have their own main call to action again I don't recommend that and most sites shouldn't have that if you have too many directions you don't have a singular Focus for the website you want to Define that as much as possible from the start so that it's a very clear step for me when I visit the site The Clarity on your site is what will keep me on the site the confusion on the site is what will take me off of the site be clear show me where you want me to go I'm going to see if you provide the value that I'm looking for by the content that you provide that supports that call to action and that is how you build not just a beautiful website but a website that engages people now if this is your first time watching any of my content for first of all nice to meet you I'm David with that like the video subscribe if you want more content like this and most of all we have a community that will help you thrive do not do this thing alone you could learn and you could watch all these videos alone but what I've learned the most is in community so we have a community that's made just for you if you are a Squarespace designer or if you're a small agency and you're just trying to step up your game we have programs for you to really thrive in the next 3 6 and 12 months also I think we have the best community on the planet for Squarespace designers the most encouraging and positive place to be we don't sit there and just complain all day I don't I don't I don't tolerate that at all it's the most positive place to be so if you want to be a part of it join in down below and I'll see you guys in the next video peace [Music] oh [Music] [Music]
