Sustainable website design—attract your ideal customer like a neon light

You need a solution for your problem and are not sure where to find it.

You pick up your phone to—yup, let your “fingers do the walking” and google it. You type the “magic words” into the search box and get—2.4 million hits!

Now what?

That could easily be your ideal customer searching for you. And you want your website to welcome her in—just like a neon light.

Your prospective customer starts by clicking on ONE of those 2.4 million links.

Likely as not, she tumbles down a rabbit hole confused about where to go. Maybe she’ll find Alice in Wonderland at the bottom to guide her to you. If not, she will click around in the darkness searching for the switch that turns on the neon light.

The light that says—solution here…

How to stand out in the darkness like a neon light

A neon sign pierces the darkness. This is what you want to do with your website design and content. Sustainable design is an alignment between your passion, what your business or non-profit offers, your website design, and what your customer needs.

Alignment creates sustainability—

• It is a clear, focused passion that sustains your work on a day to day basis.
• It brings joy.
• It keeps you going when face-to-face with a challenging customer.
• It nourishes you so you have the energy to get up each morning and do it again.

These inner states shine through. Ideally, they shape your website design and content. They are the neon light that acts like a magnet to attract your ideal customer.

The alignment occurs through honing your message. When you are clear, your website reflects that clarity and makes it easy for your customer to find the solution to their problem.

And, importantly, it also makes it easy for Google to offer your website as the right answer to your ideal customer’s search.

Design a sustainable website to share your message

Message, in the broadest sense of the word, incorporates these foundational elements:

1. Layout design—presentation elements which make it easy to read and understand your site.
   • like the colors you use
   • amount of white space
   • style of fonts
   • the site navigation
   • usability on a phone or tablet
2. Images—all of which need to relate to and enhance the other content. Images can convey at a glance what the content is about and help clarify your message.
   • your logo
   • background images
   • blog post or page images
   • product images
3. Content—all different ways to share your story, reflect your values, educate, engage the site visitor and help turn a visitor into a customer.
   • text
   • audio
   • video
   • infographics
   • or likely, a combination
4. Your “call to action”—a clear next step that helps your visitor to take action and engage with you, like a button or sign up box.
   For example:
   • a newsletter sign up
   • a buy now or register button
   • a free sample offering

Aligning your website with your passion makes your message glow like a neon light. Your message will pierce the darkness and capture the attention of your ideal customer, drawing them into your business.

Take a moment to walk in your customer’s shoes

In today’s global marketplace, simply being seen is not enough. With 2.4 million hits in that google search, it is important to—

• step into your customers’ shoes
• understand what she needs (even before she knows she needs it)
• and reply using her words.

When you empathize with your customer, this fuels your alignment.

When your values are reflected through sustainable website design, Google will send “searchers” your way.

On arrival, they will feel welcome and “heard”

Once they slide down the rabbit hole of a google search and click on your link, you need to make it easy for them—offer a ladder out with a helpful answer to their question.