Biggest website mistakes, Part 2: Why your website should be a sexy tease

Teases usually aren’t considered good. I mean who wants a tease, when they really want the full monty, right? 

When I worked as a television writer a decade ago, I learned just how important a good tease is. Without one before the commercial break, you lose viewers. The tease makes them curious. Makes them want to find out more. It sparks one of the most important questions on the minds of anyone who reads, watches or listens to a story: “What’s gonna happen next?”

The tease is the carrot on the string that keeps people coming back for more. And that logic applies to your website, too.

The consequences of baring too much

Your website should be the carrot that triggers visitors to pick up the phone and call you, send you a message or sign up to your email list. 

Many business owners fail at the website tease. Instead, they create a massive site with countless pages that share dozens of products and services, the company’s life story and overloads visitors with TMI. These business owners want to tell the visitor every last detail. And then what happens? 

The visitor becomes bored, confused about your offer or lost in your content. So they click away. 

Don’t be like these websites. 

Remember, The Marketing Paradox Shift—your website is not about you or your business. It’s really about the visitor. And the visitor wants to find what they need so they can solve their problem.  

The visitors’ time, just like yours, is valuable. They want to get the information they need fast, and when you throw tons of random content at them, you make their life difficult and maybe even give them a headache. You’d probably leave a website like this, too. 

So here’s what you need to do instead.

Action step—do this today

Just like Part 1 in this series, it’s time to go through your website again. But instead of looking for occurrences of “I”, “we” and “you,” review the amount of content you have in terms of pages and word count. 

Does your website have countless pages? I recommend cutting it to 15. 

Are you selling a dozen products or services? Most businesses should get that number down to three. 

Is every page on your site overflowing with content? The majority of your pages should be less than 300 words, 500 tops. 

Be ruthless with your edits. 

If you have tons of content on your site, the chances of anyone reading every word is likely zero. 

And remember, this is a tease. 

Just hook the visitors enough so you pique their curiosity and get them to take action—whether that’s to call you, subscribe or even buy a product. That’s what you really want anyway, right?

The biggest website mistake of all

Once you’ve switched your focus from “me” to “you” and edited your website into a crisp and clean, sexy tease, then there’s one more mistake to watch out for. 

And it’s a real doozy. 

If you make this common error, all the work you put in following the steps in this series will be in vain. It’s really that important.

So come back in a few weeks to discover the last and biggest blunder in this 3 part series.