Think of your website as the “Emerald City” in the movie the “Wizard of Oz.” Your Emerald City has a horse of a different color that makes you unique. You are trying to attract visitors on the yellow brick road called the Internet to your Emerald City so you can make them your customers. Think of your customers as Dorothy and her friends. They want brains, heart, courage and to go home.

The Scarecrow is on the Internet to get knowledge. He is looking for solutions to his problems and answers to questions. It is our website’s job to provide the knowledge the Scarecrow seeks.

The Tin Man is on the Internet to get a heart. It is our website’s job to make him fall in love with the offerings of our business by stirring his emotions.

The Lion is on the Internet looking for courage. It is our website’s job to give him the courage to trust our business and submit a form, sign up for our newsletter or make a purchase.

The Witches: Google and other search engines can be the Good Witch of the East or the Wicked Witch of the West. If they deem your website helpful to the visitor searching for your goods or services, the search engines will act like the Good Witch of the East and help Internet browsers find your website. If they don’t feel your website is worthy of a visit, they will act like the Wicked Witch and keep visitors away from your site.

Dorothy wants to go home. Of course she does. Analyze your typical customer and give that customer the name of “Dorothy.” Our website should not be built for everybody on the Internet. It should be built to specifically appeal to our ideal customer—Dorothy. We need to make Dorothy feel at home when she visits our website. Don’t forget to remind yourself that Dorothy never left home in the first place. In fact, she is home on the Internet all of the time, especially now that the yellow brick road is right in the back pocket of her jeans on her smartphone. Our website needs to be friendly to smartphones and tablets or it is irrelevant to more than 60 percent of our potential customer searching the Internet.

And Toto, too. Toto is always there for Dorothy and finally reveals the Wizard of Oz by pulling aside the curtain. Think of Toto as the buttons and icons to reveal the Wizard to Dorothy. “Submit forms”, “Sign-up for newsletter”, “Like on Facebook”, “Maps for Directions”, etc., need to be visible and redundant on every page. “Toto” should always be there for Dorothy on your website. These calls to actions are a big reason your website is on the Internet. Without Toto leading Dorothy to the Wizard, he never would give the travelers on the yellow brick road a chance to get the diploma, heart, courage or way home they were seeking on the yellow brick road. And you won’t get the contact or the sale you seek, either.

Yes, the content on your website is the mighty, the powerful, the Wizard of .com. Make sure your Emerald City website gives Dorothy and her friends the things they seek to find. If you do, Google will be the Good Witch of the East and help visitors get to your Emerald City where your horse of a different color interests them enough to fill out your form, give you their information, sign up for a newsletter—make a contact that turns into a sale.