The first place to start if you want to become an authority in your niche is build a strong website. No website, no authority.

Now, I’m not saying all you need is a website. Your website is the starting point. It’s the place you begin your journey to becoming a recognized niche authority. But for your website to be effective in presenting you as an authority, it’s got to do three things. If your website accomplishes these three things, then you are well on your way to becoming an authority in your niche.

So what are those three things? Let’s explore …

1. Highlights Your Knowledge

There’s no doubt that you’re a knowledgeable expert. If it wasn’t so, you wouldn’t be in business.

YOU consider yourself to be an expert. What you want to do is get others to recognize you as an expert. To do that, you’ve got to communicate certain things about yourself and a website is a good tool for that. Here are some of the things you want your website to say about you:

• You want your website to communicate your skills
• It must highlight your professional background
• If you have educational credentials, those should be communicated
• Professional associations, recognition, and commendations
• What you are capable of accomplishing

Rather than give all of the details about your professional past, your website should simply draw attention to those professional characteristics you possess that qualify you to be the one to help potential clients solve their problem.

2. Sets You Apart From the Competition

The second thing your website should do is set you apart from your competition. What makes you different?

In one sense, highlighting your knowledge will distinguish you from your competition, but I’m not merely talking about being educated at Harvard versus Yale. What I’m referring to is your business emphasis. How are you different from all the other businesses performing the same services you provide?

Salespeople call it your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). It’s how you do what you do that determines your distinction.

In other words, what’s your secret sauce?

McDonald’s and Burger King both sell hamburgers and fries, but I bet you can tell the difference between the two. There are all sorts of things that set them apart. Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter where you decided to eat lunch.

In any industry or service niche, the market leader always bears a mark of distinction that sets them apart from the competition. No one achieves No. 1 status in revenues without this mark of distinction. No one leads the market or takes the majority of a market share without setting themselves apart from the competition in some way. Google still enjoys a huge lead over every other search engine for one simple reason–they are unique and different, and a huge part of that distinction has to do with the personalities and the skills of the company’s founders.

Your website must not only look different, but it must present you as a distinct brand within your niche and communicate a USP that sets you apart from the pack.

3. Tells Your Audience What You Can Do For Them

The bottom line on any sales content (and your website is essentially a sales letter) is this: It must communicate what problems you help your clients solve.

If you don’t solve problems, why are you in business? Your customers have problems, and they are looking for solutions to those problems. That’s why computer software makers refer to their products as solutions, because they effectively solve a problem the customer is experiencing.

You may or may not want to start referring to your services, business processes, and products as “solutions”, but one thing is clear–you are in the problem solving business.

Every website has to demonstrate that the brand it represents is capable of solving a real problem that real people have. The way websites make that case is by highlighting the problem the customer is experiencing and showcasing the talents, skills, products, or services of the company that solves those problems. Sell the benefits, not the features.

It’s All About The Content

The one part of your website that helps you do all three of these is the content. Your website can have a nice, pretty design, and that’s great. But the content is what presents you as an expert in your field. It can have all kinds of neat bells and whistles and be fully functional, but the content is what sets you apart from the competition and communicates to your intended audience what problems you help them solve.

Without strong content, no website can succeed. Whether you have a single landing page or a thousand-page information tome, every element of your website should focus on presenting you as the go-to source for people’s problems in your niche.

Are you ready to boost your authority? Looking for ways to expand your reach and deliver the best content for your niche audience? Download my free report, “14 Types of Authority Content“. Learn the 14 types of content that will keep your audience coming back for more and instantly make you an authority they can rely on.