Building a Better Website
A website can make or break your company. Even worse, if you are not showing up on a Google search, you might as well not exist. A good website should function as an organized description of your firm but also serve as lead generating platform.
If your company is thinking about updating your website, there are a few main factors to consider.
Concise Language
A website should be a glimpse into what product or service your company offers and what problems you solve for your clients. Keeping the landing page text short, sweet and to the point is vital in keeping your viewers’ attention and clearly explaining what your company does. In a few short sentences, clearly state what your company does. This is a perfect place to showcase your “elevator pitch” and your tagline.
To accomplish this, tell a story. You want to keep your viewers engaged by talking about them. What solutions do you provide? Who is your ideal customer? How are you making their life easier when they purchase your product or service? Shift the focus to the client and your website will be way more exciting than posting a list of services and industry jargon.
Take it a step further by including options to “buy now” or “subscribe” should the viewer want to read more information about your company without taking up too much space on the main page.
Design & Layout
Keep it simple yet engaging. You want just enough text to explain what you do without putting your website visitors to sleep. Break up the text with exciting images and informative videos. You should also integrate links to take them to different pages to “learn more” or “request information.” No need to drown your pages in endless text, if the reader wants to learn more they can click or download the information themselves.
Having videos and images also helps to break up the text and better explain what you do. Videos are a great way to grab the attention of visitors. Videos can also back link to a YouTube or Vimeo page which will boost your Google Searchability.
SEO & Google Searchability
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to how well your company or specific key words show up on a Google search. Here are a few tricks to increasing your SEO organically:
- Internal & External links throughout your website
- Key words repeated through out your website & meta tags
- Videos & images that are properly tagged with said key words
- Regularly updated blogs that are key word specific
- Breaking out your services into separate pages on your website
- Tagging specific geographic regions & zip codes
Blogs & Other Resources
Keep your website fresh and exciting with regular blogs and news posts. Posting news, awards and upcoming events should be integrated to tell your client base what you are working on and where you will be.
Blogs are a key component in boosting your organic SEO. Google loves words so the more relevant words you post on a regular basis (such as blog entries) the more you will be recognized by Google as a credible source.
If you are interested in blogging, there are some great apps to help you create awesome content that Google will like. For example, Yoast is an awesome application for blogging on a WordPress site. This program will grade your blog posts before you post them using a red, yellow and green light system. They are graded on readability and how well they are optimized with your key words and descriptions.
Tagging Photos
Since Google likes words, they cannot ‘see’ images. However, if you tag your images with the appropriate key words, Google will be able to ‘read’ them. When adding an image to your blog, make sure you tag it first. Simply right click the image on your computer and go to ‘properties.’ Once there, you can add tags and descriptions within properties. Then save and upload into your blog. Now your photo key words match the blog. Google will reward you later.
Subscribe Feature
You want to build your website to be lead generating. Having people opt-in or subscribe to your email list is vital to obtaining interested customers and leads. These email addresses should be collected in a database that connects with an email marketing program. If not, you are missing a huge opportunity to communicate and sell to your audience. Once you start cultivating a list of interested parties, you can begin email marketing campaigns to engage them to purchase your product or service.
Call to Action
Tell your website visitors what to do! Should they subscribe to your email list? Are they requesting more information? Are they contacting you for a free quote?
Make sure your customers know how to reach you. Have your phone number on the header or footer of each page. Have a “Contact Us” page on the navigation bar that includes a way for someone to directly contact you or subscribe from your website. Make it as easy as possible for a potential buyer to get in touch with you.