Your your website is not producing the leads it should be, right?
Are you spending money on advertising, but not seeing a positive Return On Investment?
Your website should be your main hub for all your online marketing activities. You should be directing all the traffic from SEO, PPC, social media, videos, etc back to your website. In order for this to be effective, your website must be built to convert visitors into leads and turn those leads into sales! A lot of small business owners are wasting money on advertising/marketing because their website is not built to be a lead generating machine. Your website should be your best sales tool.
Is it?
You only have 7 – 9 seconds (some say 3 – 5 seconds) to grab your visitor’s attention when they land on your site. In these crucial seconds they are scanning your site, assessing the content and making a quick judgement on whether to stay on your site or leave and go to your competitor. I am going to show you how you can increase the chances of them staying on your site, getting to know your business and becoming a customer.
1. Google Analytics – Every website should have this installed. It is a free software from Google that gives analytics such as how they found your site, amount of traffic, how much time they spent on your site, the pages they viewed, what pages they left from, what pages they entered from and about a hundred other pieces of very important data. Have your web designer install this little piece of code and get access to the Google Analytics dashboard.
2. Mobile Optimized – This is NOT an option in 2013 and is only going to be more important going into 2014. More and more people are searching mobile devices for local businesses. 21.3% of all the traffic in November for this site was from mobile devices. How did I figure that out? Google Analytics.
3. Call to Action – This is another overlooked component of a website. You must tell your visitor what to do.
Some examples;
Call Today for a FREE Estimate 555-1212
Call Today for a FREE Consultation 555-1212
7 Questions You Must Ask a Social Media
Company BEFORE Hiring Them — Download Now!
4. Home Page – Your homepage should highlight the benefits of the product/service you offer. A good way to figure this out is — what is the end result after using your product/service?
On this site we list 3 benefits;
- Attract Visitors – More website traffic. Every business owner wants this.
- Convert Leads – Traffic is great, but we want to help convert that traffic into leads. That is one of our specialties.
- Close Sales – Leads are great in all, but we’re all in business to make more money, right?
These are all results of partnering with us. It’s not really important to explain the “how” on the home page, they want to know the “what” (as in — what will they receive when working with us?)
5. Phone Number – It surprises me how many small business websites do not have a phone number in clear site. This should be on every page of your website and I recommend having it in the upper right hand corner. This little detail could add 10%+ to your bottom line revenue.
Why do we not have a phone number on this site? Good question. We are in the B2B industry and have a longer sales cycle than, let’s say a dentist. Our website visitors will read our content, if they like what they read, they will download our guide on social media and be added to our email database. We can then nurture theses leads with marketing automation and move them down the sales funnel. That is why this website works 24/7/365. Your website should do the same.
6. Blog – This is a must for 99.9% of the businesses out there. There are so many benefits of having a blog and you can read some of my previous posts at the links below;
How I Increased My Website Traffic 1,187%in 4 Months with FREE Traffic
What Kevin Costner Taught Me About Content Marketing
What Are Some of the Benefits of Blogging for Business?
7. Pictures/Video – Adding pictures and/or video to your website is proven to increase conversions. According to a study by Eye View Digital, adding video to your website increases your conversion rate by 80% within the first week of implementation!
There will be more video on this site in 2014. After reading that stat above, we might not wait that long :)
8. SEO Optimized – Your on-page SEO should be optimized. I am not going to get into details, but this is very important in your website ranking in the search engines. Not having a well optimized website is like not having the right pieces to a puzzle. The pieces need to match, so does your website.
9. Lead Capture – 97% (or more) will leave your site and never return. Having a lead capture page with an enticing offer (coupon, guide, success story, case study) will generate more leads that can be added into your email software. Again, with marketing automation, they can be sent email follow ups and you can nurture these leads.
10. Load Time – Load speed impacts both SEO and user experience. You can test your website load time on sites like Quick Sprout, GT Metrix or Web Page Test. I know Quick Sprout will give you suggestions on improvements.
11. User Experience – I am a big fan of less is better with website design. I recommend having a menu across the top with easy to navigate buttons. The buttons and text colors should contrast so they are easy to read. Everything should “flow” together on the home page.
A “busy” site and you will lose the visitor. Again, Google Analytics will let you know how long your visitors are staying on your site.
12. USP – What makes your business unique? This is a question that needs to be answered on your website and all marketing material. Your staff should be rained to answer this very important question, too. This is extremely critical and I recently wrote a blog post about the topic that you can check out here.
Conclusion
Well, these are the 12 steps I look for when assessing a website. There certainly are different variables depending on the industry you are in, but this is a good guide to go off of. The copy (written word) is the most important part of any website.
Your website should be a lead generating machine working for you 24/7/365, never calling in sick or taking a day off. A website can make or break your online marketing efforts.
Your website is an investment, not a cost. It is an asset to your business, not a liability.
$199 Craigslist websites might cover 2 or 3 of these components, but if you want your website to be a a lead generating machine, spend the extra money.
This is what I want to do when I hear about $199 Craigslist websites…
