Lured by the prospect of reaching millions of prospective customers, advertisers leaped to embrace each new mode of communication in the last century, from radio to TV to the internet.
Consider the lure of the internet to the business that is struggling. If we put up a website, we could sell our products to the 300 million Americans who use the internet! If only one-half of one percent of 300 million people see my website, that’s still 1.5 million people!
The optimistic business owner pays someone to create a website for his company, and then he sits back and waits for the orders to roll in. And nothing happens. He can count the weekly number of visitors to his website on one hand.
What’s wrong? One thing that’s wrong is the owner’s misunderstanding of the size and scale of the internet. Creating a website for your business is not the same as opening a store on a busy street. There are too many other websites to expect people to stumble across yours.
Or perhaps you have another common problem: a reasonable number of people are visiting your website, but they aren’t calling you or requesting a quote, or buying your product.
If your website is not getting results, the problem lies within one of these two areas: 1) either not enough people are visiting your website, or 2) those who do visit your website are not converting.
This article looks at both problems. It wraps up with the story of a local small business that went from having an ineffective website to one that delivers high-quality leads.
Not enough people are visiting my website
These are the three most common ways for people to find your website:
- They find it with an online search (usually Google Search).
- They see your online ad or social media post.
- They see or hear your website mentioned in the real world (business card, print mailer, radio commercial) and directly enter your website online, bypassing the search engine completely.
Let’s briefly review each of these three in turn.
Online search. Google is the most popular search engine for finding information online. People can search for anything—here are two examples: “how much does it cost to remodel a bathroom,” and “buy a garden shed.”
Google then creates a long list of websites that it believes relate to the search term. The person who entered the search term chooses which websites from the list to visit. Traffic that comes to your website from these searches is called “organic” traffic.
However, simply having a website does not guarantee that your business will be listed near the top of Google’s search results. Google has a sophisticated algorithm that determines which websites are at the top of the list. If your website doesn’t meet certain technical specifications or meet the criteria needed for Google’s algorithm, it either won’t show up on the search results at all, or it will be so far down the list that no one will ever see it.
“Creating a website for your business is not the same as opening a store on a busy street.”
You’ve probably heard the term “SEO” (search engine optimization). SEO is the process of trying to make your website rank higher on Google’s list of results for certain searches. There are many different factors in SEO, and you’ll need to work with someone experienced in SEO to get good results. Even then, your competition may still rank higher than you.
One simple step you can take is to make sure that your business has a Google Business Profile set up. This is a free service from Google where you list your business name, address, phone number, and hours of operation. If you wish, you can also display your logo and photos of your work or products. You can ask your customers to leave reviews on your profile. Positive reviews boost your Google ranking.
Online advertising. Google also offers advertising opportunities. Your business can pay Google to show your ad alongside organic search results. This is called pay-per-click advertising because you pay only when someone clicks your ad. Clicking your ad brings them to your website.
This type of advertising doesn’t rely on being listed near the top of the list of Google search results. In effect, you are buying your way to the top of the list. But alert consumers will recognize your ad as an ad and not an organic result.(Google currently labels ads as “Sponsored.”) Google offers other online advertising options as well.
Businesses can also use social media such as Facebook posts (free) or Facebook advertising (paid) to bring visitors to their websites.
From offline to online. Offline advertising (signs, print ads, brochures, postcards, etc) can drive visitors to your website. In this case, people who see your print ad might search for your exact business name on Google, in which case your website is likely to be near the top of Google’s search results.
Alternatively, if your website is listed on your brochure, some people might type in your website address and come directly to your website, bypassing the search process. You can also include a QR code on your printed piece (a QR code is similar to a barcode, usually in a square shape). People who scan the QR code with their smartphone cameras are brought directly to your website.
The next question is: What happens when people visit your website? Is your website strategically designed to turn some of them into leads or customers?
My website doesn’t generate enough leads
The majority of people who visit your website—especially for the first time—won’t contact you or make an immediate purchase. They may be doing quick research, jumping from site to site. Or they may see that you don’t offer what they are looking for. But if you have a strong website, some of them will become leads or customers.
Let’s consider some components of an effective website.
“A website thoughtfully designed to appeal to your target audience and strategically optimized for SEO results can be central to creating your own marketing success story.”
Speed. If webpages don’t show up quickly on your visitors’ screens, they will impatiently click away to another website. Speed relates to the technical part of your website.
Visual appeal. Interesting, high-quality images make your site more appealing. If your website appears old and outdated, fewer people will trust you. In addition to good product photos, a website should have “lifestyle photos” that show your product in use or that convey the positive feelings people have when they use your product.
Helpful information. Your website needs to provide the information or answers that people are looking for. In addition to product specs, this includes FAQs about not just the product but also information about shipping, returns, lead times, and policies.
Persuasive copy. Your website needs to do more than describe your products or services. It needs to identify the customer’s pain points and explain how you can guide the customer to a solution. Show empathy with the problem the customer has and show how your product or service can solve the problem. You can even point out the negative results of letting the problem or issue go unresolved.
Clear organization. Categorize your products or services to make it easy for people to get the information they are looking for with a few clicks. Feature your most popular items or categories or pages the most prominently.
Free offer. Provide something useful for those who are not ready to make a purchase or for those who are still in the research stage. This is often a free download or a free quote in exchange for the prospect’s email address or phone number. You can contact them later to follow up.
Simple forms. Request as little information as possible from prospects. Keep online forms to the minimum number of fields. The more pieces of information you ask for, the fewer people will fill out the form. One business owner we worked with listed his number and invited people to text him. This super-easy contact method increased the number of leads he received.
Social proof. Prospects want to see proof that you are a trustworthy business. You can show that other people trust you by including testimonials or product ratings/reviews on your website. For B2B businesses, show the logos of businesses you have served.
Call to action. The call to action in an advertisement or a website is the action that you want the customer to take: Buy Now, Call Now, Request a Quote, or something similar. The call to action on your website should be featured numerous times, not just in one place on one page.
A website success story
Rosewood Marketing built a simple three-page website for a local contractor who specialized in garages, decks, and remodeling. Wanting to receive more leads from the new website, the next year the owner asked about starting pay-per-click advertising.
Our team suggested that he invest in adding more content to his website before starting Google advertising. This would have two benefits: 1) strategic SEO-optimized content could bring more unpaid organic traffic to his site, and 2) the new content would result in a higher lead conversion rate whether the traffic came from organic search or from ads.
With a plan in place, we added new pages to the website—a page for each of the services the contractor offered. These pages not only added content for ranking purposes but also served as stand-alone landing pages we could use in Google advertising.
With the implementation of the new content coupled with Google ads campaigns, the result was exactly what our client wished for. The website began seeing more organic traffic, and more people began calling the contractor and filling out the form on his website for a free quote.
Conclusion
Having a website is not a miracle marketing solution that will magically start bringing in leads. But a website thoughtfully designed to appeal to your target audience and strategically optimized for SEO results can be central to creating your own marketing success story.