If you’re business is online, it’s pretty obvious that you need a website. The thing is, even if your business is done totally offline, you still need a website. Without one, chances are you’re either missing a lot of customers or they’re missing you.
The challenge is that just putting up a site isn’t good enough and the customers you’re missing will likely remain that way. Websites that convert visitors online or drive customers to a physical location (like your store) have several things in common that make them work.
Here are five of them:
1) Develop a strategy to help people find you online – Whether your business is local, national, or global you’ll need an SEO strategy so that people searching for the solution you provide can find you. Optimizing for keywords relevant to your solution that have traffic but less competition is great way to gain traction on search engines quickly.
2) Content that is immediately relevant for your visitors – If, for example, people are finding you using a search term like “kayak tours Alaska” make sure that the page their landing on when they arrive at your site is also immediately recognizable as being about “kayak tours Alaska”. Don’t make them search for what they’re already looking for.
3) Clear navigation – Make getting around the site clear and simple, with navigation tabs that are easy to find. Confusion is a bad thing and visitors react to it quickly by leaving the site, never to return.
4) Clear calls to action – Let your visitors know what you want them to do and make it easy for them to do it. This goes for making a purchase, requesting more information, or going into your physical location.
5) Start a blog – Having a blog on your site allows you put some personality into your site and products while playing a role in your SEO strategy, encouraging conversation and sharing information. It will also give you a venue to provide fresh content, attract some inbound links, and establish yourself as a trusted resource.
6) Local contact Information – A small business can to establish a lot of credibility by including a local address, a local phone number, and other ways to get in touch with your business such as Twitter or Facebook. Highlighting this information let’s people know that they can reach in a number of different ways which goes a long way in establishing your trust and credibility. Local information will also play a huge role from a local search engine optimization standpoint because it gives the search engines important information about where your business is located and the areas or neighborhoods you would most likely draw traffic from.
If you’re just starting out or looking for better performance, The Gervais Group can get your SEO, marketing, and website working at their best.