Many business owners think that by creating a website and making it live, their business will grow.
That is only true if there is strategy; effort and budget dedicated to driving prospects to the website; the website is optimized for conversion, and it truly speaks to your unique value proposition.
In this day and age, it is crucial to have an online presence, however online presence without a strategy can have the reverse impact.
Can your website be found?
The obvious point here is that if your website does not show up on search engines for relevant keyword searches your business will not get any online traffic.
The more dangerous point is that if your business carries a popular name that is not unique. What I mean by that is if you have a business that carries common words in the name such as prosperity, windows, drain, etc.., you might not show up even when prospects are searching your business name directly.
This only happens if your website is not optimized for search engines. The danger here is that if prospects were told about your business, they will search you on Google, and if they can’t find you, they will more than likely click on someone else’s business and convert somewhere else.
Is your website as good or better than your local competitors?
If you think about the user’s experience, how does your website stack up against your local competition? Will users be able to find everything they are looking for? Are the services and products you offer clearly stated? Are the benefits of hiring you presented with your competitive advantages? Do you have testimonials on your website? Is there a strong call-to-action on your website?
If you answered NO to any of these questions, you should re-evaluate your website and make changes to reflect what prospects are looking for. Most website visitors will stick around less than 15 seconds if they don’t see what they intended to find.
Think about all the time, energy, and effort it takes to drive prospects to your website. If your website is the first thing your prospects see, then your website is a true reflection of your business, your work, your quality, and your promise.
Are you proud to tell your prospects to visit your website? If the answer is no, then take immediate action.
Are you present on all social media platforms?
Social media marketing is very powerful. For some businesses it serves as a lead generation and customer acquisition tool, for others, it serves as a branding and credibility tool.
If you are working in the home improvement sector, social media is not necessarily a strong lead generation tool (although it might be, depending on the type of product or service you offer), it is really more important for credibility and trust.
If a prospect is about to call you, more often than not they will check your social media pages. Are those pages in sync with your website, your value proposition, and are those pages a true reflection of your business?
Again, if the answer is no, you are potentially missing out on some calls.
Is your Google My Business listing optimized?
If you are a local business, it is highly important that your Google my Business listing is optimized. We wrote a previous article on how to optimize your Google My Business listing that you can read up on.
You want users to be able to find your listing, reviews, description, hours of work, and location when searching for a product or service like yours. More importantly, you want prospects that are directly searching for your business name to see a neat, clean, and relevant listing.
To summarize, it is very important that your online presence on all mediums be consistent, portray trust, professionalism, and the true character of your business.