“I built a brand new website, so why isn’t my phone ringing?”
In this day and age, if you don’t have a website for your business, your customers and prospective customers probably won’t even know your business exists. Consumers rely on Google searches to do their research before choosing where to place their dollars. Whether they’re looking for a restaurant, a salon, a plumber, movers, etc, we all turn to the internet for answers. One might even say we “depend” on the internet for answers. To accommodate this new behavior, business owners are pouring money into building a beautiful new website but can be left confused when the website launches and they aren’t getting the flood of calls and emails they thought they would. This is where an internet marketing team comes into play.
Gone are the days where it was enough just to have an aesthetically pleasing, eye-catching webpage with some contact information that our neighbor’s friend’s nephew could build from his parent’s basement in less than 24 hours.
In order to compete with the billions of other websites on the internet, websites must be built from the foundation up from with these things in mind:
- Clear Brand Identity –
Websites are like billboards. We have three to four seconds to make people understand who we are, what we do, and how we can help them. If these things aren’t clear, we can lose a visitors interest in a matter of seconds. - Mobile Friendly Design –
More than 50% of users in the US are viewing websites from a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone vs a desktop. That is almost double the number of users on mobile just 5 years ago and that number continues to increase. A website that is easy to view on smaller screens is crucial, especially if we offer emergency 24/7 services. - Simple Navigation –
Try to put yourself in your users shoes. What brings them to the website? What might they be looking for? Simple, easy to use navigation makes for a pleasant user experience so they can find what they need quickly and efficiently with a minimal number of clicks. - Keyword Rich Content –
Google crawls through every word of every indexed page on the internet. Doing keyword research to figure out which words our target audience would use to find us and incorporating those keywords into the website content is a crucial step in building a conversion driven website. - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) –
Every webpage should have keyword rich meta data. These would be lines of text found in an internet browser window tab, as well as the first line of text in Google search result and descriptions below the title tag (blue link) in a Google search result. In addition, all images must have a detailed file name (avoid names like eidnchak9983k005624.jpg or image8.png) and descriptive alt tags. - Quality, Compelling Imagery –
All of the above steps should be supported with good imagery to provide a clear visual representation of our message. Use a healthy blend of photographs or graphics that are both “emotional” and “technical” (or industry specific). Emotional images such as a happy family enjoying your product or service help establish a connection with the viewer by showing them something they can relate to or a feeling they wish to achieve. Technical or industry specific images such as product photos, services and staff help users further understand what we have to offer.
Okay, so we used all the right “bricks” to build a sturdy, well branded, user friendly and Google friendly website. The phone should start ringing and our email inbox should start filling about now, right? If only it were that simple. Websites alone do not produce leads and even though we took all the right steps to build a marketing-first website, there’s still more to do. Think of it this way. A website is like a standard listing in a phone book. Just a single line in a 10 pound, 500-1500 page list of other names and phone numbers. Being in a phone book doesn’t guarantee that anyone will find us amongst all the other names and numbers and choose to call us, so we have to boost our visibility. This is where a full service internet marketing company like RYNO Strategic Solutions can help.
Google changes their algorithm 500-600 per year. That’s 1-2 times per day. At RYNO, we understand what it means to be a small business owner. We’ve worn the 20 different hats that every small business owner has to wear to keep the business moving forward and we know that keeping up with all the different marketing trends, algorithms and stats is a full time job itself. That’s why we, RYNO Strategic Solutions even exists. Not just to help market your business, but to help small business owners like yourself GROW your business so you can wear fewer hats.
What makes RYNO different from other internet marketing companies? Our team treats our clients like business partners rather than clients. For RYNO, success isn’t measured by the number of leads we gain and sales we close. It’s measured by the number of leads we help our clients gain and the number of sales they close. That’s why we have a whole team of call listeners to track where leads come from and offer 100% transparent reports of our marketing efforts.
To learn more about how RYNO can help grow your business, contact us today!
Photo by Norwood Themes on Unsplash
Author: Karrington Mohr, Web Designer