Stephan Boehringer, Managing Partner, Get The Clicks
Getting quality leads on Google is hard. It’s even harder figuring out what you should do to get your website to bring you leads. Here are three facts you need to understand about your website and Google before you spend any money.
Fact #1 – Google is not a free search engine with some ad space. Google is a paid search engine with some free space.
This is a subtle, but important distinction. If you are looking for SEO (Google marketing without the ads) because you think it’s a cheap way to market your business, you are going to be in for a rude awakening. The fact that SEO is cheap is a misguided concept perpetuated by web marketing agencies that are out to make a quick buck. Why do you think so many people have had a bad
experience with a digital marketing agency at least once in the history of their business? It’s because some slick sales person told them they could get them a bunch of leads in just a few months for $200/month. If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is.
Google doesn’t want you optimizing your website to rank high, next to the ads. They want you paying for the ads. Google has to produce a profit to please shareholders. They are not in the business of making you money for free. If they made it easy to rank number-one for all of the top producing keywords, no one would spend the money on paid advertising. Organic optimization is
not cheap because you need an expert to go up against Google and turn your website into a money-making machine and capture the best potential audience looking for what you have to offer.
Fact #2 – Your website is not a marketing tool. It’s a sales tool.
Do you have a pretty website? Does it have fancy bells and whistles? Perhaps you have a slideshow or a big picture of a beautiful roof. Would you believe it if I told you that none of that matters? Would you believe that much of the “pretty” is actually counter-productive?
What do you want visitors to do when they come to your site? Call you? Email you? Make an appointment for an estimate or bring you the next big commercial client? You bet ya! Your website has one job, and one job only – convince the visitor that you are the best solution for their need…that’s it. The rest is just fluff to satisfy the search engine gods and maybe a little light reading material
for the research audience.
Your website should be part of a larger system that funnels leads to your front door. Don’t make it your only system. Make it part of your overall business goals and incorporate a similar brand message in all of your collective lead generation efforts. Remember, people buy with emotion and then justify their purchase with logic. Repeat - people buy with emotion and then justify their purchase with logic. Make sure your website speaks to the viewer’s emotion, not the fact that you are a roofer.
Fact #3: Differentiation drives engagement.
Does your website represent why you do what you do? Take a minute and think about that. What makes what you have to offer different or better than another company that offers the same thing? Sure, you need to tell people what you do, and maybe how you do it, but it’s the WHY that will make someone choose you over the next. People on the Internet are looking for a solution to satisfy a need because they don’t already know of a company that provides the product or service and they haven’t had any recommendations from their peers. If they learn why you are in business, they will likely give you an opportunity for an estimate.
Monitoring the user experience of your site visitors can give you valuable insight into what is working and what is not. You can see these things using tools like Google Analytics or one of our personal favorites, Mouseflow. Pay attention to the way people navigate
your site and make adjustments accordingly. You can also tell from this data if they are not finding what they are looking for when entering the site and leaving immediately. Focus on a clear message that communicates your core brand values and speaks to your potential customers.
If you have the intention of producing sales from your website, it is imperative that you take these three facts to heart.
Stephan Boehringer is managing partner of Get The Clicks, a digital marketing solutions company specializing in SEO services, pay per click management, website design and maintenance, consulting and expert branding. Stephan has also taught courses on social media, website design and marketing for FRSA
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