While being a consultant, running a digital marketing company and meeting business owners around the world you can see the impact of how a website can set the tone for getting new business or perhaps not getting any at all.
In society today every person has a smartphone and most people use Google prior to doing any meetings or making a purchase for a service or product. Whether we want to accept the truth of the world we are being judged immediately based on the impression that we make with our website.
You want to attract large clients that make millions per year and your website screams novice then your going to scare away clients that you want to attract. Those clients just won’t hire you or call you no matter how they find you. I see new businesses use platforms like WIX and SQUARE where it says free site on it with their AOL.com email and it looks like something a 10-year-old threw together and then you ask HOW do I get clients? Mobile-friendly sites are essential if you want to grow and be relevant to Google and for the population to have a great user experience.
I have a hard time understanding someone who wants to do millions in revenue and can not spend a little money on the first impression those have of you when they land on your website. Perhaps the best philosophy I have heard is how you do one thing is how you do everything and there is a certain way of doing things that lead to certain results.
Creating Your Own Website for FREE
Many of the platforms have limitations when it comes to customizing your web site and marketing online with that FREE WEBSITE. Many times companies like Godaddy and these sites where you’re not paying all of this money upfront for a site appeal to those that are budget-minded and do not see the value in spending money. However, once you build it in a site-builder or free service your not owning your site its driving traffic to the web provider’s brand especially if it lives on their free hosting. I have had clients running a large business on Godaddy websites and once they find the SEO limitations when they go to switch they need to start over and can not take any of that content with them.
I have worked with lots of celebrities, millionaires, and large corporations with their internet marketing, web design and SEO and most of them are attracted to a mindset of using the best platforms because they have a large vision. When I have worked with these high-level clients they do look at the small details more than others because they want to make a decision that is best for their company. When a client sees that a site or how a company presents itself online or with social media that either justifies WHY they want to work with you or instills fear as to whether or not they are making the right decision. Success leaves clues so you have to really think about not just having a website but rather what your website communicates to the visitors of your site
Great Web Design – But How Do You Rank on Google?
I have worked with many web developers over the years who feel proud of their designs when it comes to their web design yet have no knowledge of marketing online with SEO, PPC or how the search engines pick up your site.
If they are not looking at loading times, content mapping and URL mapping then you could miss the mark when it comes to getting found on Google when it comes to creating a foundation for business success. Many times in the past I have heard business owners share the fact they will look into hiring a web marketing consultant or SEO consultant after they design their site or re-design it. This is backward because if you have an SEO consultant instructs the web designers the insights can help your site get found on Google vs having to spend twice as much money changing everything after you find that the web designer did not think about SEO, content, optimizing the site for getting found on Google Search Results.
What Does Your Web Design Communicate to Your Customers?
– How do you care about your clients?
– Do you have pride in your company and your vision?
– Are you up to date on the latest services or products?
– Do you pay attention to details?
– How educated are you in the industry?
– Do you have happy clients?
– Are you successful at what you do?
– Does your content provide value to a visitor or potential client?
– Can I Trust This Company?
– Do I Want to do Business with Them?
– Will this be a Great Experience?
All of the above questions are answered when someone LOOKS at your website on a subconscious level. Just how you layout your site and the time and attention you give to your site which is like the storefront of your business either conveys trust and belief or distracts the visitor with doubts on whether or not they can trust or hire you for what they need or want.
If you are missing content that answers these questions on the website then you could potentially be losing clients to your competitor. They will not call you and tell you that they decided to jump to another company’s site because you have lost their attention within the first 5-10 seconds. That is where saving money becomes expensive when you lose business and opportunities. Imagine if you lost a 100k per year client because they were turned off by your website and how you presented yourself. Perhaps you saved the 5-10k it cost to create a quality site that is impressive because you were thinking more about saving money than making money. Imagine if you lost 10 amazing clients off your site because you wanted to save money along with it costing you 100 hours of your own time and not being ranked on SEO because you had no knowledge of how to optimize the technical aspects of the website. Now you have saved yourself from making a million dollars on your website because of having a small-minded mentality when it came to growing your business and coming from abundance.
Marketing Your Website Online
The magic of the internet is that you are now doing business on a global scale and if you optimize a site with content and the right user experience is that you can do business almost anywhere. If you think on a larger scale and want an abundance of opportunities then leveraging the internet is necessary. When your marketing online most people do not realize the advantage of content and blogging to target SEO along with how social media can help enhance your web footprint.
We meet business owners all of the time that have a large budget and send great traffic to a site that is marginal. Whether someone is spending money on PPC and using their site as a landing page or place to capture leads we find that the web design and landing pages are a huge determining factor in the success of PPC Campaigns or SEO Strategies.
Important Components that You Need for Marketing on Your Website
– Site Speed – How fast the site loads impacts user experience and SEO
– Meta Descriptions focused on SEO and PPC keywords targeted
– Schema Optimizations – Structured Data
– Mobile-Friendly Site on All Platforms
– Call to Actions – Asking for Contact, Forms
– Numbers Easy to Call – Clickable – Positioning of Visibility
– Content Ratio Focused on Keywords
– User Experience – Easy to Navigate
– Great Flow of Information
– Great High-Quality Images – Add Value to Site and Business
– Great Video Content of Service, Product and Testimonials
– Builds Trust and Professionalism
– Installing Site Map
– Utilizing Google Analytics and Search Console for Google Updates
Growing and Evolving as a Great Company
One of the main things we recommend for business owners who want to design or build a website is to understand that you need to grow with technology and the time. Google changes frequently and we always recommend that websites be updated with content constantly along with perhaps redesigns at the minimum of every two years or so.
There was a famous phrase I learned while in Australia and helping business owners as I opened up Australia and New Zealand for almost a billion-dollar marketing company. The quote is “When Your Ripe Your Rotten and When Your Green Your Growing”. When it comes to the internet I feel that this sums it up when it comes to Google and New Technology. You have to always be improving your business when it comes to your online marketing and web presence.
