A pretty website is just that – a pretty website. It’s not a money-making or lead generation machine unless you pay attention to this thing called a call to action, and this other mystifying thing called SEO.
Learn a bit more below! Read on!
Just having a website isn’t enough, you need a plan.
You’ve got a great idea & you’re excited about it, which is the main thing required for anything to succeed. You realize that you probably need a website to reach & inform people about your great idea that can help them in so many ways and you’re definitely right about that – a well-constructed website is a tireless employee that never gets paid overtime & is always happy to help the next person with information & interaction.
BUT…
The website needs to be properly planned out & constructed around your business model! It’s simply not enough to put your information out there and expect results. There is no “Set it, & forget it!” for websites.
What do we mean by that?
A website owner needs to plan out what they want people to do when they’re on the website & how to make it easy for them to take the necessary steps. We’ve all been on websites that have great information but, um …. where’s the thing that I’m supposed to do, here? I don’t see any buttons saying click here or links to schedule an appointment …. do I really want to hunt down what’s supposed to happen with this site? Is there an alternative that makes it easier?
Guide Your Website Visitors (AKA, Call to Action)
So many beautiful websites miss the mark by not including logical calls to action. What is a call to action, you may ask? This is where the website visitor is told what to do, and what the next step is. Some website owners seemingly don’t like the thought of a call to action (like “click here for yada yada!”) because they think it’s spammy or gimmicky. However, people overwhelmingly want to be told what to do or shown what the next step is on a website. Without a call to action (CTA) that makes sense, you’ll definitely lose people.
CTAs aren’t always “Buy now!”
Your CTA might not be sales-related — it might be something that offers your visitor the opportunity to engage with you to get more information about what you’re offering so the two of you can discuss it directly to decide whether or not you’re both a good fit for one another. For something like this, you’d need to prequalify them by laying out the terms of what you’re offering & you can do this in your page copy!
A perfect example would be a life coach or a realtor.
Your services require that they meet certain criteria, spell out what’s expected & what the benefits of your services are that they would enjoy. They can then fill out a lead generation form or book an appointment on your site & receive confirmation for their next contact from you – all without you needing to be actively involved in the process. They’ve come to your site, read what you offer, have prequalified themselves & booked in to speak with you as a warm lead, which is worth quite a lot in terms of advertising.
It’s all in the details.
After carefully setting up your website to make it easy for your visitors, how do you get people to the site? This is the big question, isn’t it?! After all, new domains have to earn trust with search engines over time, given the relative ease of setting up new websites.
Start with the basics & optimize your site for better search results using on-page Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, to make it easier for search engines to properly display your content in relevant search results. After that, you definitely need to engage in some off-page SEO & what form that takes depends entirely on your business’ needs. For instance, if you have a physical location such as a shop or venue that you’d like to have people come to, you would want to get your location placed on certain maps & other databases. It’s also a good idea to network with other local businesses that have an online presence so there are other indicators of the importance your site has with other, local sites.
Similarly, people are going to want to see what sort of social media presence your business has, so it’s important to pay attention to forming an online community around your effort & link that back to your website. All of these social signals will help over time to increase the rankings that your website has & will also help to let people know that your website is there.
As with anything SEO related, we always remind our clients that SEO is a marathon — not a sprint. It takes time to build your presence, the same way a marathon takes time. Any SEO “expert” that promises first page results in an instant is not the expert you want to work with. If you have questions about SEO and how we can help, we’d love to hear from you — feel free to reach out anytime!
Let’s be real.
Calls to action and SEO are just barely scratching the surface when it comes to what needs to be considered with your website…but they ARE two of the biggest topics that our clients need to consider as it relates to websites. We hope that some of the information here is helpful to you as you’re planning out your website and plan for growth!
Need help with that website or SEO, Boss Babe? There’s real wisdom in hiring someone experienced to help you with it so that you can focus on the important details of your business. We kinda, sorta know what we’re doing… I mean, you found us, so it’s working, right?! We’d be delighted to help you get found!
