“Is your website sending the right message to perspective customers?”

On the Coachcast today we take a look at your company website.

In today’s world you must have a website!

Everyone now uses the internet to review and research companies before buying from them. Even if they know who you are from some other type of marketing or referral they will still go to your website before buying from you.

Your website is the first impression that a customer will get of your company when they aer actually in the buying mode. Sure they may have seen your company before around town or were referred to you by another customer but typically when they found out about you they were not ready to buy. When they aer ready to find someone for that project they have they are going to go to your website to find out about you. Make sure you are giving them the right impression.

You website is the online brochure for your company. So make sure you are giving people what they need to know about your company. There are some core things that must be on your website. They are:

• What your company does
• Where your company works
• How to contact your company

These are the minimum things that your website needs to provide. Now as Elite Contractors we don’t want to stop there. Your website is one of the best marketing tools you have and it doesn’t take a lot to make your’s stand out. Add some additional features to your site to set you above your competition. Here some recommended things to add to your website:

• Gallery of completed projects – include a quick bio of the project – if possible include references in the bio
• Intro Video – shoot a quick video welcoming visitors and telling them about your company – you can shoot the video on your phone
• A blog – you should have a company blog that you post to at least twice a month
• Testimonials – get testimonials from past clients and have them displayed on your homepage – bonus: add link to email reference
• Resources Links – provide some links to resource specific to your speciality – to sites like HGTV or others
• Guides – add some downloadable guides like how to select a contractor, how to choose a counter top – collect emails to download
• Quote request form – add a submission form for people to request a quote – you can ask important questions to help screen

In addition to the content that is on your website that are a few other things that are of great importance.

[tweetthis]Is your website sending the right message to perspective customers?[/tweetthis]

The first is making sure you site is responsive. Responsive means your site works for smartphones, tablets and browsers. Many people now surf the internet on tablets not computers. If you site doesn’t work they will move on and maybe not even call you.

Update you content regularly. You don’t want people showing up to your site and he content be talking about a project you did in 2010. They may think you are our of business now and move on. Updating will also help with your search rankings.

Be sure your site is SEO friendly and registered with the search engines. When someone searches your company name you want to make sure your website shows up. SEO is even more important if you are a local company serving the residential market, For this you may want to spend a little time on SEO so that when someone searches for “remodeling companies in Your Town” you at least show up in the search.

Don’t let this overwhelm you, it may sound like a lot of work but it’s not that hard. You know I always recommend that we do what we do best and let others do the rest and this is one of those times. Hire the professionals to build your site. You can update once it’s built but get someone who knows how to do this. This is not something that you trust to your brother-in-law that knows a few things about websites. Getting a professional is not that expensive and your site will be right.

We will get into your website in more detail on future episodes so for know I just want you to get an understanding of what you should have and where you are today. That way as we look to making changes in 2015 we can understand what we need to do with our websites.

Take-Action Items

1. Review your current website to make sure you have the basics

2. Check how your website renders on different devices and browsers

3. Make a list of upgrades you would like to make