A lot has changed since a few years ago in what users expect when they arrive on a website.
We’re not just price shopping anymore, we’re brand shopping. We want to find people, services that we connect with beyond just a dollar.
Now, I’m not talking about product and e-commerce type things, sometimes those are very impulse buy websites.
I’m talking about services. I’m talking about if you offer, whether it’s professional services, whether it’s a local home services, these type of websites have five things that you have to have in order to be found by Google and in order to be high engagement, high converting websites for your customers.
MUST HAVE #1: Helpful Content
The first thing is helpful content. You have to have blogs and content on your website that answer questions that people are really asking.
Sometimes we spend a lot of time making blogs about things we want to put on our website and tell people updates, maybe things that we’re doing in the community, and that’s not wrong, but we need to make sure there’s helpful content.
If you’re a painter, five ways to avoid getting paint all over your floor, or five ways to stop having to repaint a third time or five ways to make sure your first coat sticks.
What are the actual things people are asking, make sure that the answers to those questions are in a blog form on your website.
Google will index it, people will search and find it, it will help your business grow.
MUST HAVE #2: Contact & Quote Forms
The second thing you have to have on your website is both contact and quote request or schedule request forms.
They’re very different.
A lot of people think, “Oh, if I just have a form on my website, then people will fill it out.”
That’s not true if they’re trying to just ask a question. They’re not going to fill out a quote form if they’re trying to ask a question. And if they want a quote and they go to a form that says, “Hey, how can I help you?” It’s less likely they’ll fill that out as if they were filling out a form, “I’ll get you free estimate within 24 hours. Tell me about your project. How much do you think it’s going to cost? What timeline are you on?”
So we’ve proven that contact forms in or estimate or schedule forms are very different.
The user intent is very different.
So if you have two different pages, one contact, one quote estimate, that will help you with conversion, and then you can customize those forms to very specifically target and ask for what you need to know.
MUST HAVE #3: Security
The third thing that you have to have on your website is security.
I’m sure you know how much your inboxes are being spammed.
So number one, you need security on your forms, that’ll prevent robots from just grabbing your email and spitting you a bunch of spam through your website.
But you also need security on your domain. Your website will not even index with Google if it’s no longer secure, and if you go to a website and it says, “Warning, this is not secure,” obviously you’re going to leave and so do your customers.
So make sure that your host and domain provider has put an SSL security certificate on your domain as well as you putting reCAPTCHA and spam filtering on your forms on your website.
MUST HAVE #4: Project Gallery or Testimonials
The fourth thing that you have to have on your website is some type of gallery or project space where you can show off services, projects, testimonials, that type of work that you’ve done.
It shows people fresh and relevant work.
It helps people make instant decisions whether or not the style of pergola and pavilion that you build is the kind of style that they want, or the type of home edition that you just build is the style that they want, or are you the shirt and tie dress person, or are you kind of just the hanging out type person that’s going to be low-key.
So make sure you have gallery and photos that kind of represent your brand.
It’s great to have a gallery or a project page or a testimonial page, and you keep that fresh with updated content.
MUST HAVE #5: Your Personal Story
And the fifth thing you have to have is probably one of the most important, which is your story.
If I’m comparing one landscaping company to another landscaping company, the research shows that the second most visited page on those sites is the about page.
So it’s not like the special discounts page, it’s what’s your story? What’s your connection to my community? Do you know, live, work and care about the same community I live in or are you just a flyby night franchise that just comes and goes? Do you have something that gives you an unfair advantage when you’re comparing yourself to your other competition locally?
Tell your story.
Embrace it.
Throw it out there.
Don’t be afraid of it.
Because that’s going to make the next person say, “You know what? I want to work with that company, man. I really appreciate something that they said.”
Let them resonate with you and be proud of investing their money in your growth and in your business.
To Recap: 5 Things You MUST HAVE on your website for highest impact and conversion
You have to have blogs and helpful content.
You have to have security on your website.
You have to have some type of project or gallery connection.
You have to have a difference between contact and quote, it’ll help with conversion.
You have to have your story.
Get out there, do great things in your community, and let your website help you.
