Website Help

 

Do you remember why you created your website?  Did you do it because you have a construction business and every contractor needs a website?  

Were you looking to attract more clients or customers? Maybe you were you trying to give your readers a way to find the answers to their questions at any hour of the day, seven days a week?  

Those are all great reasons to have a website, but you need to focus a bit more. Use this post to set up your site so it works harder for you in 2019.

Ready to get started? Here are four things that your website should be doing for you already if it isn’t, we need to talk:

Job #1 Find New Customers

There are thousands of people searching the internet every day and they are searching for an answer to their burning questions.  Your website’s job is to answer those questions and position your business as the solution, that’s it.

Job #2 Share the Benefits of You and Your Business

You can’t talk to people all the time, sharing how you benefit their needs is your website’s job. That means that you need to have each one of your benefits in an easy to find place on your website, so people can see it when they get there.  

Job #3 Give Contact Information

Those people who have never heard of you may have other questions that your website doesn’t answer.  In those cases, your website should give them a short form on a contact page that gets at only the details you need to reach them. This will allow you to respond to them quickly.  Of course, your contact page could also have a phone number and email address, so that everyone can contact you via those means as well. Just know that spam bots love filling up a person’s email and this may happen if your email is listed there.  

Job #4 Share Your Story

Did you know that people are more likely to choose your business over others when they see the more personal side of you?  It’s true. That’s why I always recommend sharing a story about your family, pets, or the reason you started the business in the first place. You will come across as a person that could be a best friend to those who visit your site, as well as someone who they can trust in the future.  

These are the four things that your website should do, and hopefully, that is why you have it in the first place.  If you just slapped up a website because you thought you should have one, then you may want to reconsider why you have one and how you can change it so it can represent the good work you do like it should.  

Let’s turn our attention to specific pages on your site!

Your about us page is the only page you can use to differentiate yourself. All of your other pages are just like all the rest!

When it comes to websites, each one starts to look like all the rest after a while.  A person searching for something to solve their needs could find five different websites with the same solution and you are going to want them to choose yours over all the rest.  This is tricky, since your individual pages could, and most likely will, look like the pages on all those other websites.

After all, you sell the same things and provide the same services.  There is, however, one page where your website can stand out from everyone else’s.  That page is the About Us.
No one loves creating their About Us page because it can be tricky to share personal information that almost sounds like bragging.  But that is what you need to do to stand out. But you also need to make sure you tie your features back to the benefit to the reader, or else you will just be boring them.

Here are 4 things that you should put in your About Us page on your website:

Information About Yourself

You are the website and your business, which is why everyone that visits needs to know more about you!  Put a picture of yourself on there and tell them who you are. You don’t need to get into the nitty-gritty from being a newborn baby to where you are now but share the details that everyone will love hearing the most.  If you have staff, include them as well! People love seeing who is working behind the scenes!

Share the Story of How Your Business Began

Every business has a story of how it became a reality, so share it! People want to do business with people, not nameless, faceless businesses. If the story of how you began isn’t too thrilling, then share one that tells about a moment when you knew that you were going to be successful.  

Include Why You’re are an Expert in Your Field

You know all those years of school, or those classes that you took, or the awards that you have won?  Or the associations or affiliations you belong to? How about all those things that your business has accomplished?  This is the place to write them all down and show people why you are the expert that they need to turn to.

Include Social Media Options

Not everyone has time to visit websites with their busy schedules, which is why you are going to need to have other options available to connect with people.  Your About Us page is a great place to list these options so that they can click on the links and add you to them right away. While I understand that you might not be an expert with every type of social media, I do recommend that you are active on as many as you can.  

Every business wants to stand out from their competitors and your About Us page is a great place to distinguish yourself from all the rest.  Click on yours now and see how you can improve it, so that you can attract more people to your site and convert them into regular visitors.

Now, let’s talk contact page!

Your contact page needs to do one job, close the reader by making it easy to reach you.

You are never going to be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to answer the phone or be online to answer messages through social media. There is a solution though, and it will decrease the amount of work that you have now and in the future.  

You can design your contact page any way you want, but here are 3 things that it should do:

Allow the User to Decide How to Contact You

Your contact page should have a few options to contact you that will allows readers to decide how and when they want to reach you. Your phone number, email, and physical mailing address need to be on your contact page as well as a contact form. The last thing that you will want to do is have your contact page open up as a form that everyone needs to fill out.  They may not be ready to contact you yet. and this can keep them from going any further. Instead, give them options and then let them decide when they are ready to reach out to you.

Send the Request to the Proper Department

Depending on the size of your business, you may have different departments answering questions.  This can alleviate the time that you spend replying to contact forms. Instead of opening each email to find out what is needed for each individual contact form and then forwarding them to the correct departments, you can make your life easier.  To do that, create a drop-down menu that people can choose from as they are filling out the form. The information will then be delivered to the proper department to be answered quickly and efficiently.

If anyone needs to do a lot of searching for the information that they require, then they are going to get discouraged and decide to go somewhere else where they can get that info faster.  Remember, everyone wants the information that they need immediately, and they are not going to settle for anything less.

Now, what good is a website if it can’t get found? Let’s talk SEO!

10 SEO tools to optimize your website for success in the future

SEO is everyone’s biggest headache because the variables change as often as the wind blows.  What seems to work well with rankings one day never work the next and your new solution may be obsolete the following week.  You may be ready to throw in the towel when it comes to SEO, but please don’t, because your website still depends on these three little letters to be seen by as many people as possible.  

Here are 10 SEO tools to optimize your website for success in the future:

Google Search Console

Google makes the rules when it comes to SEO and page rankings, which is why you are going to want to take advantage of their Google Search Console.  With this tool, you can continuously see how you are being seen on Google, see what keywords everyone is using to reach your website, and immediately know when your website has errors.  You install this tool and let it do all the work for you.

Keyword Tool (you need to have an Adwords account and be logged in for this tool)

Using keywords throughout the content on your website is necessary for SEO, but it can be difficult for you to know what keywords to use. The Google Keyword Tool solves your problem by letting you type something in and then providing you with short and long keyword suggestions that you can use in your content.

Google PageSpeed Insights

This tool will help you determine whether your website is set up optimally.  You type in the URL of the website and Google PageSpeed Insights will check the speed and the impact of the website.  This tool works great for mobile and desktop devices and your goal is to get a green score. And the nice part is, if you get a red or orange score, this tool will walk you through the process of fixing everything.  

WooRank

WooRank wants your website to be successful on mobile devices since that is where almost everyone does their searching nowadays. This tool gives you a score of how your website rates according to SEO and then it will give you a list of what you need to do to improve your score.  

HubSpot’s Website Grader

HubSpot’s Website Grader is easy to use, just enter the website domain into the search box and wait for a report to be generated. The report will give you individual scores for your website’s performance, SEO optimization, how mobile-friendly it is, and how secure it is.  This tool will then provide you will helpful tips on how you can improve each individual score and make your website better.

Linkody

Backlinks are important to any website and Linkody can be helpful in determining which links need to be removed because they are spam. This tool is also helpful in helping you learn more about link building so that you can improve the quality of backlinks to your website.  

SEMrush

Everyone seems to have their own way of searching Google for what they need.  However, SEMrush compiles all this data and then shows you how many people are looking for specific terms.  This allows you to utilize the keywords that are used the most and stay away from those that are hardly ever used. SEMrush also provides you with tons of information including similar keywords that are related to yours, as well as product listings and related ads.  

SpyFu

SpyFu can help you with SEO campaign management and continuously monitor your website and track your backlinks. This tool is perfect for people who want to get the most out of marketing, sales, and advertising on their website.  

Moz Pro

Moz Pro takes SEO to the next level by using a data-driven approach.  This SEO tool shares keyword results to ensure that you are using the ones that will have the biggest impact on your website. Moz Pro takes the keyword searching to a higher level though by checking to see what your competitor websites are using for keywords. This will allow you to improve your keyword usage and get ahead of all your competitors.  

BuzzStream

This is a multi-feature SEO tool that can help you in many areas of your business.  Each keyword that you want to use can be inputted into BuzzStream and the tool will then let you know how it has been used on other websites and throughout social media.  

These ten SEO tools are going to help you optimize your website now, so you can find even more success in the future.  

Let’s talk maintaining your site, because, just like your tools, you have to maintain your website. I’m assuming you are using WordPress because, well, why wouldn’t you?

5 WordPress maintenance tasks you should perform regularly

Maintaining websites can take a lot of time, but it is necessary if you want your site working properly.  After all, people never stay on websites for long and they will be on yours even less if it takes forever to load a page or find something. Of course, you also always risk losing all your hard work if you do not take preventative measures.  With so much at stake, you can probably see why it is necessary to perform routine maintenance on your website.

Here are 5 WordPress maintenance tasks you should perform regularly:

Back Up Everything

After putting hours and hours into your website, the last thing that you are going to want is for everything to go poof from a security snafu or something else.  You might think that backing up your website is quite difficult, but it really isn’t. There are plenty of plugins available and your hosting company can also assist in this process.  While backing up your website every day is best, you should do it at least once a week.

Look for Broken Links

There is nothing more frustrating for readers than going onto a website and finding a broken link.  After all, they went to that page looking for information that they needed at that moment and they left disappointed and need to find it somewhere else.  

To keep this from happening, you should look for broken links. I recommend installing a broken link status checker plugin to make this process easier for you.  

Test All Your Website Forms

You put forms on your website for a reason, right?  Maybe you wanted to expand your email list or give everyone a way to contact you when they had a question.  But you won’t get anywhere if your forms are not working as they should. That’s why I recommend checking your forms on occasion to make sure that they are collecting information and sending it to where it needs to go.  

Change Passwords Regularly

You may think that you have the strongest password in the world because you have used a strict combination of lowercase letters, uppercase letters, special characters, and numbers.  But, hackers specialize in cracking all those passwords, especially when they want to gain access to your website.

Think you’d know if someone had access to your website? Think again. Avoid having someone taking over your website by changing your password regularly.  

Update Plugins and Core Files Regularly

WordPress and the plugins you use will constantly need care and feeding by keeping their files up to date. WordPress and most plugin developers push out updates automatically, all you have to do is make sure you are taking a few minutes each week to check in and keep them up to date. This keeps your site running in tip-top shape and prevents hacks and other nasty cyber attacks, which are on the rise every day.

When you perform these five tasks on your website regularly, you can be ensured that it is working as it should.  There are other things that you should do with your website in between all these maintenance tasks, but these are the most important ones that will keep your website up and running for a long time.  

Finally

So that’s it, almost 3,000 words later, you have a solid foundation to get your website working as hard as you do. If you find that your site isn’t pulling it’s weight, start with a free homepage review. I will tell you exactly what I would do if I were you to make your homepage convert better. Next, you can opt for a full site review.

I will shoot a video walkthrough of every page of your site and give you specific steps to make the changes you need to add tens of thousands of dollars to your top line revenue this year. Finally, maybe you’ve come to the conclusion that a new website is the way to go. Well, my team and I would be happy to help get you on the right path. Just click here to reach me and let’s talk about it.

 

Websites are phenomenal ways to bring more attention to your business, which is why we encourage every business owner to create one. While it can be difficult to create and maintain a website, there are a few things that you can do to make the entire process much easier.

Here are 3 easy ways to build a low maintenance WordPress website:

Utilize the Simple Themes

You might think that you need to spend hours installing intricate themes for your website to attract attention from those using the internet. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth, because the simple themes are just as functional. You might not have as much flexibility as to where you can place things and with what you can do, but it will look fabulous and you won’t experience as many compatibility issues either. Once you install one of the simple themes, all you need to do is make sure that you update the theme when it is required, as it will ensure continued compatibility as well as security. We recommend that you get your simple theme from a reliable source, like the WordPress Theme Directory, because there are hardly any issues with those and they don’t pose security threats.

Consider Plugins Prior to Installing

It can be super easy to install a dozen of plugins or more on your newly created website, but all those plugins will cause you to spend hours of time maintaining them in the future. After all, those plugins put new code on your website, and you will be responsible for making sure that every piece is working properly. Any small issues can create security issues and those can cause major headaches. We recommend using plugins that have multiple features, because there are less compatibility issues. Jetpack is our favorite, but there are a few others. It is worth mentioning again that it is very necessary to get your plugins from a reputable and reliable source or you risk security issues on your site.

Work with a Managed Hosting Plan

We understand that you do not want to spend hours working on your website, which is why we always recommend working with a managed hosting plan. The hosting plan will perform all your updates, cache your files, create backups, and will even run security scans. You will still be in complete control of your website, they will just take care of some of the more timely maintenance issues that you are not going to want to spend time dealing with.

If you can implement these three things, you will find that you can have a successful website that will grow your business without spending hours maintaining it. In the end, you will be happy and so will those who want to check out your website to investigate your business.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. What I mean is, you own the message about your company and you should never let someone else control it.

Here’s an example

Google was one of the bidders in the pentagons cloud supply programs, but they were a distant 3rd in the running at best.

So, what did Google do?

Instead of waiting for the Pentagon to announce who won, Google withdrew citing “the project may conflict with Google’s core values,” hence controlling the message.

Always own the conversation about your business, even in an age of social media.

No, I don’t mean following up on contacts and leads, of course, that is important too, but what I’m talking about is your website.

Almost 60% of all internet consumption takes place on devices OTHER than desktops or laptops, so if your site isn’t responsive, you’re not even being seen.

When your site can’t even be seen, how effective do you think your website is? Not very. And the shame is, there are too many websites online today that only work on a desktop or laptop, and it is killing businesses every day.

If your website isn’t responsive, or you don’t have a site that works well on mobile, you are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in business because you aren’t being seen by people who would otherwise hire you.

Fix it!