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Contractors, Make the Most Out of Search Results

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The Internet is a labyrinth of sites so big it boggles the mind. In fact, how someone manages to find your site is a miracle of modern technology right?

But all traffic is not created equal

Most of the time, we don’t pay enough attention to how people find our sites, we just assume it is someone typing something in the Google address bar and POOF, they wind up on our sites, and for the most part that’s true. Except, the searcher’s intent is even more important now than ever before.

Why, because we all know all search traffic is not created equal. Let’s take a look at where two search terms and how one could mean anything, and the other could mean cold, hard cash to your contracting company. [Read more…] about Contractors, Make the Most Out of Search Results

Measure Twice, Cut Once Works on Websites Too!

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I want to cover some things you and your staff (if you have any) should do before launching an advertising campaign online. The biggest thing you need to consider right now, today, before you spend one dime promoting your contracting business online is – your existing website.

If your current website is merely a place holder or “online brochure”, then it’s time to get real. If you’re lucky, people are coming to your site everyday and leaving without contacting you. Yeah, you read that right, I said lucky. You are lucky because prospects are finding you in spite of the fact that you have a shitty website. Trust me when I tell you, not having traffic and still having a shitty site is much, much worse!

Why is a terrible site with traffic a good thing?

Because fixing the site means people will stay around longer and God forbid, maybe join your mailing list or even become a client or customer! Now, I am a marketing guy from way back, so I never really adopted the “sticky” philosophy many web types talk about. You should want prospects to stop by your site to educate themselves on your business, become clients or customers, and continue to buy your products or services while referring you to friends and family. If your goal is anything other than what I just laid out for you, then you are reading the wrong blog!

So, let’s talk about fixing your site

Now, I am a firm believer in the old saying “You don’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been”, so let’s get an idea of where your site is. First, let’s find what Google knows about your site:

Step 1: Go to the Google search page at www.google.com and type the following without quotes “site:YourDomainName.com” in the search bar. It should go without saying, but in case you haven’t had enough coffee yet, replace YourDomainName.com with your actual website address. Google will list all of your pages they have in their index. The higher the number of pages listed the better. You can also try this tactic for your competition. That way, you can get a nice list of sites and review their material all at once.  Then test some of your links by clicking on them to make sure they go to the pages they are supposed to. If they don’t, get them fixed ASAP.

Step 2: Now, go back to the Google search bar and type “links:YourDomain.com”. This is the total number of sites that link TO YOUR SITE. Again, the higher the number the better. To Google, more links means you are an authority on your topic. You always want to be increasing your links and you should have a solid linking strategy and stick to it.

Step 3: If you haven’t already, go to Google Webmaster Tools and sign up for an account. Once you sign up, you will be given a piece of code to insert on your site. This code is what Google uses to give you vital information about the status of your site. You can read more about Google Webmaster Tools here.

Step 4: Again, if you haven’t already, go and sign up for a Google Analytics account. It’s a free service from Google and it tells you everything you need to know about the visitors to your site. Once you install the analytics code, you will know how many visitors come to your site, how they got there, how long they stay, how many pages they view and much more. You can find out more about Google Analytics here.

Once you have this information, you can then begin to track your progress. If up until now you have just relied on the reports you get from your webmaster then you are doing yourself a huge disservice. You need to be involved in every aspect of your website just as you are in your business.

Design Consideration for Contractor Websites

Color: Just like your home or office, a fresh coat of paint does wonders to freshen up a stale looking website.  How long has it been since you changed the look and feel of your site? Does your color scheme scream 1990’s web 1.0?

Spelling & Punctuation Errors: Do you know if your site has any spelling or grammatical errors? I bet your customers do! You need to check your site and make sure everything passes your 3rd grade English teacher’s smell test. If your site is too big to check, offer a small reward to your visitors by pointing out any errors they find.

Layout & Usability: This is the ultimate website functionality killer! More people leave a site because of navigation issues than any other reason. To combat this, follow some simple yet effective tips to make sure your visitors are getting the experience on your site they deserve. Things like broken links, pages that end without giving any direction on what to do next, PDF files that take forever to load. These are just some of the layout issues that send people screaming into the night and off of your pages. Now, I understand you have a business to run, and maybe all this website stuff is beyond your ability. Then you need to read just one book; “Don’t Make Me Think ” to realize how site design and layout determines the way your visitors interact with your site and by extension, your company.

Selling Factor: This isn’t a typical metric or deliverable you are going to find from most site designers, but it needs to be a key factor to you. You basically need to know how well your site does at converting a prospect into a lead, and then into a client or customer. If you haven’t gotten much business from your website, then there is plenty of work to do. The good part is, just fixing the selling factor alone could be enough to start the sales engine your website needs. You can determine the “Selling Factor” using Google Analytics or with the help of your webmaster.

Scalability: How open is your current website to scale? What that means is any online advertising is going to put extra strain on your site and system resources. Ever hear of the Digg effect? It’s when a site or blog gets on the front page of Digg and all of a sudden thousands of visitors show up on your virtual doorstep. If your site isn’t hosted on a robust enough server it is going to crash at absolutely the worst possible time. In other words, now is a good time to evaluate your current hosting company BEFORE the heavy traffic comes. And to make it easy on you, if you are paying $4.95 for a basic shared plan, then I have two words for you…your screwed. So, if you are in the market for a new hosting company, check out BlogOnCloud9, they can handle all the traffic you can throw at them.

So, that’s a pretty good start to getting your website ready for what hopefully will be a flood of new clients and customers. If you want to get a copy of my “website preparedness” worksheet, drop me an email or let me know in the comments below and I will get one out to you.

Sometimes it Isn’t Nice to Share!

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When you spend the time to create a video, edit it and get it ready for human consumption (you could always just point and shoot like I do) you want the resulting traffic back at your place, on your website. Having a solid construction website will tell a lot about you, your products and services and your company’s personality, so don’t let sites like YouTube cannibalize your traffic and steal your thunder. Make sure people have to come to your website to see your stuff. That way, they can learn more about who you are, what you do and God forbid, fill out a contact form or make a phone call. [Read more…] about Sometimes it Isn’t Nice to Share!

Testimonials Mean More Business Right? So Why Aren’t You Using Them on Your Site?

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I was going through a bunch of website reviews and one of the things I noticed was the absence of a “Testimonials” tab or link on many of these sites. Now more than ever, what someone says about your company matters more than anything your advertising can say, so why not use the kind words of others to help you sell more?

Warning: Facebook is Stealing Your Customers!

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I know I have been on a couple of rants lately; Angie’s List, Service Magic’s high-jacking free listings and selling you your own leads, and Facebook.

Ah Facebook….

While most of my rants were aimed at companies that I think are doing it wrong for construction marketing, my problem with Facebook hasn’t been Facebook, it’s been the way contractors are using Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg is worth a couple billion dollars because we drive traffic to his site instead of our own (yeah, I have a fan page too).

But I didn’t know how bad it was…

Until I read a stat a week or so ago that claimed that the single most popular advertising method for local businesses online was creating a free profile on a social network. And 65.7% (to be exact) used FB to create a free page for their businesses.

Now, understand the difference, creating a FB page isn’t necessarily advertising, but when companies then pay for offline marketing that promotes a FB fan page instead of their own construction website or specific landing page, I lose my mind.

I don’t want you to believe the hype

Here is what I am asking…in fact begging you to do. Don’t promote a FB fan page in your offline marketing. Instead, send people to your own site. And if your own site isn’t converting, then let’s fix it. But stop giving someone else your traffic, who then serves your competitor’s ads against your page. It’s like having people show up at your shop or store, walk through the showroom, out the back door and into Home Depot…to learn about your business.

Does that make sense to you? Yet you are paying for exactly that when you promote your Facebook fan page offline!

 

Contractor Websites and The New Rules of SEO

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I hope for your website’s sake that the news in this video is old news. That either you or your website people have kept up to speed on Google’s latest algorithm change (called Panda…after the developer, not the bear) and how it affects search engine optimization today, and what the overall impact is on your website. You see, contractors run around doing a thousand things a day and the last thing they want to do at night is mess around with their website. If this means you, and you hired someone, I hope they have called you by now because the game has changed. Click the link to watch the video from one of the premier SEO guys (and companies) in the business to see what this means for your contracting company and your website.

How’s Your Traffic? Or Why You Should Be Blogging

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If you run a construction company, chances are you also have a website. No matter how much kicking and screaming you may have done to get it online, it’s probably right there in cyberspace right now.

But when is the last time you updated? If your answer is the since the Bush Administration, stop reading now!

Has it been six months, a year, never? That’s OK, I already know the answer. Unless you are blogging consistently you probably don’t pay too much attention to your site.

And that’s why your competition is kicking your ass!

You see, the reason some of your friend’s sites may be doing so well is because they have started blogging, and have attached a blog to their static website. Or maybe they have even converted their old HTML site into a shiny new CMS site, or content management-based system such as WordPress.

Why go through all the hassle?

Because WordPress-based sites are easier to maintain and manage compared to your traditional html website, and the on-page SEO benefits aren’t too shabby either.

So don’t fear the blog!

Now you might hear the word blog and confuse it with something different from your traditional website. And to a certain degree, you are right. But adding a blog can really be just what the doctor ordered in when it comes to getting more involved in the performance of your online marketing, starting with your website.

You see, by adding fresh content to your site via your blog, Google and the other search engines will visit more often and show your site to more people searching for the terms you want to be found for.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a little more complicated than that. But the point is, websites in 2011 aren’t meant to be left to their own devices, they need to be cared for just like any marketing or advertising program inside your organization. If you think you have a stinker for a site, or you know your site isn’t pulling in the traffic you need, maybe starting off with a site evaluation is a good place to start.

Photo Credit: Antigone