By Ed Munro
Marketing & Communications Consultant
Red Rokk Interactive
Contributing Writer
Q: How can a small-business website become a destination for repeat visits and more sales?
Quite often we meet small-business owners who offer great services and products with a business model and marketing plan that delivers results in terms of satisfied, loyal customers.
We also see company websites underutilized or not fully taking advantage of search-engine optimization, or SEO. These are cases of missed opportunities where too many potential customers are not finding these companies online when searching for the products and services they offer.
It is important to remember that a company website is not a static, “brochure” site. Today, the ability to interact with viewers and post regular updates and fresh blogs with links to additional information (often called landing pages) are part of what makes a website active.
Five tips to improve a business website:
1. Credible content. When viewers visit a website, they’re hunting for information about products and services, and they typically have questions. If a company’s website is squarely focused on selling and is filled with messages that scream: “BUY ME!”, then it’s not informing or engaging the viewer, neither is it providing answers to questions. As a result, viewers will quickly go elsewhere.
2. Informative content. Company websites often are the visitor’s first point of contact with the brand and therefore first impressions are important. Quality content is why viewers will take the time to explore a website and a main the reason why they’ll come back and become customers. Quality content includes interesting and informative subjects that focus on current topics and include expert analysis or links to sources where further information can be found.
3. Well-written content. It’s really quite simple. Making sure that the grammar and spelling are correct throughout the website maintains credibility. Recent studies indicate that when customers spot a spelling or grammatical error on a company’s website, they immediately lose confidence in the business and will go elsewhere, even if there is a compelling offer.
4. SEO content. This is typically the most overlooked issue that many company websites face. The reasons vary, but it’s usually because the company has not prioritized its marketing plan to include its website as one of its lead communications tools. Gone are the days when businesses would launch a website and then forget about it as if it were a static Yellow Pages ad.
Today, for many companies that rely on web traffic for new business, it’s crucial to constantly update their websites by adding fresh content with blogs, news and company announcements, videos and special features. It’s also important that the content contains keywords and phrases that a company’s target audience searches for most often. Fresh content and keywords are two essential elements that help make up a successful inbound marketing program, generating a constant stream of new and repeat visitor traffic.
5. Simple navigation. Websites that convert the most sales and get repeat visits are those with features that are simple and seem intuitive. Navigation from
page to page, an easy checkout process, and links and answers to questions are important factors that encourage repeat visits. Providing contact information that is easy to find and use is also essential. Finally, no website is complete without making sure that it is properly formatted for mobile-content viewing.
By starting a dedicated program to focus these five tips, a company’s website should start to see results in the weeks and months that follow.
Having trouble effectively reaching your target market? Let us answer your questions about marketing, advertising, website design and development, social media, SEO or anything else related to the promotion of your business. Send questions to the Red Rokk Interactive team by email at info@redrokk.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Ed Munro is a marketing and communications consultant at Red Rokk Interactive, a marketing and advertising agency located in Bellingham. The company specializes in developing high impact campaigns that create awareness and drive sales. Columns from the Red Rokk Interactive team appear on BBJToday.com on the first Tuesday of every month. Red Rokk is online at www.redrokk.com.
