Do I need a website for my business? Yes, your website should be your biggest lead generator. Here at Wicky Design, our website is our biggest source of leads.
I’m writing this article because of a recent experience. We recently needed some work done around our house, so I was looking to hire a few different contractors. This journey of finding some good contractors proved to be very challenging.
The first thing I did was go on our local neighborhood Facebook Group to get recommendations.
This didn’t work at all. Nobody would answer their phones or return my calls. Not one of these local guys had a website or any online social media accounts.
After several attempts, I gave up on the Facebook Group recommendations! I then went to Google and started searching locally for companies in our area. After some research, I finally found a few companies that I hired!
The reason? Because they had professional websites, responded to reviews, and answered their phone or emails quickly! Because of this experience, I will never try to find the “local guy” in the neighborhood to do work on my house. I will pay extra for a better customer service experience and professionalism!
I was approaching this search all wrong from the beginning. I should have focused on hiring a company and not just some guy that might answer his phone when he feels like it.
Now I will give you some important tips if your just starting your business or if your website is outdated.
New Website Tips:
It’s 2019. If you don’t have a website, your business is not going to be taken seriously. Not having a website simply isn’t an option anymore. People research companies online and buy from someone that looks professional and trustworthy. Your new website needs to reflect that.
Need a new website? Contact us today.
Outdated Website Tips:
A modern professional website shows customers that you aren’t stuck in the dark ages. It’s very important to stay current on web technologies. If you have an existing website from 5+ years ago and noticed you’re getting less traffic that’s because your website isn’t current with best practices and web technologies.
Here’s a few reasons why people might be leaving your outdated website or you’re not ranking very well in the search engines:
- Not mobile friendly: If your website isn’t responsive and mobile friendly, you are being penalized in Google. Google has officially announced that they are using mobile-first indexing as a ranking factor. Google is now focusing on user experience as a ranking factor.
- Slow loading: Similar to being mobile friendly, Google is taking user experience very seriously. Your website should be loading in under 3 seconds. It’s important to now think about how content/images you are loading each page.
- Flash technology: If you happen to have a really old website that’s running Flash. It’s very important to drop Flash and upgrade to a newer technology. It’s not common, but I still come across websites that were built in Flash. A lot of times these are photography websites. Flash was big for photographers because it allowed rich graphics and animations to showcase photos.
- Bad design: Having a professional design is very important for user experience. If your website doesn’t look professional or match your brand, people will notice and often leave your website. If you’re not sure if your website has “bad design”, ask a few friends or family members for their opinions. We are professional designers and we often ask friends for feedback on design layouts.
- Stock photos: Using cheesy stock photos on your website will stand out and hurt your overall brand. Some people might not think that using stock images is a big deal, but I can tell you from experience that people will notice. It’s not much of an investment to hire a photographer for a day and take professional photos for your website. We did it for our website and have received tons of great feedback. We even had a few clients tell us that having our own professional photos helped establish trust when they hired us.
- Content: Make sure you write the content on your website to help your visitors and not just talk about yourself. People are visiting your website for help or guidance. This took me awhile to understand, because I always just thought of a website as a sales pitch and a place to showcase my work. Once I changed the language on our website to help answer people’s questions we have seen a huge increase in leads and interaction.
There’s absolutely no reason why you’re business shouldn’t have a professional website in 2019.
