It’s a tale as old as time: Gwinnett county business owners get a DIY website set up, wait around for views and lead conversions, but nothing happens. You may not know it, but there’s probably at least one thing that you’ve done wrong – and that’s okay! Today we’re going to cover the top three things that might be holding up the cash flow and preventing your Snellville website from getting the attention it deserves.
Small Business Website Optimization: Speed
Have you ever searched for a product or service, clicked on a link in the first few pages of results, and immediately left the site because it took too long to load? You aren’t alone; according to TrinityOne, “almost 70% of customers (out of 750 surveyed) believe that a slow website negatively affects their decision to buy.” TrinityOne also says that the bounce rate is “38% for a [website with a] five-second load time.”
If you think that 38% is a lot, you’d be right. Can you imagine if your physical storefront was turning away 38% of customers as soon as they walked in the door? It’s not a good look! One important consideration is that bounce rate simply refers to how many visitors leave your website after viewing one page. Now, if you’re doing a lot of marketing for your blog posts and don’t have call-to-actions (CTAs), you will likely see a high bounce rate.
However, if the goal of your website is to sell, your visitors should be on at least two of your pages at any given interaction. Even clients who have a direct link to your ordering page should be redirected to a thank-you page to help with your bounce numbers.
Decreasing the Bounce Rate by Increasing Speed
So, if a slow website incites a higher bounce rate, we should be increasing the site’s speed. There are a few ways to do this, and some of them can get quite technical; however, at the heart of page speed is the number of plugins, javascript (js) files, and CSS files you have loading on a given page. Your theme can contribute to this issue, so you may want to select a minimalistic theme that utilizes local fonts. There are plugins that can help you minify and reduce your js and CSS files, but – again – too many plugins can slow you down, too.
Page speed is really a magical juggling of your website’s components. Unfortunately, it’s extremely simple to break things in the process, so make sure you have back-ups of your website before you start tinkering; better yet, leave page speed to the pros.
Search Engine Optimization
Yep, we said it. Search engine optimization (SEO) may not be everyone’s favorite, but it is so necessary. Some professionals dedicate their entire career solely to SEO because it is a constantly changing, evolving topic. If you aren’t familiar with SEO, it’s essentially the constant battle involving the creation of useful, engaging content on your website while utilizing keywords that a search engine will pick up and tag your page with.
For example, a business that sells air conditioning units in Atlanta will want their main website content (the front page, about page, etc.) to mention a variety of keywords that relate to these two bolded phrases throughout the text. Targeting headings and image metadata are great for SEO, too, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, Google can never seem to make up its mind about how it wants to rank pages, so your website might fluctuate in the rankings for a given keyword from week to week.
What You Can Do
You have two options, really. First, commit to learning all you can learn about SEO and develop every word of content yourself. Your second option is to hire a website designer who is also well-versed in SEO content creation. It may cost you some money, but you will save tons of time in research, website optimization, and management.
Don’t Forget to Blog!
There isn’t a single brand out there that wouldn’t benefit from a regularly updated blog reel. So many clients ask, “why do I need a blog?” The main reason is this: SEO. In order to be light and efficient, your website is not going to contain excessive text, case studies, infographics, or videos on the main pages. The blog is where you will drill into the fine details and catch all of those less important keywords.
In our example from above, our business might have blog posts like “Why Yearly Maintenance Is so Important” or “3 Signs Your Air Conditioner Is Failing.” Blog posts should target a customer who will be searching for your marketed solutions. Of course, each post should be optimized for the keywords that are related to the targeted customer’s searches.
Think Like a Gwinnett County Customer
Marketing is a lot like a guessing game – if you don’t wear the customer’s shoes. In order to effectively market your brand, you have to think like your target customer. What do they want to see on your website after searching for the keywords that they entered? Do you have CTAs for the customers who are ready to buy right now? Are you catering to the customers that aren’t quite sure what they want yet?
Your Small Business Website Is Like a Maze
For new visitors, this is completely and utterly true. Even the smartest, most intuitive potential customer can get hung up and confused by incoherently designed pages. The best course of action is to make things simple! Make it outstandingly obvious how your visitors should contact you, order from you, and get back to find you. CTAs are your website’s best friend in the realm of conversions; a website that doesn’t proclaim where the order screen resides is like a department store that has its cash registers in the bathroom. If they can’t find how to order, no amount of marketing is going to save you!
Snellville Websites Are Made for Your Small Business
There’s a great reason many small businesses in the Atlanta and Gwinnett county areas decide to leave website optimization to the pros. Not only is it difficult, but it is also time-consuming. Here at Snellville Websites, we have 10+ years of experience in website design, page speed optimization, SEO, and marketing. Your business will be in good hands with us. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation today!
