The number one error I see business owners make with their websites:
Is that they buy in to the hype that their website needs to be ranking well on google. Yes I said that!
Now, don’t get me wrong – traffic is important, and google is very much a part of our every day lives at this point in time. BUT, I encourage business owners and entrepreneurs to question exactly HOW much weight they should give to that (sometimes) elusive google click.
It’s very well and good to be approached by one of the myriad of SEO companies out there, whether they’re from your local area, your country or offshore – it seems we are bombarded constantly with promises of “top search results” or “increased traffic” – in other words, the quick fix!
Well, I hate to break it to you, but MOST of our customers aren’t ready to part with their had earned cash simply based on the fact that you’ve appeared at number one on their search results page alone. When – and if – they click through, they’re going to want to know certain things about you and your product and service:
- What will it be like to work with you?
- Do you understand the problem they are trying to solve?
- Do you have the skills required? Will you show up on time?
- Will they be able to afford you?
- Or, if money is no object, will the value of your service align with the value of what they are willing to spend?
And that’s assuming that they’ve turned to google for the solution to their problem in the first place.
Now, if you’re a service, a trade or a very niche or hard to find product, google probably should appear higher on your marketing budget wish list. But if you’re selling a luxury item, a lifestyle product or a product or service that no one has heard of before – something that when they see it they’ll want it – you’re going to want to have interruption marketing higher on your marketing budget wishlist – think billboards, radio and TV ads, magazine ads and social media marketing.
So, getting back to google, if you HAVE identified that your ideal customer is likely to turn to google to find your service, and you ARE paying to play in the google ads space, you’ve probably heard that it’s a good idea to write your website copy in such a way that ranks well on google – to increase your organic search engine optimisation – your SEO.
Simply yes, that WILL help you to be found on google and will then potentially drive traffic to your website. But, that’s just one part of a very important and complex equation.
We need to also consider WHO our ideal client is, what differentiates them from a not ideal client – it may be budget, or expectation for example – and HOW WE are going to show them, once they click through to our website that they are either in the right place for them, or they are not. In order to proceed, and not reach for that back button, they need to FEEL that they are in the right place – with like minded people, where their needs are understood, where they can get an idea of WHO they would be dealing with and HOW their problems can be solved.
So, if you’ve written and designed your website purely for google to get the click, you may find you’ve missed the opportunity for your website to communicate WHO you are as a business and HOW your ideal customers should expect to feel when they work with you. You’ve missed the opportunity to allow your customers to form a relationship with your brand.
This is where brand design, websites and marketing strategy are intimately interrelated.
So – in practical terms - if you’ve got a good amount of traffic coming to your site but not a lot of enquiry, e-commerce sales, or an equally high bounce rate, this can be an indicator that you’ve put too much emphasis on keeping the robots happy, and not enough emphasis on the HUMAN elements and the BEHAVIOURS that drive sales.
Now, there are still lots more factors that come into this complex equation – where the customer is in the buying cycle, whether you’re competing on price or offering a niche experience, what your competitors are doing, what the price point is – it’s a shorter road to a $100 sale than a $10,000 or $100,000 sale (and I work with clients who offer products and services across the spectrum).
SO, if you’ve failed to identify your ideal customer persona’s and what their journey’s towards a sale might look like in the planning stages of building your website, you could be throwing your money away by spending it on google clicks.
At the root of every flourishing brand and website is a plan.
With every brand and website project, I take a comprehensive dive into
- WHO your ideal customers are,
- HOW they are introduced to your business, and
- WHY they are willing to spend their money with YOU.
So that the solution I design and build for you, is tailored to the needs of YOUR individual business and YOUR ideal client. And, together with my team of experts, I can put that plan into action.
I’m Tonia, designer, creator and cultivator of flourishing brands and ecommerce websites. I look forward to talking business with you soon!
