In Conversion Optimization Part 1 – Website Visitors Into Customers – We covered “Building Trust” with your website. In this article, we’re going to cover how to align your website with your business goals. After all, what good is it if you build a great website, build trust instantly with your visitor and get them to request more information…but it’s more information about something you don’t sell?!?!?! Not good right? So let’s take a look at how we can align our business goals and our website to make sure we maximize our branding and sales opportunities.
Obviously the first step in aligning your website with your business goals is completely understanding what your business is and what it is not. Only you can as a business owner, manager, executive can decide that. Once you know though, the hard part is finished. This is not a post about “how to define what your business is”, however, I will offer a few pointers that are important for your website strategy going forward.
Include all stake holders are included in these goal definition processes. There is nothing worse than you and the other key personnel giving conflicting marching order to the troops.
Make sure your employees are well informed about the companies goals, mission and direction and initial plan on how you are going to get there. The more informed/educated they are, the more apt they are to help you get there.
Stick to what you know! This is especially true of start-ups. Branching out into vertical markets and offerings only makes sense once you establish yourself as a player in the primary market of choice. It also helps keep your business goals, employees and marketing efforts aligned and manageable for a longer period of time.
Once you have the business goals outlined, the entire team onboard and ready to serve your customers, it’s time to get to work on your website and making sure you align the site with your goals. This may seem like a “no brainer” but trust me; there are a TON of sites out there that fail to match the message on their website with overall business objectives and goals. Some quick bullet points about this step:
Match the website design and color scheme to your existing (or new) marketing efforts. The llok and feel of the website should match and align with your Logo, Letterhead, Business Cards, TV Spots, Radio Spots, etc.
Be consistent with your branding message (beyond logo and color scheme).
If you custom build landing pages for Adwords Campaigns (or other Internet Marketing), be consistent with color schemes and branding there as well. Landing Pages get a little flexibility as you need to A/B Test and adjust, but color Scheme and LOGO should not vary across multiple platforms or campaigns.
Be sure to us Headings that clearly explain your value proposition “or” what problem you solve with your product and or services. Again, be sure to match your business goals here. [#SEOTIP – Do some solid Keyword research before or during this phase and inter-weave your best keywords into your headings, content and alt tags]
Be sure to use “plain language” on your website. Yes we covered this in Part 1, however, it’s too important not to mention again. Some people don’t even know they your services yet while others not only know it, they are hungry for your products and services. Make sure everyone can understand you and maximize your exposure and sales.
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You may or may not have seen an email, webpage, blog article or other news media source that Google itself is pushing out. The crux of the message is ”Virginia, Get Your Business Online!”. The message is a pretty simple one, Google wants all small businesses to get online and publish a website. According to Google it’s an easy, practical and FREE way to promote your business. Google has gone so far as to come into Virginia communities with a small team of Google representatives and met with business owners to give out this free advice. They even point you to ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) that Host a website for one year for FREE and provide free website templates that can have even the most non-tech savvy person configure and launch a website within a couple of minutes and start to be found by the throngs of searches that are looking for the small business product or service you provide. Everything they say is 100% true. Of course, truth can be a relative term.
What do I mean by that? I’m glad you asked. You see, Google has a vested interest in having every small business create and then maintain an online presence via a website. Have they spoke the truth though? Is it possible to put up a live, fully functional website within a few minutes for FREE? Yes, it absolutely is. So if it’s true, then what’s the problem with this scenario? Well from a distance nothing. Google has stated the unequivocal truth and they will undoubtedly stand behind their message with a “we just want to help small business harness the power of the internet” statement. If that’s true, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, as an internet professional who earns a living evaluating, fixing and promoting websites, I have some pretty serious concerns with this kind of message. There is no way a “non-tech savvy” business owner with zero internet marketing experience is going to be able to launch a website within an hour that is even remotely visible to the search engines, not to mention actually promote it.
“Google could be starting the next great thing by helping every small business get an inexpensive website, or they could be setting themselves up for a never ending stream of paid search dollars.”
So what is Google’s motivation for this push? Is it to share knowledge and promote the internet market place? You see, in order to answer that question, you have to understand exactly how Google earns its revenue. It does so by selling advertising and paid search results (the top three highlighted links returned on nearly every search). That’s right. If you want to be on TOP of Google, all you have to do is set up and Adwords account and be willing to pay XX amount of dollars per click that they get you on their ad and BOOM, you get your website listed at the TOP of Google.
Don’t get me wrong, paid search advertising has its place in this world and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. However, I will take issue with Google (or anyone) who proclaims that any small business owner can get on line for little very little cost and then be at the top of the search engine results pages without an investment of some sort. In order to be at the top you must be willing to invest in one of the following:
#1 You Invest Your Time – Self education in internet and organic search engine marketing. Expect to spend about 3-6 months just learning what to do and how to do it the correct way. Once educated, then you can start marketing your site and you can expect to spend anywhere from 3 to 24 months on that full time effort, depending entirely on the competitiveness and difficulty of the keywords you are trying to rank for.
#2 Invest in Organic Search Engine Marketing – You can hire an SEO Services Company and you can invest in an SEO Services Package that will market your company and help you gain the trust and authority you need to rank well in the search engine results pages. This assures you actually get results, that you get those results in a timely manner and that you get them in an ethical and search engine friendly manner (very important, lest you be banned from the search engines altogether for doing it wrong). All this of course, is based on you hiring the right SEO agency to promote your site. The benefits of a properly optimized and promoted website can have lasting affects with minimal cost to maintain the rankings once you’re at the top of the search engines.
#3 Invest in Paid Search Results Advertising – Quite simply you just need to open a Google Adwords account (or Yahoo/Bing account), register your site,, give them your credit card, spending limits (daily, weekly or monthly), select and bid on your keywords, select your target market segments and then write your ads and publish them. If you have done everything correctly, you can have traffic at your site within a few hours. How much traffic and how much revenue can you get this way? That depends on your keywords, your bids and how good your website is.
So although it’s true, that Google can help you get online within minutes, the likelihood it will change your business that quickly is pretty slim. Just like anything else worth something in this world, if you want quality traffic that is going to affect your business, you will have to spend an investment (in time or money) marketing it. The question about the quality of the site, the quality of the traffic and how you market your site, is up to you.
We would love to hear what the professional web design and internet marketing community think of this Google initiative also. So if you are an internet professional, please feel free to chime below in the comments section. Also, if you are a small business owner and found your way here, please feel free to chime in your opinion as well. We would love to hear what you think.
click-finders is a full service Internet Marketing firm that offers Affordable SEO Services, PPC Management, Social Media Management, Web Design and Development, Reputation Management and more. Contact us today for a FREE, no obligation SEO analysis of your website and find out how we can help get to the top and stay at the top of Google!
Once you have the business goals outlined, the entire team onboard and ready to serve your customers, it’s time to get to work on your website and making sure you align the site with your goals. This may seem like a “no brainer” but trust me; there are a TON of sites out there that fail to match the message on their website with overall business objectives and goals. Some quick bullet points about this step:
