Yeah sure, your website looks good. But is it healthy?
Let’s take a step back. Websites act as the central hub of your online presence. It’s where your prospects go for information. It’s where you’re audience obtains quality content. It’s where your leads close into customers. But in order to do all of this, your website needs to be healthy—meaning, optimized to perform to the best of its ability.
As we always say at Stratus, your website is like an always on, 24/7 salesman. Even if you aren’t around, it’s still representing your brand for every visitor that arrives on its homepage.
Now, ask yourself again: is it healthy? If you can honestly answer yes, congrats!
But if you’re not so sure, lets look at three quick ways to optimize your website to increase authentic lead generation:
Make It Responsive:
Mobile usage is at an all time high, meaning it doesn’t make sense to sit back and wait on a mobile website anymore. In fact, more people have access to mobile phones (86% of population) than they do viable toilets. That’s why so many websites are switching to responsive designs.
For those that don’t know, Responsive Design is the practices of creating website pages that can automatically adjust margins and format based on the size of the screen being utilized. Responsive design uses flexible media queries (CSS3 modules that render content based on conditions like page size, orientation, or screen resolution) to change the format and size of the window.
It’s important, as it allows users to access your website via their phones through a positive user experience—one that simplifies the site for mobile use, making it easier to peruse and use. And if your site isn’t mobile friendly 40% of your visitors will move on to the next best option.
For Example: Go to our homepage (www.stratusinteractive.com) and play around with the window size. You’ll notice the sections of the website, as well as the navigation, automatically change based on the window size.
Utilize Calls-to-Action (CTA):
If visitors find themselves on your website, and there aren’t any ways for them to take action (i.e. download, purchase, request information, etc.), there’s not really a reason for them to be there in the first place, is there? These buttons give your website purpose and guide visitors down your intended path—whatever that path may be. Oftentimes, CTAs link to:
- Landing Pages
- Content Offers
- Product Pages
But not all CTAs were created equally, and in order to get the highest click-through rates for your CTA, you need to make sure you:
- Use actionable language
- Show the benefits/what they’ll receive
- Create urgency
- Use contrasting/bold colors
- A/B test designs and copy
It’s important, because these buttons lead your visitors deeper into your website, increasing the chance they’ll purchase your products or services. The problem is, not enough websites are using CTAs. In fact, 70% of B2B businesses don’t even use CTAs on their website.
Don’t be one of them.
Optimize for Search Engines:
In order to produce a healthy, effective, lead-generating website, you need to optimize your content and copy for search engines like Google. That way, visitors can find your site or solutions by typing in a keyword phrase. There are three things you should be looking at in regards to your content:
Can it be indexed?
Indexing is Google’s way of utilizing your content through online search/ranking systems. This generally features a narrow focus on written content, as opposed to pictures, flash videos, Java apps and more. You need to do some research into the information on your site that’s being indexed, and make sure your viewers are seeing the same content you want them to. It’ll be hard to promote your site if Google doesn’t recognize it, so it’s better to get it done right, than regret your misdoings later.
Can it be crawled?
Generally, when testing your site’s crawling ability, Google is looking at the ability to explore the website, including internal/external links, and in order to have an effective SEO strategy for your website, you need to hone in on the kind of links you're including, and where they’re linking to. Some reasons your page isn’t being crawled by Google:
- Too many links on the same page
- Poor infrastructure or page design
- Pages that require form submissions
- Embedded links in Flash or JavaScript
Can you use keywords?
Keywords are vital to getting found once Google has your content indexed. But they’re more complicated than just the top phrases or words that describe your organization or its offerings.
Search engines rank them based on volume, relevance, search amount, and if you’re using them ineffectively, or spamming content with irrelevant keywords, your ranking will be punished. It’s important to use them effectively, and efficiently in order to increase your ranking. That means, no sentences like:
Are you looking for cheap lighting solutions? If you’re looking for cheap lighting solutions, look no further. Our cheap lighting solutions website is your source for the top cheap lighting solutions around. Feel free to browse our selection of cheap lighting solutions.
Conducting a thorough keyword analysis to enhance your SEO is easier said than done. But it’s also critically important. Do some research into what your target audience is searching for. By changing the website copy to reflect what they’re searching for, you’ll see a spike in organic traffic.
Follow these quick steps to optimize your website for lead generation, and you’ll start seeing improvements. But if you really want to take your website’s lead generation strategy to the next level, download our free guide below.