Tips to Vendors for Building an Effective Website

Simple Is Better

Make it as simple and easy to understand as possible.  Look at your page objectively, as your audience would view it.  In most cases, less is more.  Just make it obvious who you are and what you do.  Try to communicate that in as few sentences as possible.  Maybe create a video on the home page to promote your services.  Make it easy for your consumer to find the next steps.  Make buttons to make a purchase large and pronounced.

Contact Info

Make sure your contact information is easy to find.  There’s no reason to make people search your site for it.  If it’s not convenient for your audience, they will be more likely to bounce and move on to a competitor whose information is more readily available.  A way to do this is putting your phone number in the upper right-hand corner of the website.  Call to action buttons for each of the services that you provide need to be large and pronounced.

SEO

Make your presence known on search engines.   Fill your website with rich content focusing on keywords your customers most often use.  Code your site so that it is “Crawlable” by Google (and other search engines) and include keywords in the page tags.  Pay close attention to title tags, Meta-description tags, page names, internal links, navigation, and the site map.  Utilizing both Google and Bing webmaster tools can be a good system for monitoring how your site is being interpreted and ranked by these search engines.  Bing webmaster tools will make continual suggestions on specific improvements that you can make to your site to make it SEO friendly.

Content Creation (Also Good for SEO)

Google is pushing more and more for regular content creation.  A “dead” site that does not create its own content will suffer in search rankings no matter how precise the Meta data is.  Meanwhile a company that is creating content is naturally engaging its own audience.  In the eyes of Google, this is a measure of a company’s value to the consumer that strongly affects both its organic and PPC rankings.

Differentiate Your Data Gathering

Don’t rely solely on your “contact” tab or page for lead generation – intersperse your website with different levels of involvement for the user.  Some users are still dipping their feet into the water.  Meanwhile others are ready to make a purchase immediately.  Give your potential consumers multiple options to interact with your brand in different ways and at an individual pace.

•  Request a quote or purchase online
• “Call Now” or online chat feature
• Allow users to order free samples
• Offer a registration for a seminar/webinar
• Have a request for access to “premium content” – whitepapers, knowledge base, articles, etc.
•  E-mail newsletter subscription

Utilizing Social Media for Continued Consumer Interaction

While referrals based on word of mouth will never be dead, the internet is a growing way that people find the products and services that they need.  Many word of mouth interactions are beginning to move online. One of the best ways to promote your business, in addition to building a website, is by incorporating social media to encourage referrals both on and offline.  While many B2B businesses have experienced difficulty in getting new consumers on an immediate basis through social media, you should consider social media an excellent use of remarketing to continually engage your most avid supporters of your brand and to keep the brand salient.  By staying in front of this base, those supporters are more likely to push and promote you to their friends and family because you’re at the forefront of their mind.

Create a Remarketing List on Facebook

Just like Google, Facebook gives you the ability to use remarketing for every visitor to your website. This increases the number of interactions your consumer has with your brand and the likelihood that you will receive further engagement through a Facebook like and future engagements when your consumer is ready to make a purchase.