Your website should be the hardest worker at your disposal. It doesn’t need sleep (or coffee for that matter), and it should always be ready to turn a complete stranger into your best customer. Taking the time to properly design and set up your website will ensure it is always working as hard as you are.
Local customers are turning to search engines for any and all information they can find about your company. As small as Durango and the Four Corners area is, this is only becoming a more utilized way of reviewing businesses. Whether they find you on a Google search, Yelp, Instagram or elsewhere if your website isn’t set up to convert this traffic into actual inquiries, you’re missing out on monetizing your marketing. Why?
Your website is much more than an online profile for your business. Think of it more as your very own, 24-hour salesperson who is going to speak to every person who visits your business online. Many times, it’s the first interaction a customer will have with your business, and you’ll want to make a good first impression.
To help you leave a good impression, we’ve listed 7 essentials your site needs to turn website visitors into paying customers.
1. Have a mobile-friendly website.
A mobile-friendly website means that people who visit your website on mobile devices such as smartphones are able to easily navigate through your site. This means the text on your website should be easy to read. They shouldn’t have to pinch in and out of your website to read or click on something.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, 80 percent of visitors will leave your site due to a bad experience. Even if your site was recently designed, it may still not be mobile-friendly. So, do a thorough examination of your site. You can start with using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check your web pages.
2. Create a modern-looking website.
3. Include call to actions.
4. Provide enough contact information.
- location (Durango, Bayfield, Telluride, Four Corners, Montrose, Ouray, Ridgway, Farmington, etc.)
- phone number
- email address
- your service
at the very top of your page. Not providing this information can prevent prospective customers from continuing to look at your website.
5. Post high-quality photos.
Including photos on your website can help enhance a visitor’s experience when they visit your site. However, photos can also ruin your website. If you post images that are blurry or unattractive, it will not inspire someone to contact you.
6. Improve your website’s readability.
When a person visits your website, it should be easy for them to read your copy or descriptions. As a general rule, write your website copy at the level of an 8th grader. This may sound silly, but you want short, concise, and easy to read sentences.
7. Have descriptive keywords, titles, and meta descriptions.
Someone is less likely to find your local business on Google if your website includes words and phrases that are too vague. Why? Because there are thousands of other websites with the same vague words on their website as well. What you want to do is make sure Google knows what is specifically on your website by writing including specific words and phrases that relate to your business. For example, if you are a locksmith located in Durango, make sure your website uses a variation of keywords that describe that, such as “Best Locksmith in Durango” and “Four Corners Locksmith”.
