website reviews via video

Your website can be a crucial element of your marketing strategy—if it’s designed with your services and your professional goals in mind.

Freelance writer Ruthann Baler’s site is doing well on several statistical fronts; her pages viewed per visit are above average; her bounce rate is below; and the average time a visitor spends on her site is just over three minutes. But a closer look at the website’s stats reveals several major weaknesses that are hindering its ability to effectively market Ruthann’s services. With a few structural tweaks and a renewed sense of focus, ruthannbaler.com should become a driving force in the growth of her business.

Search Engine Optimization
Ruthann’s website draws just over 44% of its traffic from search engines—pretty good for a site that is not search engine optimized. But while her #2 and #3 keyword searches are right on target for her industry, she isn’t taking full advantage of the search interest in freelance copywriting. A little bit of SEO would make a huge difference.

Publishing
Ruthann really should be taking advantage of blogging. As a writer, not only would a blog demonstrate her talent, but it would give her an opportunity to sell the importance of her services—how great copywriting can help businesses. From the perspective of search engine optimization, blogging would also up her profile in Google by providing new and relevant content.

Focus
The site statistics reveal that the most popular page on this site isn’t Services, About, or Home, but a page entitled Music and Community, which has no obvious relationship to Ruthann’s business. A full 32% of the link use from the home page goes there, and it takes the top rank for most visited pages on the site. While there may be some advantage to highlighting charitable work, this example does not appear to be doing anything to optimize Ruthann’s site as a marketing tool, and she may want to consider diminishing its prominence, or removing it from the site altogether.

Call to Action
Not surprisingly, businesses benefit from interaction with their potential clients. But many websites fail to feature a call to action—something that would prompt a visitor to make that initial contact. Ruthann’s site lacks that kind of obvious lead outreach, and could be significantly improved by the addition of features that would take a visitor from passive viewer to active inquirer. Something like a free consultation or an option to subscribe to her blog could make a huge difference.

In sum, ruthannbaler.com is in an excellent position to benefit from targeted improvement; with search engine optimization, an updated blog, renewed focus on her services, and a call to action for site visitors, Ruthann should see a dramatic increase in the leads generated by her online presence.