website reviews via video

Website reviewed:
constructionmarketingideas.blogspot.com

This video explores the low trust factor and navigation difficulty that this website has. Watch the video to learn how to improve the website ‘trust’ factor as well as reorganize the website navigation to make it easier to find the rich content that the site has to offer.

Your website design should showcase your company’s strengths and services—not make them impossible to find.

DC-area public relations firm Crawford PR is suffering from a bad case of Internet irony; the award-winning telecom PR strategists have sorely neglected the marketing potential of their own website. With some good content hidden behind an anti-Google shield, potential customers are unlikely to find the company, let alone initiate contact. But with three strategic upgrades, the Crawford PR website could and should become a lead-generation machine.

Site, Meet Google
The homepage look is well designed, clean, and professional, but because every element is an image, the best it can do is rebuff Google’s advances, convincing the search engine that it’s nothing but a pretty face. That’s a real shame, because there are over 40,000 searches every day for the key phrase “public relations,” and over 27,000 for “pr agency.” Unfortunately, Crawfordpr.com is so impenetrable that it doesn’t even show up in a search of “pr” and its specific suburban hometown. Given the evident search interest, that’s a significant missed opportunity.

Cool or Confusing?
But Google isn’t the only rejected suitor, as visitors who do make it to the homepage are likely to be confounded by the menu options. Using a driving analogy, the traditional “services” and “about us” sections, for example, are disguised as “milestones” and “navigators,” making it unnecessarily difficult to find relevant and compelling information. Persuasive material—like the well-done case studies—are too easily missed, and the site thus fails to develop the sense of trust that would persuade visitors to become clients.

Then What?
One of the axioms of Internet marketing is that you have to be brutally clear with your potential customers about what steps they can take toward retaining your services. Known as a “call to action,” this could be anything from a free quote request form to a subscription option on an engaging and updated company blog. The Crawford PR site offers nothing along the lines of a sales funnel, and thus offers little reason for a visitor to make contact.

Physician, Heal Thyself
The prescription? Marketer, market! Reconstruct the site and optimize it for Google, so that online traffic has a chance of finding the website. Make the menu options user-friendly and add a news blog with a subscription option to build interest and trust by actively presenting case studies and analyses of news in the world of PR. Finally, present visitors with a call to action through blog subscription, a free consultation offer, or other means.

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.