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ApplianceThe Need For A High Converting Website
Your website should be your hardest working and highest closing Salesperson. Even more than that, it’s often your customer’s first impression of your business. It’s important to clearly and properly showcase your brand and value immediately when someone lands on your site. There are several elements that should be included on all websites, but specifically yours (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical or Roofing) that make it easier for a potential customer to do business with you. We want to go through the top 3 considerations you need to make when building a website in the Home Service Industry.
We have collected this data from Google Analytics, Lucky Orange (heatmap tracking), conversion rates and overall conversational feedback from customers. I always like to say :
- Amanda Wilhelm, Co-Founder ADHOME Marketing
“I don’t really care if you like your website, I care if your customers like your website”.
What does “conversion rate” or “high converting website” really mean?
We discuss website conversion rate almost 50 times a day here at ADHOME. It’s the basis of everything we do. So it’s important that we outline what this means and how it affects your bottom line.
Website Conversion Rate: the percentage of users that take a desired action on your website.
Truthfully, this should be predefined per business, but in the Home Service world, the only thing you really care about is phone calls and form submissions. So in our industry, defining website conversion rate is quite simple:
# of phone calls or form submissions divided by # of users on your website
Example:
- 100 people to your website
- 10 of those people call your business
- This equals a 10% website conversion rate
3 key elements to a successful home service website
We understand what website conversion rate is, it’s now important to understand that we should always build websites with the intention of making it user-friendly for your ideal customer. We want users to become customers & customers to continue to spend with us. We need to look at the website holistically and ask ourselves:
1. Does my website make it easy to buy from me?
It might be an obvious question, but it’s a really important one to ask yourself. Have some friends explore your website and get their opinion. Ask them to try to contact your business and see what steps they take to do it.
Here is a simple checklist for you to use to determine how easy it is to buy from you or book a service:
- Can people easily find your phone number and/or form to complete?
- Is there a clickable phone number when someone is looking at your website on a mobile device?
- Does the address on your website exactly match your address on you Google My Business listing (and all directories)?
- Does your website say what you do and tell the user how you do it?
- How many clicks would someone have to take to get from the home page to the contact us page? Would you be annoyed?
2. Does my website represent my brand properly?
We want your website to match your truck wraps and all of your other advertising. This helps with brand recognition. We also want to ensure your website design is esthetically pleasing. We don’t need a bunch of fluff, but we definitely want to showcase your brand the best we possibly can.
Working with a graphic designer will surely help. They should ask you questions like:
- How do you want people to portray your brand: premium or cheapest in town?
- Do you have any prominent demographics you have in your city?
- Do you have any nice images of your brands wrapped service van?
These are just a few, but honestly design can have a large impact on the type of client you will have calling your business. If you are considered a premium brand, make your website look the part.57% of all mobile users will not recommend a business if their mobile website is poorly designed or unresponsive. (Sweor, 2017) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
3. Is my website mobile friendly?
If you haven’t heard that mobile responsiveness for websites is mandatory by now, today is the day this sinks in for you. With our ADHOME clients, we’re actually seeing on average around 61% of all website traffic is when people are using their smartphones.
It’s extremely important that you ensure your website not only looks good on a mobile device, but that the load times are low. I would recommend running your URL through this handy dandy Google Tool that tells you how fast your mobile website is performing:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/
A delay of one second in mobile page response can reduce conversions by 7%. (99 Firms, 2019) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
So, it comes full circle. We want to ensure that your website looks good, answers all of the questions your customer might be thinking, quickly & your website should be optimized for Mobile. If these items are considered, then it should have a positive affect on your website conversion rate.
