The 5 Most Expensive Mistakes Industrials Make Online…
Many of my best clients are industrial firms helping to keep America running strong with heavy equipment, generators, air compressors, forklifts, diesel repair teams and skilled technicians that work with their hands and get shit done!
Over the years however, I’ve had to repeatedly witness common mistakes and misconceptions that cause a negative impact on a client’s website.
In this article I’ll outline those issues and roadblocks to increase profits and growth.
1: No Idea What Is Going on With their Website
Anytime I have begun work with the client, the very first thing we do for their website is to check if it’s set up with analytics, so we can see what is going on with their traffic.
Who are their visitors, where are they coming from, what pages are most popular and what pages are responsible for generating new leads.
With so many people using the Internet to find service providers, it is critical that you have a good understanding of what is going on with your website and if your content and website is doing what it needs to do.
Google analytics is free and relatively easy to set up, so there is no excuse to not take advantage of it.
The most important things to check are:
- Top 10 Pages
- Unique Visitors Count (trends)
- Traffic Sources
- Bounce Rate
- Average Time on Site/Page
- Conversions!
2: Assuming Only emails Come From Website
The web only produces email inquiries? This could not be further from the truth!
However I repeatedly hear this response from new customers when asked if they get any business from their website.
They usually say; no we only get a few emails a month.
And usually I follow up and ask how many phone calls they get via their website and they say not very many at all.
When I ask them how they know, they reply by saying; we have our receptionist ask callers how they found us.
Usually with some coaxing they allow me to put up a trackable phone number on their website.
Typically we find 8 to 10 times the number of calls versus emails.
We also find when we listen to the recordings that nobody is ever asked how they found the company.
Relying on people to ask where a customer found you is very unreliable.
3: Ignoring Local
One of the most exciting advertising developments to evolve over the last 10 years has been Google local and local search marketing.
The yellow pages are dead.
Unless you have an audience over the age of 80.
However most companies do nothing to take advantage of the hundreds if not thousands of searches that occur locally for their offering.
We see websites all the time where the area in which they do business is not even mentioned.
Where the GMB page is not claimed. Where there are no reviews. Where there are no local directory citations.
There is still a tremendous amount of business to be easily had in many markets and only a few businesses are paying attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, let there be no mistake about it …
If your Google My Business listing isn’t showing it’s a huge missed opportunity!
At the very least request a company to do an audit of your locations.
Knowing if your website has a fighting chance is half the battle.
4: Incorrectly Referring to Their Territory
This next point expands on the last.
You want to reference the areas you serve in the way that customers reference them.
All too often businesses make references to the county or counties that they serve.
However, people typically use the name of their city or the next largest city they live near.
Most companies we see don’t mention their territories at all, but when they do, make sure it is done correctly.
Simply adding a big list of, separated locations will no longer cut it.
It’s time to take this seriously.
5: Testimonials / Reviews
Prospective customers like to check out reviews, if you have a Google My Business listing, there is a good chance people are leaving a review on it.
The amount and type of reviews can offer some insight into the success of the company and the quality of the product(s) or service(s) being offered.
Reviews are also taken into account by Google as a ranking factor for localized search.
So reviews are a big deal, not kind of a big deal … they are a big deal, period!
When we see a business not paying attention to their reviews, ignoring them completely, or not engaging with customers that leave reviews (Good or Bad) in a timely manner we know that is an area that needs to be looked into.
Make sure you have a system in place to engage with reviewers and obtain reviews, because it plays such an important role for the way people perceive your business and ultimately how it affects your profits.
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