The main purpose of a business website is to generate leads and help close sales. It does this by moving through the natural stages of website development. Your website should progress from a simple site that looks professional and inform visitors, to a lead generation engine. In this article we’ll help you understand the stages of web development, so you can maximize your web growth for leads and manage your expectations.
Stage 1: Reputation and Information
The first thing your website needs to do is establish professional credibility and provide visitors with basic information; this is stage one of web development.
People aren’t going to know about your website yet. The only way to find your site is to look you up online, so the only traffic you get to start out will be referrals. You want these visitors to begin referring people they know to your website, so it’s important to ensure your website looks professional.
We’ve already written another article on how to build trust using your business website, but here are the bullet points from that article:
- Professional Language
- Modern Design
- Fast Load Times
- Security
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Proof of Reputation
The second critical component of the first stage of web development is having complete information on your site. When we say complete information, we mean:
- What products or services you offer
- What area you serve
- How to contact you
- Why they should choose you
- How others feel about you
The above points are a great place to start, but you may need to include a few other points, based on what types of services or products you offer, etc.
A great example of a website that has comprehensive information and professional design is the site we built for Avcomm Technology Solutions Their site includes their services, values, customer quotes, a way to contact them , and more.
Pro Tip: Once your site looks great and has good information, it’s time to roll out the welcome mat. Tell everyone you know about your website, and give business cards to anyone you meet who could use your services.
Stage 2: Informing and Guiding Sales
Once you have a site that looks great and provides basic information, it’s time to create valuable content and help clients navigate that content to make a sale. Your website will function like a representative of your company, providing information and directing traffic. This stage of development is an ongoing process that you’ll need to commit to in order to keep your website growing and delivering leads.
The most important addition to your website that happens in stage two is the creation of large amounts of content. Your visitors are going to have a lot of questions relating to your service and industry, and if you don’t answer their questions, one of your competitors will, and you will have lost an opportunity to gain their trust. Make sure you have answers for every question a visitor on your site might have, and make sure your pages and blogs are easy to navigate. Once you have people reading your blogs, you’ll need to convert them into leads; you do this using a sales funnel.
Sales funnels are a little too complex for this article, but here’s a basic breakdown: using the content on your site, visitors are guided through the process of discovering the problem they have, how you solve that problem, and the benefits of working with you. You can lead them toward an action you want them to take, such as reaching out for a quote. This is the essence of a sales funnel, and it takes careful planning, but is very valuable when growing your website for leads.
Stage 3: Generating More Leads
Once your site looks great, contains valuable info, and is well designed to convert traffic into leads, it’s time to start drawing more traffic onto your website. Here’s how.
Social media is an amazing tool to spread the word about your business and get new traffic. You can draw large amounts of people to your site by publishing content regularly. This could include previous jobs, tips and tricks, or other interesting facts about your business or industry.
Technical SEO is also crucial, as having the right settings on the back-end of your site indicates to Google what industry you serve and what services you offer. Back-end optimization will help you rank higher on Google, but the work itself is fairly technical, so it’s a great idea to hire an SEO specialist.
Advertising is a more expensive option, but if you have the budget, it’s a great way to quickly boost traffic to your website. Consider advertising a promotion or coupon, and use the ad to send users to a specially made landing page on your site. This is by far the fastest way to get valuable traffic on your website.
Publishing Content is vital for drawing people to your site; the more valuable information you have, the more people will flock to your site to learn. There are also great ways you can optimize your content to get the most out of it.
Consider repurposing and reusing old content. It takes far less effort to update, combine, or re-write old content than it does to create new content. Every couple months, go through your site and find pages that are out of date, lack information, or have too much information. This content can still be put to great use.
If you have the money to hire a web developer, It’s also a great idea to properly optimize your content for SEO. If you utilize keywords correctly in your writing, Google will view your content as a sign of authority and expertise, and your website’s search engine ranking will increase.
Manage Growth and Expectations
When you’re trying to achieve web growth for leads, remember that it’s not very likely that you’ll get to page one of search results quickly, or perhaps at all. Very few businesses get on page one, and without a very large marketing budget and time, it’s very hard to get there. But remember that getting to page one isn’t the only way to get traffic and valuable leads from your website. Your other efforts on social media, advertising, and content creation can still generate a lot of leads for your business. Remember also that every effort gets you higher on search results, so don’t give up!
As a final note, don’t forget to use analytics to track your traffic and the percentage of visitors who end up filling out or form or calling you. These are valuable metrics that will show you what’s working and what isn’t.
If you follow the stages of web growth for leads, and stay open to trying new tactics, you’ll eventually start to see returns from your efforts. We hope you get lots of leads from your business website, and if you need help with digital marketing, SEO, or web development, let us know! We’d be happy to help any way we can.
