Having a website is a marketing must for small businesses these days. If you don’t have a website yet to market your product or services, you are missing out on the essential “pull” traffic that Google search (and others) provide. However, many companies do have a website but are missing some essential elements when they come to Severity Design to make updates or changes. Here we have listed the top 5 things your current website is most likely missing:

1. SEO optimization

Despite all the talk about the importance of SEO, many business websites still are buried in search results never to be found. Some of the important factors that attribute to getting found on Google are 1. On page optimization (local NAP, keywords in titles and domain authority) 2. External signals (NAP consistency in other places, quality backlinks) and 3. Blogging. If your website doesn’t have keywords littered throughout the site, quality backlinks or a blog, you’re not likely to be found.

Question:  When a customer or potential user searches for your services or products in your service area, are you being discovered at the top of the local Google search results?  This is a the first of many steps to generating more traffic, leads, and sales for your business.

2. Clear Call To Action

Now that someone is at your website, what do you want them to do? I’m always surprised that many websites forget or leave this important action off the table. You have about 5 seconds to gain the attention of a website viewer and get them to do something on your website. This could be a quick contact form with a button that says “Contact Us Today” or a phone button with “Call Now”. Take some time and think through what you want the user to do? Why are they there in the first place? Don’t miss that potential conversion for your website. On mobile sites your CTA must be clickable or “tappable” keep this in mind.

Question:  When your visitor enters your website, what can you give for free that is valuable and grabs their attention?  Produce the resource and then add it somewhere at the top of your website.

3. Testimonials

What other people have said about your product or service is a great way to build your brand and promote your business. They should be easy to find and prominently displayed. Try creative approaches to testimonials. If you can afford it, get some quality, professional video production that gives the visitor a real face and name of the company you use. Take reviews from Yelp, Google or industry directory to use for your website.

Question:  Can you find 3 to 5 customer testimonials that tell about the excellent product or service your customers received? Put these directly underneath your selling points to help reinforce why the visitor should call you and do business with you today.

4. Blog

You’ve probably heard the phrase “CONTENT IS KING” by now. It still rings true to doing business on the internet and a blog is the way to publish relevant, valuable articles that your visitors may find interesting. The average consumer is more savvy today and are more likely to educate themselves before they buy. Provide them the answers to the questions they seek in your blog. You could also use your blog as a FAQ section of your website or a customer service tool. Save yourself the time in answering commonly asked questions in this valuable section of your website.

Question:  Can you think of 5-12 relevant articles that you could post in a blog section on your website? Our advice is to write one 300 word article per day for 12 days to get the content writing out of the way. Stay fresh and current by writing articles that are holiday or seasonal specific. If you hate writing, hire a copywriter to do it for you. It’s worth it.

5. A Mobile Version

Google has recently updated their search results to penalize websites that are not mobile friendly. The use of smart phones are increasing monthly, so as more and more people are using their smart phones to search, you must have a mobile version of your website otherwise you will not even be found. Make sure your website design is “reponsive”. This means that the website is coded to figure out what type of device it is being displayed on and will resize the page appropriately. A mobile version also has large enough navigation and clear business location and phone number details.

Question:  The simple question is “Is your website mobile friendly?” You can check and see by going the Google mobile friendly website tester and it will check your url to see if you pass or fail. It will also give you suggestions on how to get your website to be more mobile friendly.

So you have a website, but it’s not doing exactly what you want it to do. You’ve spent all this money to get up and running, but does it perform?

Download this FREE educational whitepaper that explains 5 of the most important things your website needs in order to be successful.