How can I tell if my website needs some TLC?

​Last week, 13 July, Christine Huntingford from Perfect Layout Digital Marketing was invited to give a presentation at the Havering Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) breakfast meeting, where members and visitors attended. She thought long and hard about what to talk to them about and decided to make it an interactive session with the participants and let them know in 10 minutes, after a few simple checks, whether their website was working well for their business and whether their website and digital marketing need some real Tender Loving Care (TLC).

Firstly, to get a sense of their initial thoughts she asked the following questions:

• Do you have a website?
• Is your website generating you regular leads, either through phone calls, emails or contact forms?
• Was your website was redesigned and updated in the last 12-18 months?
• Are you happy with your website provider?

This gave everyone a moment to reflect not only if were they genuinely happy with their current service, but also to validate if this was a way in which they were bringing in customers.
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Now we know its all very easy to think that everything is fine with our website, but how do we really know? Well, these next simple tasks can reveal whether your website is working for you. You can do this for your site at any time.

​Task 1
Open your search browser for the internet and look for your business, by type and location. Please don’t type in your company name but instead type in say ‘Accountants in Romford’.

Is your company is listed on page one?

If it is that’s great news. Potential customers have a chance of finding you and calling up your business.
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For those of you that didn’t appear on page one, you may need to think about how to improve the content of your website to help you to be found.

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Task 2
Whilst before you were asked not to type in your company name into the browser, this time, do exactly that. For example, for our Company it would be, ‘Perfect Layout Digital Marketing’.

Can you see the Google My Business (GMB) listing for your business? Can you also see photos, posts and full details about your company? Do you have reviews?

If it’s a ‘yes’ for all of that, that is excellent! You are on track with taking full advantage of GMB’s latest updates and features.
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If you didn’t, Perfect Layout can help you either set up a Google My Business, or help you enhance what you already have there.

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​Task 3
Keeping the page that you had open for task 2, now scroll down the results page, do you have your business listed in external directories? Such as Yell, Thomson, Netmums, or any online directory for your sector?

If you have more than 3 external directory listings, you are doing well, these connections on external sites help give your website relevancy and demonstrate that you are an active business.
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If you are not  listed on any external directories, it is recommended that this strategy is employed in order to help your business get found.

​Task 4
Does your website have a blog section? If it does, was the last post published within the last month?
If this is you - congratulations! You are doing a good job of sharing news about your company’s activities and products to your community.

If you don’t, get in touch with Perfect Layout about the benefits of a blog, which can help your website rank better.
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So to recap: If you are not on page one, in organic search it is because your website’s content isn’t strong enough against your competitors.

Google will be penalising businesses that don’t have a GMB listing. By the way, you can do that too in Bing on Internet Explorer, which we recommend too.​

Being on external directories can improve your online visibility with prospective clients.
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Having a blog section is an opportunity to update your community on what you are doing and makes your business more authoritative.

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​In the second half of the presentation we introduced an alternative strategy for phone-based businesses who don’t have the money to invest in a new website or redesign of their current website -  but need to be earning more money and secure new customers.

To clarify, a phone-based business is when people would call you as their primary way of contacting you, rather than via email or walking into your business premises.

Let’s imagine the following:
Our client, a dentist, gets some enquiries from his website, but he would like more. His family is growing and they need a bigger house, but what he is currently earning isn’t quite enough to be able to move, just yet. He doesn’t have the money to rebuild his website and invest in keyword-rich content.

However, as a phone-based business, he has the option of securing potential customers through a customer generating website that’s run by a digital marketing agency. This website will generate new contacts specifically for his business by creating a new website free of charge. It will be found organically on the top pages of search engines and could bring him that extra revenue that he is looking for. From these new clients there’s a high likelihood of them becoming repeat customers, who will visit for check-ups, as well as the need for ad hoc additional treatments. Fabulous recurring revenue for years to come.

It’s a no brainer – so where's the catch? It’s simply a matter of paying a small fee to the digital marketing agency for each enquiry that comes via that website.
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If this has struck a chord with you and you would like your business to build up its client base and recurring customers, give us a call today to talk about whether your niche would suit such a website.

01708 578 015