As a small business owner, the number one thing on your mind is sales and new business. You need your phone ringing... like, now! You need your advertising investment to pay off for you. We get that. This is the number one thing we help our clients do at Webstix.
The first thing we'll need to do is evaluate your website (if you have one, of course). We'll need to see where you're at so that we can see what needs to be done to meet your goals. To do this, we will need access to your Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools account. If you do not have these things set up, do it now - no, do it two minutes ago. If you need help getting Google Analytics installed on your website, we can help.
After that, we can get you a report and consult with you. We'll discuss your options with you. You may need to either adjust your current website or the decision might be made to start from scratch with a new website.
One more thing we'll need to do is come up with an SEO (search engine optimization) plan for your website. We will need to come up with a list of keywords to focus on, match those keywords up with target pages and then optimize those pages. After on-site SEO is done, we can focus on off-site SEO (incoming links, etc.).
There are a number of items that may need to be done with your current website, if you decide to go this route. First, we would address any technical issues with your website. Maybe a site map is missing or maybe page titles haven't received any attention - that sort of thing.
Next, we look at your website from a design perspective. It could be too crowded or the colors or design might need some help to either fix some things or make it more current.
Another thing to look at is the messaging. We have a copywriter that's available and using a copywriter is really beneficial. They can make sure your message and voice on your website is consistent and that it all drives toward the same goals.
Speaking of Content...
One thing you want to make sure you do on your website is not give away too much information. Hold some of it back. FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages are great but you don't want to answer everything there or else people will have no reason to call you. It might be pricing information or something else, but don't have your website spell it all out. Plus, you don't want your competition to know everything either. How you do this varies with each clients but we can help you do this.
If, after listening to our analysis and insights, you decide that a new website is needed, then we can help you with that. We'll start with finding out more of what you need, develop a site map, wire frames, concepts, the staging website and then take it to launch after extensive testing is done.
Be careful if you're talking to someone (an SEO company) that will guarantee you will rank first for your keywords. They're either not being honest or they will simply use PPC (pay per click) to buy an ad at the top of the page. This isn't organic. For that short term, PPC is fine but it's not a strategy for the long term - you need to organically rank high so that you get long lasting results and spend your money wisely.
We will not guarantee that you will rank number one - we won't. We know our stuff and we can get you ranked higher but we're not about to guarantee anything. For example, getting to #5 might be a fair amount of work and getting to #3 might not be too much work but to get to #1 is a lot more work (again, depending on your keywords and industry / competition).
When doing work on a website, it usually takes some time to see results. Anyone that tells you differently doesn't know what they're talking about or they're not being honest and just want your money. If you do a website redesign, you are looking at getting better results anywhere from 2 to 6 months after launch.
If SEO tweaking is being done, then it can vary. If your website was set up poorly, then you can jump up 20 or more spots in the results within a week or so. If that happens, then it'll take more work to get higher. For most SEO work, it takes months - maybe 3-6 months or more... it really depends on your industry and how much competition there is. The great thing is that we can go after the low hanging fruit first and you should see some results shortly.
Think about it this way... if you have decided to get to work on your website 6 months ago, you're be in a much better position now - so why put off this decision any longer?
What we hear the most from people (which, quite honestly we're surprised to hear) is that they like how we communicate with them, respond to questions and just plain get things done. If you send us one thing, you won't get 20 questions back - you might get a few questions but we do our best to boil things down for you so that you can make easy decisions and understand what we're asking. We'll get back to you quickly with answers or else let you know that we received your question and are checking on it. We have systems in place to help make sure that things do not fall through the cracks.
And you get our experience. We have experts on staff and our team does continual research to stay up to date on the latest techniques and technologies out there. We have experience with many different industries and have learned things in one industry that also works well in another industry. Our experience with a wide range of projects and years in business goes into each project that we work on.
If you want a website that looks great, works right and makes your phone ring, then give Webstix a call or contact us today.
-Tony
