The Steel Road is your resource for candid business discussions that you won’t hear anywhere else. Everyone else will talk about raising millions of dollars in venture funding, complicated business plans, and creative ideas.
Not here. As a subscriber you get insights that you can apply to be better than the next guy in your business. Let’s face it. You don’t have to change the world, all you have to do is be better than a few local competitors and you can make a bunch of money.
Whether your business is a local law firm, landscaping, or daycare, you need to have a solid web site. This is one of the main levers you can pull to make sure your business will stand out from your local competitors.
It’s happened to all of us. You need a service performed and start searching around. What are the things you look for?
Reviews
Easy to book
Price
Quality of work
Your website is where you showcase your businesses capabilities. A well designed web site will act like an old school salesman. It will help potential clients see the value, get comfortable, and make the purchase.
In this day and age you absolutely need a web site.
When starting a business, go very simple. Your site should have your logo, some good pictures, and a call to action. There are multiple services to create simple landing pages and 2 page sites.
Squarespace
Bluehost
Carrd
GoDaddy
Example of a starter site: Spotless Carpets
As your business grows, work with a web design agency to improve your site.
Example of an advanced site: MJ Pianos
Tracking your site’s performance
Even with a starter site, there are important key performance indicators(KPIs) you need to be tracking.
Traffic
This is simply the number of people who come to your site. The more traffic, the more conversions you will have. Plain and simple.
Bounce Rate
When a visitor comes to your site and doesn’t click a link, fill out a form, or interact with your site at all then that means they bounced. Usually it’s reflected as a percentage of visitors.
For example, if 10 people come to your site, and 4 of them bounce, you have a 40% bounce rate. It’s hard to say whether a certain bounce rate is good or bad. If you have high traffic then you can get away with a high bounce rate. But if traffic is low, then your bounce rate should be as low as possible.
Average Session Duration
This is the amount of time a visitor spends on your site. If your service is more complicated and takes time to explain, this will probably be longer. If you have a simpler service then you will have a lower average session. A criminal defense attorney will probably have a longer average session than a landscaper.
A low average session will generally coincide with a high bounce rate.
Page Visits
The number of pages visited in a session will give you an idea of where potential customers are spending time on your site. Are they clicking through to the about pages? Or are they just staying on the home page? Understanding your customer’s journey will help you optimize your site to improve these KPIs.
Services like HotJar will generate heat maps that can give you more detailed info on the customer journey.
Site Speed
There’s nothing more frustrating than going to a website that takes forever to load. Keep your site sleek and simple to make sure it loads quickly. The more plug ins and trackers you have, the more it will slow down.
There are tools that can track your site speed and give you tips to improve it.
A slow site will lead to a high bounce rate.
Your web site is your home base. Take care of it, guard it with your life and it will take care of you in return.
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