In discussions with prospective clients, many view their firm’s website design as a priority but not a high one. Without any web analytics information, they make assumptions about how prospects find their firm and perform web research. After I review their Google Analytics reports – which they probably have never looked at – I cringe when a client downplays the importance of website design and content. By simply looking at an Analytics report for one minute, I can see the keywords that a website visitor searched that referred them to the site. A term such as “small business accounting San Diego” brings a visitor to the site, but since the website is not engaging or credible, the visitor lands on the homepage and then bounces off. I must remind all businesses, especially B2B services firms, that website design and continuous content creation is a critical lead generation and nurturing tool.
Living Resource Center
In the early 2000’s, an accounting or wealth management firm could accurately state that their firm’s website had minimal impact on populating their sales funnel. Most professional and business services firms’ websites served as more of an online brochure than a lead generation tool. Today, as more and more prospective clients rely on the web to determine the best partners for their business, it is important that your firm’s website design is not only compelling and professional but also a “living resource center.” You can’t hire website design firm, have them design the website and that’s it. A website needs to be constantly updated with timely, relevant resources.
Original Content
Excellent resources can be blog entries, videos, PowerPoint presentations with narration, podcasts, white papers, etc. Your firm’s website needs to be updated weekly or prospective clients will not view you as a thought leader and won’t keep coming back to access new information. There needs to be accountability within your firm on who is responsible for generating new content and how often. The great thing with websites with an integrated content management system like WordPress is that a non-technical person can update the website without being tied to a web developer.
Content Curator
If creating original content can be difficult, serving as content curator is another effective way to ensure that your firm’s website is positioned as a resource center. There is an infinite amount of information on the web and if you can find the most relevant articles for your target audience and compile links to these resources on your website, it will save prospective clients time. This will also position your brand as thoughtful, innovative, informed, etc.
Continuous Rewards
As more information is being uploaded to your website, more and more inquiries and leads will come. Studies show that websites with more pages and content have exponentially higher conversion rates. From an SEO standpoint, more pages means more keyword rich content, which will help your firm rank higher for specific keyword searches. If you have four key people responsible for creating a blog entry a month, that’s 48 new pages in a year. Keep at it and the quality leads will come.
Discover how Bop Design can help you create a website design that is not only compelling and professional but also a “living resource center,” contact us today!
