So you’ve got a website, and you know you’d like to be ranking well in search engines for key terms like “energy audits,” “insulation,” “home energy efficiency improvements” and “home performance” in your area, but you’re not sure where to start. You’d also like to make sure that as many site visits turn into conversions as possible, but you’re not quite sure how to make that happen either.
Well, there’s a science to turning your website into a High Performance website, but you don’t need to do everything at once. A few quick upgrades will help elevate your site in search engines while helping convey to potential customers what a good guy you are and what a good business you run, and encouraging them to shoot you an email or call your phone.
Here are a few quick upgrades that you can make by the end of lunch break:
Fix Your NAP.
Your “NAP” stands for “Name, Address, Phone Number,” and it’s more important than you think. This is because search engines use this information -- taken all together, in a consistent format -- to identify your business. It’s like your business’s fingerprint. If it’s consistent across directories, your website, social media profiles, and everywhere that your business is listed, search engines will know that these listings are all referring to the same business, and positive action on one listing (e.g., positive reviews on your Google Places page), will likely boost your business wherever it’s listed (e.g., help your website show up higher in search results.) So make sure your NAP is consistent wherever it’s listed, and try to get it on every page of your site if possible. (Locating it in your header, sidebar or footer can make this easy.)
Although fixing your NAP in every directory listing may be a daunting task, the simplest and most important fix is to make sure that it appears on every page of your site. Focus on this first, by adding it to your header or footer, and you'll be in good shape in just a few minutes. After that, try to make sure it's consistent across the web by focusing on one or two directory listings at a time.
Add a Service Area Map.
You want your website to show up in search results when people within your service area search for the keywords related to your business. For this to happen, Google and other search engines need to know where you are, and where you offer your services. One way to accomplish this is to list the towns that you serve on your website; but resulting from problems with websites stuffing their content with towns of names in an attempt to trick search engines, this isn’t as effective as it once was. A better way is to embed a service area map on your site. Your “contact us” page is a good place to do this. You can create a service area map using Google Maps (check out a how-to video from Google here).
Update Your Trust Symbols.
“Trust Symbols” are the logos that typically line the footer of a website, signalling affiliations, accreditations and other credentials that show your site’s visitors that you’re a trustworthy company. In the Home Performance space, it’s pretty clear that you should populate this area with logos of the organizations you hold certifications from, or that you’re partnered with: BPI, RESNET, LEED, USGBC, Energy Star, Efficiency First, state or municipal organizations, etc. (Just be sure all your certifications are up to date.)
Add Some Internal Links.
Internal links to particular pages within your website send a signal to search engines that these pages are particularly important. The anchor text that you use to link to these pages is also important (for example, when linking to your page about energy audits, be sure to hyperlink the text “energy audit” rather than “click here”). Only you can identify the most important pages on your site, but they’re likely the predominant pages that you’d want visitors to go to -- your services page, your “about us” page, and your contact page are all pretty important in that regard.
Beef Up Your “About Us” Page.
Across the network of websites on the Energy Circle PRO platform, each of which belongs to an independent business in the Home Performance space -- energy auditors, home performance contractors, insulation installers, etc. -- one thing that we’ve noticed is that the most visited page on the majority of sites is the About Us page. So if you only have a few minutes and want to make a powerful upgrade to your site, consider doing some beefing up to your About Us page. See our previous article on how to write a great about us page for a home performance business for more info.
For more tips on turning your website into a high performance, lead-driving machine, be sure to download our free White Paper, “Putting Your Website to Work.” And as always, feel free to chime in in the comments section with any questions or feedback.
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