Your website is such an important piece of building your business. Want to show off your amazing work? Put it on your website! Want to have clients book a consultation? Send them to your website. Your website gives you credibility and professionalism. So let’s look at what components I believe are must haves for your Showit website.
An Opt-In Form
You’ve probably heard it before – “Grow your email list”. But why? Well, not everyone will be ready to hire you right away. But by grabbing their information you can pop into their inbox every week delivering tips, tricks, and your expertise. By keeping in regular contact, you will be at the top of their mind when they’re finally ready!
Now, simply having a “Join our newsletter” opt-in is a pretty good start because it means you are at least gathering emails and building your list. But try to make it more enticing for someone to hand over their precious email. Invite them to download a freebie, join a webinar, or anything that serves your audience. This is where you build trust. You need to provide your new visitors with valuable content that is meaningful to them.
And don’t feel like you can only have one opt-in. Create multiple offers and freebies and post them throughout your website, but strategically. The idea is to serve, serve, serve your audience.
Contact Form or Scheduling Calendar
Once those potential clients are ready to book your services, make it easy for them. Don’t leave them searching for a contact form or scheduling calendar. You need to make it super clear and easy for people to schedule.
If you’re using a system like Dubsado or Honeybook it’s so easy to embed a lead capture form on your website. Your clients can also easily schedule a meeting or consultation with you. Also, having your email, and even a phone number or physical address if applicable, gives visitors another way to contact you making it easier to book your services.
A Consistent and Cohesive Brand
A cohesive brand identity includes things like your primary logo, corresponding secondary logos and brand marks. The process also includes patterns, colours, typography – all the things that make your brand unique. When your brand is woven throughout your web design, it showcases your professionalism and your expertise.It also communicates the value of your products and services and easily connects with your audience.
Social Proof
There’s still one thing you need before clients make a commitment to working with you – what other people are saying about working with you.
Reviews are such an important part of the purchasing process for many people. And when reviews are missing, it makes people wonder whether it’s a reliable product or service.
Client testimonials are so important when it comes to building trust with your website. If you can add a picture and a name to your testimonials then even better. I’d recommend adding testimonials to the important pages of your website such as your homepage, your services page and even your contact page. People are much more likely to see it than if you had a page dedicated to testimonials on your website.
SEO
A definite must have for your website would be to be found on Google, right? SEO is the way to do this. Focus on long-tail keywords, instead of just one keyword, to really help boost your ranking. Think of it like this, instead of trying to rank for “photographer” try something like “Niagara Wedding Photography”.
Some website platforms like Showit have made SEO simple. By having SEO built into the backend you can easily add your page descriptions and meta descriptions. Also, sign up for Google Analytics to track anything and everything about your website traffic.
Do you have these 5 website must haves? What one of these can you implement today? I am so excited to see what you do with it, so please feel free to reach out!
