Ryan talks about using a simple contact form to generate leads from your site (which of course also comes with some spam), and he and Sean bring you up to date on how your Google My Business description affects your search results, when you should say “thanks” on your site, and why not to worry about scary-sounding emails about your domain expiring.
Click above to listen to the 22 min audio.
Read Show Notes
– issue of the week: Ryan talks about a yearly review call he did with one of our customers, and how it uncovered that they never set up a simple contact form… doing so immediately generated some new leads for them (and some spam, which comes with the territory and is sometimes necessary to deal with in order to keep all channels of communication open)
– you will get better results from your forms if you build in an offer (eg. “Get A Free Estimate Now” rather than “Contact Us”)
– give your prospects a few different ways to contact you… and make sure you are constantly monitoring all those channels
– Google My Business: recently Google confirmed that the words you use in your business description will not affect your search results… but Sean and Ryan point out that a robust and specific description still makes you searchable in general, plus it’s a lot more helpful for the actual people who may be checking out your business online
– what DOES move the needle on Google My Business (and may help you show up in the Maps 3-Pack top results) is to get as many positive reviews as possible
– a common myth to ignore: some unscrupulous companies will email you that “your domain is about to expire”, but most domains are auto-renewed by the registrar or host on a yearly basis… so while it is technically true that the domain is reaching an anniversary date, it is generally not true that you will lose the domain or even have to take any action at all, since it will simply auto-renew as usual… it’s just a sleazy sales tactic to get you scared and to jump ship to the company who is emailing you
– the only type of legitimate notice you would get about your domain is from your current registrar telling you to update your credit card or notifying you that you don’t have auto-renew set on your domain
– saying “thank you” in headings or notices on your website: many people ask us to write “thanks for visiting our website” at the start of important notices about things like holiday hours… but we recommend getting right to the meat of the message (because folks have short attention spans online), and if you must thank your readers then do it at the end of the message (never in the heading of your site)
– website standards: most small businesses will have similar sections on their website (eg. About Us, Photo Gallery, etc) so there is no need to re-invent the wheel… but you should never copy someone else’s content nor should you start a new page unless you have a significant amount of content that doesn’t fit anywhere else