It’s time to rethink the structure of your website.
Since everyone loves a great restaurant, let me put it those terms. We were convinced that our website was like a single fare restaurant – an Italian bistro, a steakhouse or Chinese cuisine – your visitors would come because you provided [generic] kitchen design. Sure they might find other interesting things on the menu, bathroom remodeling, design/build or other related services, but generally they were in the mood for some good kitchen design.
We further believed that if we created our website with an incredible homepage, the search engines would find that homepage and the visitor would be so wowed by the images and content that they would visit every page on our site – a funnel effect.
It was a simpler time.
Today’s search engine technology has changed your single fare restaurant into a buffet… a cruise ship style, non-stop, all-you-can-eat buffet, with something for everyone. And forget the funnel. Today’s website is a series of linear pages; you never know which will be the landing page. Although I can tell you with a fair amount of certainty, the only people going to your home page already know your web address from another source; business card, TV spot, magazine ad, referral link and the like, and they will be typing it in. But, Google is going to send them to the page in your site that best answer their query…
Think about how you Google. You type in your query and await a response. You click on the first result and if you don’t immediately find what you are looking for on that page you click the back button and bounce away from the site to try the next result.
The individual pages of your site need to be able to answer your visitors’ queries. Remember that “kitchen design” and “kitchen remodel” are different keyphrases and will return different results.
Consider the key areas of your business. Do you have pages on your site optimized to be found by potential customers for each? Content is king! And, your content must reflect your business and the priorities you have set for it – design, installation, color consultation, countertops – it’s up to you to determine your optimization strategy. Others can help with the tactical aspects, but they need your strategic guidance.
Is your website built for today’s search engines? For today’s consumers? For capturing leads?
The Kitchen & Bath Channel has the expertise and experience to help you make the most of your online presence.
