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Tag: local website design

Lead Aggregators Are the Worst

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

If you’re a business owner and you do B to C (business to consumer), you are likely bombarded on a daily basis on the phone, in your mailbox and in your inbox with companies trying to sell you “leads.” Some claim to provide exclusive leads while others sell shared leads which is even worse but either way do you get what you pay for? In my experience the answer is a big NO. However, I have had first hand experience on the other side of the lead aggregator business as being the one selling the leads which gives me unique insight as to how they work.

Search Engine Optimization and Web Design in Kansas City, MO

Photo by fran hogan on Unsplash

Many years ago before Web Force KC was even a glimmer in my eye I took a job working for a company “Service Magic”. Sounds corny right? You have no idea. At first it was a real hippy trippy, casual office atmosphere and according to some of the mid level managers I talked to, the owners were pretty cool but the company itself was changing rapidly into an ultra corporate entity that sold millions of dollars in “leads” and I would soon learn I didn’t want any part of it. First let’s define what a lead aggregator is. A lead aggregator is usually a company with a massive website with hundreds of pages that showcase the businesses and business owners that have unfortunately opted to partner with them. Home Advisor (formerly Service Magic) is a great example of a lead aggregator in that they tend to show up in search results for pretty much anything and everything you search for as it pertains to home improvement and they almost always rank pretty prominently. The goal of the lead aggregator website is to gobble up as many clicks as it pertains to a specific search as possible from what we would assume are homeowners looking for home improvement services and then sell the “leads” to their paying contractors. Sound OK so far right especially for a small company that is just starting out and needs business? The problem is that these same “leads” are shared with multiple other contractors in your area all at the same time (or at least as fast as your internet connection is). From there, it’s a mad dash to get that “lead” on the phone and schedule an estimate but the problem is that most of these small businesses or contractors are busy working with their hands and can’t always drop what they’re doing to call the lead back immediately. So it’s essentially a race to get the lead but the bad part about it is that all of the contractors or companies that got that “lead” have to pay for it whether they get the “job” or not. Way back when I worked for Service Magic, some of the leads, particularly for services like home remodeling, cost upwards of $80.00 per lead and I can’t imagine prices have gone down since then. Now, that’s how it works from the lead aggregator and contractor side but there’s another side to the business and that’s the consumer side. The consumer doesn’t know any better as any type of marketing done by the lead aggregator typically won’t disclose that they charge contractors for leads but instead focus on how their service is free for homeowners. They boast that they do background checks and make sure the contractors are licensed, insured, etc to make the homeowner feel more comfortable with hiring someone they don’t know. As the homeowner goes to their website and completes their request for some type of service little do they know it is so on. The phone will ring off the hook, their inbox will be flooded, and it gets overwhelming because the contractors that got the lead are going to make the most of it because they are paying for it whether they get the job or not. It tends to scare off homeowners who just want to get some type of home improvement done and not have to talk to countless contractors. The bottom line is that the lead aggregator got paid multiple times for the single lead they sold to multiple people and they could care less who gets the job or if anyone gets it. Here’s the even more crazy part about all of this: some of the leads are so insane that you wouldn’t believe some of the ones I got to hear about but I will leave you with this one. One of the contractors I worked with called me directly one afternoon asking if it was all a joke. I said no, why and he proceeded to tell me that he had just paid for a lead wanting to add a room onto a trailer in a trailer court.

Lead aggregators probably have their place but I’m not sure where that is. As a business owner, you are already competing with your competitors so it makes little sense to pay more to do it in an arena you have little to no control over. Take control of your online presence and have people find you and your business for what you do, where you do it, and why you are different than your competitors. That’s what Web Force KC does for our clients.

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for effective web design and online marketing in the Kansas City area.

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June 12, 2020
New Business Starter Pack

Photo Credit Alex Holyoake

My daughter and I are total meme geeks and one of our favorites has always been the “starter pack.” If you’re not familiar with them I highly recommend you check them out as they are hilarious. The starter pack meme is usually a series of images that collaboratively represent a type of person or character but with less then complimentary intentions. Anyway, I had an old friend ask me about starting a new website for his wife who had recently lost her job and was opening up her own private practice. It made me think about how I really don’t have a starter pack for new business owners. I’m not going to get into extreme details but instead I thought that providing some basic insight on setting up a website as, in my humble opinion, it is the most effective way to get a business going and start generating revenue.

Local Online Marketing and Website Design in Kansas City, MO

Get a good name for your business. I’ve worked with countless businesses over the years that have the weirdest names and honestly it takes more work to effectively market them. My advise is to pick a name that has at least little bit to do with what your business actually does. Made up words that don’t make sense to people likely won’t make sense to the search engines either unless you pound brand based content repeatedly when you could be spending your online marketing time more productively like pushing keywords related to what your business does.

Get a good domain name (that isn’t too long). When my clients ask me to research domain names I tend to look for ones that contain what they do and where they do it. For instance, one of my clients recently added a new location in North Kansas City and wanted me to put a website together specifically for that location. He owns multiple smoke and vape shops but this location is the first in what KC people call the “Northland.” I ended up picking SmokeShopNorthKC.com as it not only is one of the main keywords (smoke shop) we will be going after with our SEO services but also where we will be pushing those keywords (in North KC). Don’t bang your head against the wall trying to find a domain name that does the SEO for you because you’ll never find it but do your best to pick one that makes sense, is short and to the point, and most importantly one that is easy to remember.

Photo Credit Taylor Vick

Get good hosting. If want to build a website, you’ll need a place to host it. Hosting is essentially renting space on someone’s server for the files that make up your website. Ideally you should host your website where you buy your domain name but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Check out the reviews on the hosting company because most of them suck to say the least. No offense but GoDaddy really sucks. I’ve had to deal with them for years and each time it’s a struggle to refrain from yelling and screaming at them. Plus, they like to nickle and dime your for every little thing which is just silly. Web Force KC can provide hosting and website security through our partnership with Just Host. We’ve worked with them for years and have never had any major problems especially when it comes to their support which is exceptional. The downtime is minimal which means that our clients’ websites rarely, if ever, are “down for maintenance” which is a good thing.

Have a professional write your website content. Nothing is worse than having terribly written content on a website. First, your potential customers can get annoyed really quick if your content is poor quality and end up bouncing off of your site to one of your competitors. Second, the search engines like rich, unique content that makes it crystal clear who you are, what you do, and where you do it. Content writers usually aren’t cheap but they do provide an invaluable service that make businesses money.

Photo Credit Christian Wiediger

Have good images. If you aren’t a photographer, no worries, you’re not alone. I’m by no means a great photographer and neither are most of my clients even though we have increasingly more powerful cameras on our phones. I’ve had clients that have held contests with their employees to take pictures which worked out pretty well but in the end nothing beats a professional photographer. There are many websites that offer free image downloads for any type of use including commercial use. DON’T USE PICTURES THAT AREN’T YOURS! Copyright infringement is real and can cost you a ton of money. (Trust us, we’re currently in the middle of suing a local business for stealing our images and content). We recommend checking out Unsplash.com for tons of great free images. In fact, we used UnSplash images for the blog you are currently reading and we think they look pretty damn good. You may not find exactly what you are looking for there but you can at the very least get some good ideas. If all else fails, go buy some stock photos.

Lastly, make sure your website makes sense. A website should allow users to get the information they need or get in contact with you quickly and easily otherwise they’ll go somewhere else. I can’t tell you how many times a website (or more specifically a web designer) over-complicated thing when the business offered a pretty simple service or product but made it almost impossible to actually get info, make a purchase, or get in contact with the company. Clean, simple, and user friendly always works.

At Web Force KC, our goal is and always has been to help our clients navigate the ever-changing world of the internet while helping them grow their business as well. Our common sense approach to web design, content creation and website hosting/security allows our clients to focus on running their business instead of worrying about the web.

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for local web design, SEO, and online marketing in Kansas City.

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April 30, 2020
What Does Your Website Do?
Photo credit Carl Heyerdahl

What does your website do? Seems like a pretty simple question, right? But when I meet with business owners for the first time, they can rarely give me a good answer. More often than not, they say, “nothing,” which is probably why they are meeting with me. So, I’ve learned to ask this instead: “What do your want your website to do that it isn’t currently doing?” and it’s at that point the answers start flowing like a river. Of course, you can probably guess that the most common answer is “make me more money” and that’s a perfect answer because that’s what a website should do, right? The question then becomes “How can your website make you money?” and that’s when things get interesting.

Local Web Design in Kansas City

I am lucky enough to get paid to play on the web pretty much all day, every day with very few exceptions and I see a TON of websites. Over the years I feel like I’ve become a mean critic of most of the websites I see because it seems like they are more of a design dog and pony show without a quick call to action which is typically how websites generate income. For the most part, the local businesses that I work with want 3 things from their websites:
- Phone Calls
- Customers getting directions to their location(s)
- Email inquiries/quotes on services
Seems pretty cut and dried right? It’s actually not so easy. You see, just because you build a website, doesn’t necessarily mean your customers will come (Field of Dreams was somewhat misleading). In order for a website to generate traffic, it must be easily found and not just for the name of your business but rather for what you do (lawn care, copyright attorney, handyman, bar and grill, pizza delivery, smoke shop, gas station, brewery, dry cleaner, car wash, tattoo shop, etc.). That’s where Web Force KC comes in. We’ll never claim to build the most gorgeous websites you’ve ever seen but you can be damn sure that they will be found by potential customers when they need your product(s) and/or service(s) locally.

Photo Credit Christian Wiediger

The way that we approach web design is by asking simple questions like “How do you want your customers to find you? Do you want more calls, emails, or both? Do you have a physical location that you want customers to come to?” The answers to these questions are how we design your website meaning a business that wants more phone calls would have their phone number listed prominently and repeatedly through the website along with perhaps a ‘Click To Call‘ button for mobile searchers. The same applies to a website designed to capture more emails. Obviously a simple and easy to fill out contact form would likely be placed and more importantly visible all over the site. (We discourage displaying actual email addresses as it will tends to generate a TON of spam.) Brick and mortar locations that want foot traffic coming through the door will rely heavily on Google maps integration and calls to action that suggest visitors to the site “Click To Get Directions.” So I guess the real question becomes ‘What do you want people to do when they are on your website?‘

You would think that this is all common sense and the average web designer would have a firm understanding of how this all works but the fact is that most don’t. We’ve rebuilt countless websites that literally had no coherent direction, no call to action and worst of all no traffic going to them. We refer to these types websites as “billboards in the middle of a very vast desert.” No one ever sees them and they do nothing for the business.

Think of your website as the frame and interior of a vehicle. It may look ultra cool and have fancy functionality but without an engine, it just sits there, going nowhere, doing nothing. Web Force KC builds websites that cater to the search engines and ultimately make money for our clients. With every web design project we’ve taken on, the results and stats have been overwhelmingly positive for our clients as their websites begin to show up on the search engines for what they do and convert the searcher into an opportunity for them to add new customers. If you’re website is doing nothing for your business, call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for a free consultation.

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for web design and online marketing in Kansas City.

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April 21, 2020