It’s not possible to have a successful marketing campaign with an outdated, ineffective website. Visitors are less likely to convert into leads if they find the layout confusing. A messy website leads to higher bounce rates, showing the visitors who leave the website after spending only seconds on it. That visitor may have been the perfect client but will never follow-through because of an unsuccessful website. A well-designed website is the foundation for any marketing, whether it is digital or print. If a small business is not generating enough demand, a website redesign should be considered.
Our client had a great product but despite an aggressive paid search campaign, consistent blogging and social media activity, and paying special attention to search engine optimization, they were not getting any leads. All of our concerns led back to the website. It had an outdated design and was not optimized for mobile users. Not only is this last concern an inconvenience, it started to hurt the site’s search ranking as Google penalizes sites that are not mobile-friendly.
Designing an effective website
The home page of the older site (pictured below) was neither visually intriguing nor successful in converting leads. The design template of the entire site included large grey margins on the left and the right just serving as empty space. While the contact number was prominently featured twice “above the fold,” there were no calls-to-action to direct potential customers.
The Suite 4 team’s first step in redesigning Peninsula Siding Company’s website was to partner with a local reputable web design firm, LVSYS Corp. Though we love using WordPress, LVSYS has worked successfully with other construction companies in the past and we felt it would be a better fit for this particular client. They have their own Content Management System (CMS) that allowed us to have a lot of control over the features of the new design. Our goals were to create a website that converts and is mobile-friendly.
As you can see in the screenshot of the current home page below, we chose a lighter background than the various greys the prior website utilized. We also chose a featured image that was both inviting and highlighted the client’s work. The “Free Estimate” CTA goes directly to the contact page and the phone number in the upper-right corner is clickable when accessed on a phone.
A successful website converts visitors into leads
The old version of the Peninsula Siding Company website was getting visits but rarely received any leads. Potential customers were not filling out any forms or picking up the phone and calling the office. The company was running an extremely aggressive Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign without getting a return on their investment.
In the graph below, the red section indicates site visits from paid advertising in the four months leading up to the new website (February 1 – June 1, 2015). As you can see from the data compiled by our marketing automation service, it encompasses the majority of visits. Those eyes on the website were all paid for, without any ROI.
In this graph, covering cumulative site visits in the four months since the new site has been live (June 1 – October 1, 2015), the red section is noticeably gone. This is because they halted all PPC campaigns at the beginning of June and only received one view from PPC during the 4-month period.
While overall website visits decreased significantly once the new site debuted, that change is much smaller without the paid ads campaign. Furthermore, despite a lower view count, site leads were almost doubled, from 22 total contacts in the earlier 4-month period to 41 in the latter.
As the above table indicates, paid search accounted for almost two-thirds of the site visits. The website redesign allowed more visits to convert, without relying on advertising. A special focus on SEO also included using more long-tail keywords to ensure visitors who are more likely to convert than a casual scroller on the website.
Peninsula Siding Company’s website redesign was extremely successful in accomplishing their goal of generating more leads. It also provides a stable foundation for a comprehensive marketing plan, while not wasting money on an ineffective Pay-Per-Click campaign.