Hey, knuckleheads! Still, using “Click Here” as your anchor text? Well, it’s time for a slap of reality from BlakSheep Creative, your digital marketing maestros from Denham Springs, LA. We’re here to drag you out of the dark ages of the internet and show you why “Click Here” is a colossal waste of space. Spoiler alert: it’s not 1999 anymore, and using ‘Click Here’ is not just outdated; it’s detrimental to your user experience, accessibility, and SEO performance. So, let’s get with the program.

Is your website stuck in the 90s? Don’t let outdated SEO tactics like keyword stuffing and link farms drag you down. Read our guide to modern SEO and avoid these digital disasters.

Why “Click Here” is the Worst Anchor Text Ever: Ditch the Dinosaur Tactics and Elevate Your Links

Let’s delve into the issues with ‘Click Here‘. It’s like wearing outdated fashion to a tech convention—it’s out of touch and ineffective.

Lack of Information

“Click Here” is as informative as a screen door on a submarine. It provides no context about the link’s destination. Your visitors aren’t mind readers. They need clear instructions. Imagine this: someone’s browsing your site. What would catch their eye more – ‘Click Here’ or ‘Explore Our Award-Winning Services’? It’s the latter. ‘Click Here’ is a dead end. ‘Explore Our Award-Winning Services’ is an exclusive invitation. See the difference?

Poor User Experience (UX)

Newsflash: web users scan pages faster than a cheetah on Red Bull. When they see “Click Here,” they’ve gotta stop and figure out what the heck you’re talking about. It’s like giving them a map without any street names. But when you use something like “Download Our Free SEO Guide,” it’s like handing them a GPS straight to the goods. Your users want to get in, get the info, and get out. Don’t make them work for it.

Accessibility Issues

Accessibility isn’t optional, Einstein. For users relying on screen readers, “Click Here” is a nightmare straight out of Elm Street. Imagine hearing “Click Here” over and over without any context. It’s confusing and downright annoying. Descriptive anchor text like “Read Our Latest Blog Post on Digital Marketing Trends” actually tells them what they’re getting into. Help them out, would you?

SEO Problems

Search engines use anchor text to figure out what your linked page is about. “Click Here” tells Google absolutely nothing. Zilch. Nada. You’re wasting prime real estate. Let’s say you’re linking to an article about killer SEO strategies. Use “Effective SEO Strategies” as your anchor text. This way, you’re not just helping Google; you’re rolling out the red carpet for users looking for exactly that content.

Anchor text is more than a link—it’s an opportunity to connect readers to valuable, relevant content. Just like in marketing, your links need to tell a clear and compelling story. This principle is the foundation of Non-Fiction Marketing, where every element of communication builds trust and engagement. Dive into our full breakdown on Fiction vs. Non-Fiction Marketing to see how authenticity can transform your strategy.

Not Mobile-Friendly

We live in a mobile-first world, and “click” is tied to mouse usage. On mobile devices, folks are tapping, not clicking. Using “Click Here” is like telling a mobile user to flip open their nonexistent laptop. Instead, use phrases like “Tap to Explore Our Services.” It’s modern, relevant, and doesn’t make you look like a digital dinosaur.

Non-descriptive links like “here”, “click here”, “more”. Which is not only bad for SEO, it is also pretty detrimental for accessibility. And as you know, accessibility and great SEO are usually going hand-in-hand. https://t.co/xeoe5NPsw8

— Anne Bovelett (@Bovelett) August 23, 2023

Better Alternatives to “Click Here”

Ready to graduate from the remedial class? Good. Here are some alternatives that will make your anchor text as compelling as a two-for-one happy hour. And don’t worry; implementing these changes is as easy as a few clicks. You’ve got this.

Use Descriptive Text

Instead of the bland “Click Here to learn more about our products,” spice it up with “Discover Our Range of Digital Marketing Solutions.” Not only does this inform, but it also intrigues. Your visitors know precisely what they’re getting and are more likely to engage. It’s like waving a neon sign saying, “This is what you need!”

Incorporate Keywords

If your link is about “dog training tips,” use that as the anchor text. Keywords help search engines understand your content. So, “Explore Dog Training Tips” is much more helpful than the vague “Click Here.” Not only does this boost your SEO, but it also shows your audience that you’re serious about providing value. It’s like handing them a gold-plated invitation.

Keep it Concise

Being descriptive is key, but don’t write a novel. Your anchor text should be brief yet informative. Phrases like “Get Started with Our SEO Tools” or “Join Our Marketing Webinar” are concise and actionable. This balance ensures your users understand your links without feeling overwhelmed.

Enhance the User Experience

Clear, concise, and descriptive anchor text improves usability and enhances the overall user experience. By providing context, you guide users through your content seamlessly, making their journey on your website intuitive and enjoyable. When users find what they need effortlessly, they’re more likely to stick around and explore further.

Boost Accessibility

Descriptive anchor text is a game-changer for users relying on screen readers. Instead of a monotonous series of “Click Here” links, they get meaningful, navigable content. This commitment to accessibility can significantly broaden your audience’s reach and improve user satisfaction. And let’s be real—making your site accessible is not just good practice; it’s the right thing to do.

Improve SEO Performance

Every time you use a keyword-rich anchor text, you’re signaling to search engines about the relevance of your linked content. This not only helps your site rank for those keywords but also improves its overall SEO health. Descriptive anchor texts like “Learn About Advanced SEO Techniques” can make a notable difference, driving more organic traffic and boosting your site’s authority.

Conclusion

Ditching “Click Here” is a small yet impactful change that can vastly improve your website’s user experience, accessibility, and SEO performance. At BlakSheep Creative, we specialize in crafting digital strategies that pay attention to these details, ensuring your website is functional and optimized for success.

Elevate Your Digital Game Even Further: While enhancing your anchor text is a step in the right direction, the overarching quality of your SEO strategies plays a crucial role. Don’t miss our in-depth exploration, “The Sudden Decline in SEO Performance: Don’t Let This Be You,” to see what happens when SEO isn’t handled with expertise. Learn from real-world mistakes to solidify your approach.

So, next time you’re about to type “Click Here,” stop and think. Choose anchor text that adds value, informs your users, and boosts your SEO. By doing so, you’re not just improving your website’s performance, but you’re also empowering your users with clear directions and enhancing their overall experience. It’s time to elevate your digital presence with smarter, more effective anchor text. And for those agencies still clinging to “Click Here” – we see you, and it’s time to step up your game.

Ready to Leave “Click Here” in the Dust?

It’s time to stop embarrassing yourself with outdated anchor text. Don’t be like those other agencies stuck in the past. Elevate your digital marketing game with BlakSheep Creative. We’re here to optimize your links, boost your SEO, and improve your user experience. Fill out the form below or view our services to see how we can transform your website into a powerhouse! Get started now and leave the competition behind.

What are trust badges, you ask? Trust seals (or trust badges) are online badges certifying that your website and business are safe and trustworthy. They help build customer confidence by letting visitors know that their personal and financial information is secure with you and that your business is legitimate.

These simple things are vital for small businesses, who may have a more challenging time building trust with potential customers than larger, more established companies. Adding trust seals should be one of your top priorities if you’re running a small business website.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can get visitors into your sales funnel, read our recent article on how to create conversations with potential customers.

Here’s a crash course on trust seals and why you should start using them on your small business website today:

What Are Trust Badges?

Trust badges (seals) are visual elements that certify that a website is safe and trustworthy. They typically feature the company’s logo providing the seal and a short message attesting to the website’s legitimacy.

Trust seals let visitors know that their personal and financial information is safe with you and that your business is legitimate.

These seals are provided by various companies, including website security providers, payment processors, and customer review platforms.

Many of these companies offer free trust seals to website owners who meet specific criteria, such as having an SSL certificate or being PCI compliant.

Why Are Trust Seals Important?

Trust seals are essential because they help build customer confidence in your website and business. In today’s digital world, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your website is secure and trustworthy—and these badges are one of the best ways to do that.

A study by Actual Insights found that trust seals make a brand look more trustworthy to 75% of people. Additionally, 61% of respondents recalled a time when they didn’t finalize a purchase because the website lacked trust logos.

Trust logos increased the perceived trustworthiness of a brand in 75% of respondents. https://t.co/Irvf5dGY86 via @instapage

— BlakSheep Creative (@BlaksheepCreate) September 29, 2022

In other words, they help online store visitors make their purchasing decisions.

For small businesses, trust seals are critical. Small companies may have more difficulty building trust with potential customers than larger, more established ones. Adding trust seals can help level the playing field and boost your small business website.

How to Use Trust Seals on Your Website

Now that you know what they are and why they’re essential, it’s time to start using these icons on your own website. Here are a few tips on how to incorporate them into your website design:

• Place in prominent locations on your website, such as the header, footer, or checkout page.
• Use high-quality images to help them stand out and look more professional.
• Make sure they are up to date. Nothing hurts credibility more than outdated logos or messages.
• Use trust seals from credible companies your target audience will recognize and trust.
• Only use the ones that you or your team members have earned.

Adding trust seals to your small business website is a simple, effective way to build customer confidence and improve your chances of conversion. This practice lets visitors know that you’re a legitimate business they can trust with their personal and financial information. Now is the time to start if you’re not using trust seals on your website yet.

Why Do I Need a Trust Seal?

You need a trust seal on your small business website to build customer confidence and improve conversion rates.

Customer Confidence

Let’s start with customer confidence. Nowadays, people are cautious about who they give their personal information to online. 

If your website doesn’t look trustworthy, they’re not going to hand over their credit card number—plain and simple. A trust badge helps visitors feel confident that their information is safe with you, which can lead to more sales and conversions.

Remember, your online reputation is important. Customers who don’t trust your brand or website will not do business with you. In addition to using trust seals, there are other things you can do to build customer confidence, such as displaying customer testimonials and contact information prominently on your website.

If you are concerned with or need help with your brand’s online reputation, we can help. Check out our online reputation management services page to learn how.

Conversion Rates

In addition to building customer confidence, trust badges can also help improve your conversion rates.

Google’s John Mueller has said that they may or may not directly affect your E-A-T, so they won’t likely affect your search engine rankings directly. However, they will help you increase your conversion rates.

And that’s why you have a website in the first place, right? To sell your products or services.

Think about it this way: if your website looks credible and trustworthy, people will likely stay on it and convert. On the other hand, if your site looks sketchy, they will hit the back button faster than you can say “trust badge.”

So, while these seals may not directly impact your search rankings, they’re still important because they can help increase your conversion rates.

Do you need help getting your website to page one of Google, we can help. Check out our SEO services and learn how we can help you dominate the search engine results pages.

Types of Trust Seals

Now that you know why trust seals are essential let’s look at some available types.

1. Security

The first type is a security trust seal. These seals show that your website is secure and visitors’ personal information is safe.

For example:

SSL Certificates: SSL certificates encrypt information sent between your website and visitors’ browsers. This helps prevent hackers from stealing sensitive information like credit card numbers.

Ways to Check If a Website Is Legit or Not – https://t.co/4wuyY1fB3V

1. Never Click Links of Unsolicited Emails
2. Check for Writing Mistakes
3. Verify the Trust Seal of the Website
4. Check the Details of the SSL
5. Verify Contact Page#website #security #websecurity #infosec pic.twitter.com/EoHZIBOPEc

— AboutSSL (@aboutssl) June 25, 2022

You can tell if a website has an SSL certificate by looking for the green lock icon in the address bar.

If you’d like to learn more about SSL and why it’s critical to your website’s success, read our recent article, “What are Some Quick SEO Wins You Can Do Yourself?” It will explain some quick fixes you can make on your website that are guaranteed to help you increase your rankings. (SSL is one of them).

2. Privacy

The second type is a privacy trust seal. These seals show that your website respects visitors’ privacy and that their personal information will be kept confidential.

For example:

Privacy Policies: A privacy policy is a legal document that outlines how you collect, use, and protect your visitors’ personal information. If you have a privacy policy on your website, you can display a trust seal to let visitors know that their information is safe with you.

3. Business

The third type of trust seal is a business trust seal. These seals show that your business is legitimate and that you’re a trusted source for the products or services you offer.

For example:

BBB Accreditation: The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a nonprofit organization that helps consumers find trustworthy businesses. If your business is accredited by the BBB, you can display its trust seal on your website.

Awards: If your business has won any awards, you can display the relevant trust seals on your website. This helps build credibility and show visitors that you’re a reputable source.

Associations: If your business belongs to any professional associations, you can display their trust seals on your website. This helps show visitors that you’re a credible and trustworthy source.

4. Money-Back Guarantee Trust Seals

The fourth type of trust seal is a money-back guarantee trust seal. These seals show that you offer a money-back guarantee on your products or services. This helps increase customer confidence and can lead to more sales.

For example:

Money-Back Guarantee: A money-back guarantee is a promise to refund a customer’s purchase if they’re not satisfied. If you offer a money-back guarantee, you can display a trust seal to let visitors know they can get their money back if they’re unhappy with your product or service.

5. Satisfaction Guarantee Trust Seals

The fifth type of trust seal is a satisfaction guarantee trust seal. These seals show that you offer a satisfaction guarantee on your products or services. This helps increase customer confidence and can lead to more sales.

For example:

Satisfaction Guarantee: A satisfaction guarantee promises to refund or replace a customer’s purchase if they’re not satisfied. If you offer a satisfaction guarantee, you can display a trust seal to let visitors know that they can get their money back or a replacement if they’re unhappy with your product or service.

Now that you know the different types of trust seals, it’s time to choose the right one for your website.

When choosing a trust seal, there are three things you should keep in mind:

1. The type of website you have
2. The products or services you offer
3. Your target audience

These three things will dictate which trust seal is suitable for your website.

For example, if you have an eCommerce website, you’ll want to choose a trust seal that’s relevant to the products or services you sell. A money-back guarantee trust seal would be a good choice for an eCommerce website since it offers customers assurance that they can get their money back if they’re unsatisfied with their purchase.

Now even though we loathe Shopify, they agree with the importance of trust badges. They even have a list of apps that their users can use to create trust badges. Since, opinions aside, they are an eCommerce powerhouse, it’s worth taking note of their approval.

If you have a business website, you’ll want to choose a trust seal that’s relevant to your business. A business trust seal would be a good choice for a business website since it shows visitors that your business is legitimate and trustworthy.

Do you need an eCommerce website? Or perhaps yours isn’t performing as well as you’d like? Visit our eCommerce website page to learn how we can help you!

Once you’ve selected the proper trust seal for your website, you’re ready to start using it.

There are two ways you can use trust seals on your website:

1. Include the trust seal in your website’s design
2. Add the trust seal to your website’s code

If you want to include the trust seal in your website’s design, you’ll need to add the trust seal image to your website’s design files. Then, you’ll need to add the code for the trust seal to your website’s code.

If you want to add the trust seal to your website’s code, you’ll need to find the code for the trust seal and add it to your website’s code.

Whichever way you add the trust seal to your website, make sure you add it to all your website pages. Also, make sure that it doesn’t interfere with your customer experience.  This will help increase customer confidence and can lead to more sales.

Which Trust Badges Should I Use?

The most important thing to remember when choosing trust seals for your website is to ensure they’re relevant and credible. That means selecting seals that are appropriate for your industry and that come from reputable organizations.

For example, consider seals from the Better Business Bureau or the National Health Information Center if you’re in the healthcare industry. If you’re in the e-commerce space, on the other hand, seals from companies like VeriSign or McAfee would be more appropriate.

The bottom line is that you should take some time to research which trust seals will work best for your business and your industry. Once you’ve chosen the right ones, make sure to prominently display them on your website so visitors will know they can trust you.

If you’re looking to add trust seals to your small business website, here are some of the best options to choose from:

• Better Business Bureau (BBB)
• VeriSign
• McAfee
• TRUSTe
• Symantec
• GeoTrust
• Thawte
• Comodo

Each of these trust seals comes from a reputable and well-established organization, so you can be confident that they’ll help build customer confidence in your business.

What about rating trust seals?

Rating trust seals are different from other types of trust seals in that they show your rating from the company in question. For example, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) offers a seal that shows your business’s BBB rating.

If you’re unfamiliar with the BBB, it’s a well-known organization that rates businesses on a scale of A+ to F based on customer complaints, transparency, and other factors. A high BBB rating is an excellent way to show potential customers that your business is reputable and trustworthy.

Similarly, Trustpilot offers a seal that shows your TrustScore based on customer reviews. If you have a high TrustScore, it’s a good indication that your customers are happy with your products or services.

Additionally, create trust seals like “5-star rating on Google My Business” and “As seen on NBC,” which show that you are credible, have been featured by a reputable source, or that customers have given you positive reviews.

After all, you’ve earned that five-star rating, so why not show it off to potential customers?  We suggest adding trust badges showing your stats on all applicable review sites and social media properties.

Don’t have a Google Business Profile for your business? You’re missing out on customers, that’s a fact. Learn why you absolutely need to create and optimize your profile if you’re a brick-and-mortar or service-based business.

The Bottom Line

Adding trust seals to your small business website is a great way to build customer confidence and improve your conversion rates. But it’s essential to choose the correct seals for your business and ensure they’re prominently displayed on your website. By taking these steps, you can be sure that you’re effectively using trust seals to build your business and boost your bottom line.

Do you have a trust seal on your small business website? If not, which one do you plan on adding? Let us know in the comments below!

Of course, if you need help, we can help. We’re experts in all things web development and web design, including adding trust seals to websites. So don’t hesitate to contact us today!

Getting more leads from your Architectural Website is important to architects because they need to generate a steady flow of possible clients. They have to get people interested in their work and show them what they can do for them.

While word of mouth may be the best form of marketing, architects also need to have an online presence.

This article will cover nine easy ways to get more leads from your architectural website. By implementing these methods, you could see a significant increase in the number of leads you generate. After reading the blog post, be sure to visit our recent blog post to learn nine essential elements for any architectural website.

Architects could see an increase in business by getting more leads from their websites. In fact, according to a report from Hubspot, 61% of marketers consider generating traffic and leads to be their biggest challenge.

If you’re an architect looking for ways to get more leads, read on to learn about nine easy ways to do just that.

Keep it simple

Architectural websites need to be visually appealing and easy to navigate. If a potential customer has to click more than three times to find what they’re looking for, they’re likely to give up and go somewhere else.

Make sure your site is designed with the user experience in mind. Use clear and concise text, easy-to-use navigation, and beautiful visuals to guide visitors through your site.

If you need help with your architecture website design, contact us today. Our expert team can help you create a site that’s both visually appealing and easy to use.

Include a call to action

Your website’s primary purpose is to generate leads. To do that, you need to include a call to action (CTA) on every page. A CTA is a statement or button that encourages visitors to take a specific action, such as filling out a form or calling a phone number.

Make sure your CTAs are clear, concise, and easy to spot. Use action words like “contact us” or “get a free quote” to encourage visitors to take the next step.

If you’re not sure how to create a compelling CTA, contact us today. Our team can help you create CTAs that are both effective and easy to spot.

Every page on your site should include a call-to-action (CTA). A CTA is a statement or button that encourages visitors to take a specific action, such as signing up for your newsletter or requesting a consultation.

Make sure your CTAs are visible and easy to find. Use strong verbs, such as “request a consultation” or “download our e-book,” to state what you want potential customers to do clearly.

Examples of CTAs:

• Request a consultation
• Schedule a meeting
• Download our e-book
• Sign up for our newsletter

Use your CTAs to get your visitor’s email address so you can add them to your marketing list. You can then send them regular updates about your firm, new projects, and special offers.

Clear and Concise Text

Design your site using clear and concise text. Get to the point and don’t use fancy language that could confuse potential customers. Use bullet points and short paragraphs to make your content easy to read and digest.

Your target market should be able to understand your website’s content without difficulty. If they can’t, they’re likely to move to another site.

Easy-to-Use Navigation

Make sure your site’s navigation is easy to use. Use drop-down menus, breadcrumbs, and search bars to help visitors find what they’re looking for.

The last thing you want is prospective clients getting lost on your site. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll likely leave and never return.

Beautiful Visuals

Use high-quality visuals, such as photos, infographics, and videos, to engage potential customers and promote your brand.

As an architectural firm, you likely have a portfolio of beautiful visuals to choose from. Select the ones that are most relevant to your target market and use them throughout your site.

Offer something of value.

To get potential customers to give you their contact information, you need to offer something of value in exchange. This could be an e-book, white paper, or checklist.

Make sure the content you’re offering is relevant to your audience and that it provides them with value. No one wants to waste their time reading something that isn’t going to be helpful to them.

Plus, your target audience is more likely to do business with you if they see that you’re an expert in your field. You can position yourself as an authority figure in the architectural world by providing valuable content.

Examples of e-books for architects:

• The Top 10 Mistakes Architects Make When Designing a Home
• 7 Ways to Save Money on Your Next Building Project
• 5 Tips for Creating a Sustainable Home

Examples of white papers for architects:

• The Benefits of Green Architecture
• How to Design an Energy-Efficient Home
• The Future of Sustainable Building

Examples of checklists for architects:

• Doing a walkthrough with a fire marshal
• To-do list for your first day on the job
• Project closeout checklist

Educational content is a great way to show potential clients that you’re an expert in your field. It also helps build trust and establish your firm as a credible source of information.

Create a sense of urgency

If you want people to take action, you need to create a sense of urgency. Use language that encourages people to act now, such as “limited time offer” or “act fast.”

Make sure your offer is genuinely time-sensitive and that there’s a reason why people need to act now. Otherwise, you risk losing credibility with potential customers.

Use pop-ups

Pop-ups are a great way to capture leads. They can be used to offer something of value, such as an e-book or white paper mentioned above. But use pop-ups sparingly. While pop-ups can be effective, they can also be annoying if used too often or not relevant to the page content.

Pop-ups and SEO

If you’re worried about pop-ups affecting your SEO, don’t be. Google has said that pop-ups are not a ranking factor. However, if you’re using too many pop-ups or if they’re blocking the main content on your page, that could result in a penalty.

Learn more about using pop-ups and their effect on your website’s SEO at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/7-tips-using-pop-ups-without-harming-seo

Update Your Content Regularly

As an architect, having an up-to-date website is essential for promoting your business and attracting new clients.

Your website is often the first point of contact with potential clients, so it’s vital that the content is current and accurately reflects your firm’s capabilities.

Regularly updating your website’s content also helps to ensure that your site appears high in search engine results, making it more likely that potential clients will find you.

In addition, by regularly adding new content, you can show that your firm is active and engaged with the latest industry trends. By keeping your website’s content fresh and up-to-date, you can help to ensure that your firm remains at the forefront of the architectural field.

How to update your website’s content:

If you don’t have the time or resources to regularly update your website’s content, consider working with a web development or content marketing agency.

These agencies can help you create and publish high-quality content that is both relevant and engaging.

In addition, they can also help to ensure that your website’s content is optimized for search engines, making it more likely that potential clients will find you when they search online.

Work with an agency that understands your needs.

When choosing an agency to work with, look for one with experience working with architects and other similar businesses. This will ensure that they understand your specific needs and can provide you with the best possible service.

A good agency will also be able to provide you with a range of content marketing services, such as SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing.

By working with an experienced and reputable agency, you can help to ensure that your website’s content is both high-quality and effective in promoting your business.

Let your Images do the Talking

As an architect, images are a vital part of your website. After all, your work is all about visuals.

Make sure that the images on your website are high-quality and accurately represent your firm’s capabilities.

When showing off recent projects, include a mix of images, including both exterior and interior shots.

In addition, consider using video to showcase your work. Video is an increasingly popular way to consume content online, and it can be a great way to show off your work in a more dynamic way.

When selecting images for your website, be sure to:

Use high-quality photos that accurately represent your work.

Include a mix of exterior and interior shots.

Consider using video to showcase your work.

Your website’s images are vital in its content, so choose them carefully. High-quality, relevant images will help engage potential clients and give them a better understanding of your work.

Include a mix of exterior and interior shots.

By including a mix of images, you can give potential clients a more well-rounded view of your work. A combination of exterior and interior shots will also help to show off your range of skills and abilities.

Consider using video to showcase your work.

Video is an increasingly popular way to consume content online, so using it on your website makes sense. Video can be a great way to show off your work in a more dynamic way. 

Leverage the Power of SEO

Make sure that your website’s content is optimized for search engines. This will help to ensure that potential clients can find you when they search online.

There are several ways to optimize your website for search engines, including:

Use relevant keywords throughout your website’s content.

When it comes to SEO, using relevant keywords is one of the most important things you can do. Keywords are the terms that people use when they search for information online, so using them in your website’s content will help to ensure that your site appears near the top of search engine results pages. 

Make sure that your website’s content is well-written and informative.

In addition to using relevant keywords, it’s also essential to make sure that your website’s content is well-written and informative. Content that is poorly written and full of errors is not likely to rank highly in search engine results pages.

Ensuring that your website’s titles and descriptions are keyword-rich. 

Your website’s titles and descriptions are other vital factors in SEO. Be sure to include relevant keywords in these elements to help improve your site’s ranking.

By following these tips, you can help to ensure that your website’s content is optimized for search engines and that potential clients can find you when they search online.

Use alt tags to describe your images. 

In addition to using relevant keywords, you can also use alt tags to help improve your website’s SEO. Alt tags are used to describe the images on a website, and including relevant keywords in these tags can help ensure that your site appears in image search results.

Add trust seals to your website.

Trust seals show your website’s visitors that you’re a reputable firm and that you are experts in your field. Read our recent article to learn how they help increase your credibility and conversions.

Generate high-quality backlinks.

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. Having high-quality backlinks can help to improve your website’s SEO. You can generate backlinks by creating informative and well-written content that other website owners will want to link to.

Generating high-quality backlinks is one of the most overlooked marketing techniques. You can bring more traffic to your website and improve your business by paying attention to this method.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly.

By taking the time to optimize your website for search engines, you can help to ensure that potential clients can find you when they search online.

Use Social Media

Utilize social media platforms to share your website’s content and drive traffic back to your site. You can also use it to show off work that you’re doing to support your community.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are great ways to connect with potential clients and share your work. When you post content from your website on social media, include a link back to your site. This will help drive traffic back to your site and improve your website’s SEO.

You can get more leads from your architectural website by following these tips. So what are you waiting for? Start implementing these methods today!

Hire a Professional Architectural Digital Marketing Agency

While you can take steps to improve your website’s SEO and lead generation on your own, sometimes it’s best to leave it to the professionals.

An architectural digital marketing agency can help you optimize your website for search engines, generate high-quality backlinks, and use social media to share your work and drive traffic back to your site.

Contact us today if you’re looking for help with your website’s SEO and lead generation. We have a team of experienced digital marketing professionals who can help you take your website to the next level.

We can help you with a variety of tasks, including:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Generating High-Quality Backlinks
• Social Media Management
• Reputation Management
• Web Design and Development
• Graphic Design
• And more!

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There are several ways to speed up your WordPress website. By following these twelve simple tips, you can ensure that your site runs quickly and efficiently, keeping your customers (and search engines) happy in the process.

1. Install a caching plugin

One of the easiest ways to speed up your WordPress website is to install a caching plugin. A caching plugin stores static files on the server, so it doesn’t have to download them every time someone visits your website. This can help speed up your website significantly.

And not only do your visitors like a fast-loading website, but it’s also actually a significant ranking factor with Google and other search engines.

W3 Total Cache

Several caching plugins are available, but my favorite is W3 Total Cache.

This plugin is easy to use and can speed up your website significantly.

WP Rocket

If you’re looking for a more premium caching plugin, WP Rocket is a great option. This plugin is a little more expensive than W3 Total Cache, but it can help speed up your website even further.

WP Fastest Cache

Another great caching plugin is WP Fastest Cache. This plugin is similar to W3 Total Cache, but it’s simpler to use.

Toolkit for Elementor

If you build pages with the Elementor Page Builder, We highly recommend using the Toolkit plugin. This plugin includes a built-in caching feature that can help speed up your website significantly.

Just like any other free plugin on WordPress today, all of these offer a premium upgrade that unlocks additional functionality, so find the one that’s best for your needs and budget.

2. Deactivate all plugins except for the ones that are necessary for your site to work

One of the biggest things that can slow your website load time is plugins. While plugins can add a lot of functionality to your site, they can also slow it down significantly.

That’s why it’s important to deactivate all plugins except for the essential ones for your site to work.

How to deactivate plugins

Deactivating plugins is easy. First, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Then, navigate to the Plugins tab and click Deactivate for each plugin you want to deactivate.

Asset Cleanup Booster

If you don’t want to deactivate your plugins but don’t need them to fire on every page on your site,  you can use the Asset Cleanup Booster plugin.

This plugin can help you find which plugins are necessary for each page on your website, and you can choose to deactivate them on the other pages.

Don’t forget about themes!

It’s not just plugins that can slow your website down, but themes as well. If you’re using a theme that is full of features that you don’t need or use, it can slow your site down significantly.

We’ve been using the Astra theme a lot lately, and it’s a great option for a fast-loading WordPress theme.

Make sure you’re using the latest versions.

Outdated plugins and themes not only pose a security risk, but can also slow your website down. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re using the latest versions of all your plugins and themes.

3. Optimize images and videos with an image optimization tool

Images and videos are often the biggest culprits of a slow website. That’s why it’s essential to optimize your images and videos before you upload them to your website.

By doing this, you can help ensure that your website is running as quickly as possible. Plus, you help make your website’s user experience better, which can lead to more conversions and sales.

Optimization Tools

Several excellent image optimization tools are available, but our favorites are ImageOptim and Kraken.io. These tools make optimizing your images and videos easy with just a few clicks.

Consider Using the webp Format.

Another great way to optimize images is to consider using the webp format. This new image format is smaller than traditional formats like JPEG and PNG, which can help speed up your website.

Plus, it’s a format created by Google, so it’s future-proof.

Google has created the WebP image format as a replacement for JPEG, PNG, and GIF file formats. For comparable quality, WebP produces files that are smaller or of higher quality. It supports both lossy and lossless compression and animation, and alpha transparency.

Because it’s created by Google, it stands to reason that using this format can boost your SEO efforts.

Enable Lazy-Loading

Another great way to optimize images is to enable lazy-loading. With lazy-loading, images are only loaded when they’re visible on the screen. This can help speed up your website significantly as it reduces the number of HTTP requests that need to be made.

Lazy loading is a concept used in computer programming where an application loads data only when it is needed, instead of loading the entire dataset upfront.

Most of the plugins we discuss in this article offer some sort of lazy-loading feature. Just make sure it’s turned on!

4. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool

If you want to find out how fast your website is, Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is a great option. This tool will analyze your website and give you a score from 0-to 100. The higher the score, the faster your website is.

PageSpeed Insights Alternatives

It’s always best not to rely on just one-page speed tool. There are several other great options available, including Pingdom and GTmetrix. Try each one out and see which one works best for you. Plus, look at the image above – I highly doubt Google would fail their page speed insights.

You can also compare results from different tools to get a more complete picture. Here are the results using GTmetrix:

Much better!

5. Minimize HTTP requests

HTTP requests are the requests that your browser makes to your server to load a web page. The more external HTTP requests you have, the slower your website will be.

How to Minimize HTTP Requests

There are many ways to minimize HTTP requests.  It would take an entire blog post to go into detail, so we’ll just give you a few tips.

• Get rid of unnecessary WordPress plugins –  as we mentioned earlier, plugins can be the primary culprit of a slow website. If you’re not using a plugin, get rid of it.
• Reduce the number of external scripts – External scripts are scripts that are loaded from other websites. You’ll speed up your website if you can reduce the number of scripts that your website loads.
• Replace burly plugins with more lightweight ones –  Burly plugins are plugins that execute a lot of code. If you can replace a burly plugin with a more lightweight plugin, you’ll speed up your website.
• Combine CSS and JavaScript files – Combining your CSS and JavaScript files can help reduce the number of HTTP requests your website makes.
• Conditionally load scripts that aren’t needed sitewide – Sound familiar? This is the same as the Asset Booster plugin that we mentioned earlier.
• Get rid of unnecessary images –  If you’re not using an image, get rid of it.

6. Use a Content Delivery Network

A content delivery network, or CDN, is a network of servers that delivers content to your visitors. By using a CDN, you can help ensure that your website runs as quickly as possible.

A CDN works by caching your content on servers worldwide and then delivering it to your visitors from the server that’s closest to them. This helps reduce latency and speeds up your website.

There are several great CDN providers available, including Cloudflare and MaxCDN.

7. Optimize your WordPress database

WordPress stores all of your website data in a database. If your database is bloated, it can slow down your website.

How to Optimize Your WordPress Database

There are some ways to optimize your WordPress database. One way is to use the WP-Optimize plugin. This plugin will clean up your database and help speed up your website.

Make sure to delete all transients, post revisions, and spam comments. These are all unnecessary data that can bloat your database and slow down your website.

Another way to optimize your WordPress database is to use the WP-Rocket plugin. This plugin will clean up your database and cache your website and minify your CSS and JavaScript files.

8. Enable gzip compression

Gzip compression is a compression algorithm that can reduce the size of your website’s files by up to 70%. By enabling gzip compression, you can help speed up your website.

Enable GZIP with a WordPress Plugin

A caching or performance optimization plugin is the simplest way to enable GZIP compression on your WordPress site.

WP Rocket and Cache Enabler are two plugins that can help you do this.

9. Optimize Images

Images are one of the biggest culprits of a slow website. You can help ensure that your website is running as quickly as possible by optimizing your photos.

How to Optimize Images

There are many ways to optimize images. One way is to use the WP-Smush plugin. This plugin will help ensure that your photos are correctly compressed and optimized.

Another way to optimize your images is to use the EWWW Image Optimizer plugin. This plugin will also help ensure that your pictures are correctly compressed and optimized.

Size Your Images Appropriately

It’s also important to size your images appropriately. If you’re using an image that’s too large, it will slow down your website.

Crop and resize your images to the size used on your website. If you’re using an image that’s 1000px by 1000px, but it’s only being displayed as 100px by 100px, then you’re using an image that’s too large.

By properly sizing your images, you’ll reduce file sizes, conserve server resources and decrease page load time.

Both users and search engines will thank you for it!

Learn how to size your WordPress images perfectly in our recent blog article.

11. Invest In Good Web Hosting

Last, but certainly not least, you need to invest in good web hosting. If you’re using a shared host, your website is going to be slow.

Shared WordPress Hosting vs. Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting is a bit more expensive than shared WordPress hosting, but it’s worth it. A good managed WordPress host will ensure that your website is always running as quickly as possible.

Some of the best managed WordPress hosts include WP Engine, Flywheel, and Kinsta.

While investing in good web hosting is important, don’t forget that you also need to invest in good WordPress themes and plugins. By investing in quality products, you can help ensure that your website is running as quickly as possible.

12. Hire a Professional

If you’re not comfortable optimizing your website on your own, you can always hire a professional to do it for you. A professional will be able to help you speed up your website and ensure that it’s running as quickly as possible.

That’s where we come in!

BlakSheep Creative is a full-service creative agency that specializes in WordPress websites. We can help you speed up your WordPress website and ensure that it’s running as quickly as possible. Contact us today to learn more about our services!

Case Study

One particular website owner had been struggling to keep up with the competition. His website was slow, and his customers were starting to leave him. He decided to hire BlakSheep Creative to speed up his website.

We were able to help him speed up his website and improve his sales by 80%. Contact us today to learn more about our services!

Why BlakSheep Creative?

We know how important it is for your website to be fast, and we are dedicated to helping you achieve that goal. We have a team of experts who are knowledgeable in WordPress website optimization, and we are always up-to-date on the latest techniques and technologies.

We are passionate about helping you speed up your website, and we will work diligently to get the job done right.

Contact us for a FREE SITE SPEED AUDIT. We’ll run some tests on your website and offer you suggestions on how to make it blazing fast. If you need us to make the changes for you, we can do that too. Get started today!

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions about website optimization.

Unlike the burger stand, you measure your small business’s success in terms of calls and contact forms, not visitors to your storefront.

Think about it. When was the last time that your website generated 50+ web forms in a month? What about phone calls? Do you hear customers say, “I found you on Google?”

If your answer to any of those is anything less than yes, then this blog post is for you.

Read on to learn what your plumbing website needs to get more leads.

What Does a Bad Plumbing Website Look Like?

We tell all of our clients (especially Plumbers) that your website’s visitors should be able to answer these three questions within three seconds of landing on your site:

1. What is your company?
2. What services do you provide or offer?
3. How can they contact you?

It’s a well-known fact that in this digital age, consumers want the information that they are seeking now. Because of this, your plumbing company’s website needs to answer each of those three questions above without the user having to scroll down the page.

Get inspiration for your plumbing website on our Top 100 Plumbing Websites for Inspiration.

Now that we’ve told you what not to do let’s move on to what you should do to have a successful plumbing website.

If you’d rather have a professional take care of marketing your plumbing company online, visit our plumbing digital marketing services page to learn how we can help you dominate your competition and grow your business.

13 Web Design Tips That Every Plumber’s Website Needs to Generate Leads

Follow these web design tips to generate more leads for your plumbing business.

1. Use A Professional Logo

Having a professional logo has multiple benefits. First, it shows your company as legitimate. If a consumer compares an ugly website with no logo to a professionally designed website with a crisp and clear logo, they will associate the nicer logo and website with a higher-quality company. Remember, image is everything!

You should consider investing in a professionally designed logo and brand before starting your website design process.

Need a professionally designed logo? We can help you with that.

2 Have a Clear Call to Action

A call to action (or CTA) is graphics, verbiage, or other content that directs users to take some sort of action. CTAs direct the visitor where to go next or what to do.

On plumbing websites, CTAs typically fall into one of two categories:

• Make a phone call
• Complete an online form

Consider placing a clear call to action (CTA) in your website’s header, making it easy for visitors to contact you or your company’s customer service representatives.

Learn why your CTA is critical.

3. Give an Easy Way to Request Your Services

Like the Len the Plumber Website example above, you want to make it as easy as possible for your users to contact you after reading your call to action.

If you look back at the image, you’ll see that Len the Plumber gives potential customers two ways to contact them: by phone and online.

4. Show a List of Your Services

Google’s entire mission is to provide users with the best answers to their search queries. You should as well. As soon as your target audience lands on your website, give them a clear list of the services that you offer (you can get as detailed as you’d like). (Remember the three questions in three seconds we mentioned?)

5. Use a Sticky Header

Sticky headers are all the rage these days, especially in plumbing website design.

A sticky header is a functionality that shrinks the header section of your website and makes it “stick” to the top of the page while the user scrolls. Sticky headers keep your menu in the visitor’s view at all times, making navigation easier.

Sticky headers help you generate more sales leads by keeping your contact information and call to action visible the entire time someone is on your website.

6. Have a Responsive and Mobile-Friendly Framework

8 out of 10 consumers will stop engaging with a website that doesn’t display well on their device. (Source: Adobe)

If a potential customer needs emergency plumbing and heating services and ends up on your website via their phone and it doesn’t display well, chances are they’re going to “bounce” right to your competition’s site.

We repeat: If your website doesn’t display well on tablets and smartphones, eight out of ten people will leave it and visit your competitor’s website instead.

To keep these sales leads to yourself, make sure your business website is mobile-friendly.

7. Use Clear and Original Imagery

It’s been said among web design professionals that a pixelated and blurry image is worse than having none at all.

Improperly-sized images are a sign of laziness and certainly aren’t user-friendly.

Instead, use professionally shot, high-quality images at the highest resolution possible for the highest clarity and professionalism. Keep in mind to use the exact size that the images are served at to maximize loading speed.

8. Use Images of Real People

One way to convey your plumbing company’s legitimacy and make homeowners in your service area feel safe in their own homes. At the same time, you perform a service is to have images of your technicians, team members, and trucks on your website.

Whether on your home page, a Meet the Team page, a blog post, or any other page on your site, a friendly face and a smile go a long way toward helping your website generate more leads.

Also, consider creating short introductory videos for each of your plumbers and staff. Embed these videos into “Meet the Team” or “Employee Spotlight” blog posts to make your brand more approachable.

9. Show off your Awards & Accreditations

Every home and business owner wants to hire a plumber who is well-respected in their community and the plumbing industry.

Show off your industry awards, recognition, media articles, and accreditations to generate even more leads from your plumbing website.

Here is a list of some badges, logos, and other items that we recommend that every plumber includes on their website (if applicable).

Remember to only use logos and badges from organizations that you are a member of and to adhere to their specific guidelines to using their logos online.

• State and local plumbing licenses
• Better Business Bureau
• Yelp
• Angie’s List Super Service
• Best of Houzz
• Best of HomeAdvisor
• Other award badges and logos

But before you showcase your plumbing prowess with awards and accreditations on your site, consider how a diversified marketing strategy can elevate your business even further. Showcasing accolades like state and local licenses, Better Business Bureau, Yelp badges, Angie’s List Super Service Awards, Best of Houzz, and Best of HomeAdvisor recognitions signals trust and quality to potential clients. Yet, there’s more to explore beyond these traditional markers of success.

Dive into our recent blog post, where we unpack strategies beyond platforms like Angi, focusing on digital innovation and community engagement for sustained growth. Discover more in our blog post for insights that could transform your plumbing business.

10. Have a Modern Website Design

Your plumbing website is your digital salesperson who works 24/7 to generate new leads and sales. You want to make sure you put your best foot forward (unlike bad sites 1, 2, and 3 above.). 

You wouldn’t have a sloppy salesperson, so why have a horrible website? Instead, invest in a professional plumbing website design, Search Engine Optimization for plumbers, content marketing for plumbers, social Media Marketing for plumbers, and any other digital marketing services for your plumbing lead generation.

The investment will pay for itself, we promise!

Operating on a tight budget? Read our guide to Super Easy SEO for Small Businesses and do your SEO yourself.

11. Show Competitive Differentiators

Even though you already know that your plumbing company is better than your competition, homeowners and business owners who haven’t ever heard of your company don’t.

To differentiate yourself from your competition and stand out among all of the other plumbers, tell your customers why you’re the best plumber in your town, local area, or state.

Pro Tip: If you haven’t performed a SWOT analysis for your company, follow our guide to creating a SWOT analysis for your construction company.

12. Provide Coupons & Special Offers

If you offer exclusive deals and coupons to your customers, be sure to advertise them on your website.

Customers love saving money, and every penny saved on a tune-up, service call, installation, or maintenance plan goes a long way with customers and helps build customer loyalty.

Sure, coupons may mean less money in your wallet, but what you make up for it in customer retention and loyalty far outweighs the $10.00 you may have lost by giving a customer 10% off of their service call.

13. Provide a Click to Call Button

Some website designers say that you should only have click-to-call buttons for mobile devices, but we disagree.

With the popularity of touch screens, we make all of our links to any telephone number click-to-call.

By adding a simple HTML code like tel:225.505.3834, you can make it easier for visitors to call you from the links with your telephone number.

For instance:

Not click to call: 225.505.3834

Click to call: 225.505.3834

Sure, you want to keep your call to action present on mobile devices. By making it easy for phone users to tap their screens to call you, you ensure that you can convert mobile users on your plumbing website into leads with just a literal click of a button.

Do You Need a New Plumbing Website? Here’s What You Need to Do To Get Started:

Does your plumbing website need some help? Here at BlakSheep Creative, we make your phone ring, and any of our digital marketing experts can help you generate more leads, sales, and revenue from the web.

And it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. We provide affordable SEO services for small businesses just like yours.

Let’s discuss how it can be improved: call 225-505-3834 or email us to learn more.

– Step 1 of 8

General Information

______________________________

Name *

First

Last

Business / Organization *

Contact Email *

Contact Phone *

Address

Address Line 1

Address Line 2

City

— Select state —AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingState

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Industry

Upload Your Logo (Digitalized If You Have It)

Click or drag files to this area to upload. You can upload up to 25 files.

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If You Have a Current Site

______________________________

What's the website/URL

What do you like about it? (Be specific – colors, images, overall feeling, navigation bar location, etc.)

What do you dislike about it?

Do you have a domain name/URL registered?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

If so, with whom? (ex. GoDaddy)

Do you have a web host?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

If so, with whom? (ex. GoDaddy)

PreviousNext

If You Have a Current Blog

______________________________

What platform is it using? (Ex: WordPress, Blogger)

Do you currently use an email newsletter /marketing service?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

If so, what software do you use? (Ex. Constant Contact, Mailchimp)

If so, do you want an email newsletter signup form on your website?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

Do you participate in social media?

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Linkedin
• Myspace
• Pinterest
• Other

Design and Look

______________________________

Do you have a business logo?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

If not, would you like us to create one for you?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

Are there any specific colors you’d like used on your website?

Are there any colors you don’t want used on your website? (Ex: similar to a competitor)

What kind of feeling do you want your website to have?

All our websites are custom designed to your specifications. Please check any of the boxes you think meet your stylistic needs or suggest some of you own.

• Bold
• Clean
• Colorful
• Corporate
• Edgy
• Feminine
• Fun
• Hi-Tech
• Masculine
• Minimalist
• Natural
• Whimsical
• Other

Any other stylistic needs

PreviousNext

Objectives and Content

______________________________

What is the purpose of your website?

Who is your target audience? (Be specific)

What should the main call to action on the home page be? (Ex: Call Now, Sign Up for a Newsletter)

Which pages do you think your website will need?

• About
• Blog
• Contact
• Gallery
• Home
• News
• Products
• Services

Are there any other pages not included above that you need?

Will you be providing the content (text) for the website?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

If not, would you like us to provide a quote for copy writing services?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

Will you be providing any images/photos?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

Is there anything special on your website users need to be able to do? If so, please explain?

PreviousNext

Ecommerce

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Do you plan on selling products or services through your website?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

If so, what type of products/services?

gateway? products merchant

How many different products or services do you plan to sell?

Selected Value: 0

Do you currently use a merchant account and payment gateway? (Ex: Authorize.net)

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

Do you currently use a shopping cart? (Ex. 1ShoppingCart)

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

PreviousNext

Search Engine Optimization

______________________________

Are you interested in purchasing our Advanced SEO External Backlink package?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

Are you interested in getting a quote for Monthly Internet Visibility / SEO?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

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Maintenance and Updates

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Do you want us to handle the maintenance and future changes to your website so you don’t have to?

• Yes
• No
• Not Sure

Miscellaneous

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What else would you like to tell us about your website?

PreviousNext

Website Examples

Please find 3 websites pertaining to your industry and examine the design, content, navigation, overall layout, style, etc.
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Name

Website / URL

What do you like or dislike about the site?

Name

Website / URL

What do you like or dislike about the site?

Name

Website / URL

What do you like or dislike about the site?

Website

Submit

The same principle is true in digital marketing. 

Your website has to have compelling calls to action to help you nudge prospective customers towards conversion.

In this article, we’re going to give you an overview of what calls to action are and how you can use a call to action (CTA) on your website to increase your conversion and click-through rates.. To learn more about how you can use CTAs to increase your website’s conversions, read our recent article, “How to Build a Visually Appealing Website That Converts Like Crazy.”

What is a Call To Action?

A call-to-action, known in digital marketing as a “CTA,” is not a new idea.

Actually, the concept of a CTA has existed for quite some time.

Years ago, newspapers were the primary method that people used to get their news.  Thanks to movies, we’ve all seen the images of the young men, foot perched up on a box yelling “Extra!  Extra!  Read all about it!”  

Guess what that is?  A call to action.  Now let’s discuss website-specific calls to action.

What is a Website Call to Action?

According to Indeed.com, a call-to-action consists of: “Words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action, such as “Write Now,” “Call Now,” “Sign Up for Free,” or “Click Here.”

Note the words in the definition above, “immediate action,” Whether you want their action to be clicking through to learn more, signing up for a newsletter, or sending you an email to get more information on your product or service, the person is taking immediate action.

Simply put, a CTA on a website should be a button or banner that stands out on the page and offers an action to be taken.

What are the Benefits of Having a CTA on Your Website?

If you have a website, chances are you want your users to do something like buying a product, learn more about your organization’s mission, or maybe sign up for a newsletter.

If you don’t have a website, we can build one for you. (obligatory sales pitch.)

But, people won’t do anything without being told to do it.  Or maybe they will, but just need a little prodding.  Here are some benefits to having a CTA on your website:

Boost your overall User Experience (UX)

An effective call-to-action eliminates confusion, encouraging users to take the appropriate next steps. That might be to visit a certain page or to book a call, or to read a specific article.

Direct your reader’s actions based on your organization’s needs.

By writing content for your website that has a clear call to action, your target audience has no doubt as to the intention of the content.  They’re not bouncing from page to page clicking away out of confusion or boredom.

Your content creates intrigue and excitement, and your CTA allows the reader to dig more deeply into the topic or purchase your product.

Ensure that all of your created content is meaningful.

In 2020, there’s increasing pressure to create new content.  All you hear from digital marketers is, “Content! Content! Content!.”  Now make no mistake about it, content is king.  

Or perhaps as we content marketers would say, “timely, relevant, authoritative, and useful content is king.’

By attaching a clear CTA to each new content piece (blog post, video, podcast episode, etc.), you ensure the content fits into and supports your overall marketing plan.  This helps you build a larger audience, and convert them into clients or customers.

Don’t forget to provide some sort of call to action on your branding and promotional materials too!

Grow your audience and increase sales

Whether something as simple as “Follow me on Twitter” or as critical as “Submit payment,” your website’s CTA serves as a leverage point for your business’s needs.

Whatever is most important to you at the time can become a call to action. From social media posts to articles to static landing pages, each piece of content that includes a CTA becomes a powerful piece of your digital marketing efforts.

Direct your users down the marketing funnel.

By matching your user’s intent, you can ensure that your CTA is most effective.  User intent will differ depending on where they are in the funnel or the buyer’s journey.  By matching your user’s intent, you can ensure that your CTA is most effective.

• Learn more about user intent in our recent post: Search Intent: What Small Business Owners Need to Know in 2020

Analyze the effectiveness of our website’s content.

The number and quality of responses we get will be indicative of how compelling our copy or content must have been. 

A call-to-action could be a simple coupon in a newspaper advertisement, but things become much more interesting when we market electronically – by email, on the web, or in a blog post.

5 Call To Action Examples To Use as Inspiration

Call to action examples are everywhere, so where would you start? 

We figured a good place to start would be to take a look at a few of the top companies in the world according to a recent Fortune 500 list (there has to be a reason the companies are successful, right?)

Then, we will look at some other examples that are more content-oriented.

Let’s do this.

1. Learn More With Apple

Like the simplicity of their products, Apple keeps its calls to action short, clean, and to the point

Learn More and Buy do a great job of letting Apple’s audience know exactly what they’ll see after they click through the call to action. Apple also doesn’t clutter the design: There are clearly only two options to help its users focus on making a decision to click quickly and easily.

Key Takeaway: Be clear and concise, and position your call to action as the obvious next step.

2. Save With CVS

While the design is a little busier than Apple’s example (should I click on Save with Our App, the App Store, Google Play, or on the image of the phone itself?!) CVS focuses on what we digital marketers call value proposition in their call to action.

The CTA button, “Save with Our App” focuses the website’s visitors’ attention to the benefit of using the tool to meet their need to save money.

The headline here—Unlock extra savings with app-only deals!—also suggests exclusivity, that you can only experience those benefits if you get the app. 

They also include the word exclusive in the description, which is a powerful motivator for the fear of missing out (FOMO).

Key Takeaway: Keep your design clean and uncluttered so your users know where to click. Brainstorm the value proposition that answers your readers’ question, “What’s in it for me?” and then tie that into your call to action.

3. Clutter is OK if you’re Amazon Prime

In contrast to other more minimal examples, Amazon Prime is completely opposite.  This cluttered CTA for Amazon Prime sports lots of persuasive verbiage such as ‘exclusive’, ‘prime’, and ‘convenient’ in the surrounding copy to sell its package of convenience.

The CTA button itself is clear and concise, and other phrases such as ‘cancel anytime’ and ‘see more plans’ reassure customers to make them feel like they’re in control.

Key Takeaway: Use the power of persuasion to get your visitors to click through.

4. Unicef Paints a Picture

Here is an example of a charity’s use of a motivational CTA.  Instead of merely asking users to donate or help out, 

UNICEF explains the results of a specific fundraising scenario in order to inspire and drive action. This effectively paints a picture in the mind of the user.

The bright blue background not only looks great, but it leverages the visitor’s emotions as well.  The color blue is said to project subtle messages of trustworthiness and serenity, loyalty, and tranquility.

Meanwhile, the bright yellow ‘donate to help children’ button catches the eye and gives the visitor a direct and immediate route to making a difference.

Key Takeaway: Write a blog post that ties into your product or service. Then end the post with an informal call to action to work with you to resolve the problems you just outlined in your post and link to content that shows your solutions.

5. Grammarly Keeps it Simple yet Personalized

If you know us, you know we’re huge fans of Grammarly. 

It’s listed in our top free digital marketing tools list.

Not only is their product incredible for avoiding spelling and grammatical errors, their homepage CTA is pretty awesome too.

The bright and bold color ensures the “add to Firefox”  call to action button stands out, while the copy cleverly includes both a prompt to add Grammarly and emphasizes the fact that Grammarly is free helps reassure people who might be thinking twice about clicking.

This CTA is also a great example of personalization, with Grammarly recognizing which browser you are using and changing the copy accordingly.

Key Takeaway: A little creativity and personalization can go a long way.

How To Write A Call To Action That Converts

No matter what motivation you use in your call to action, here are some best practices that you should use to structure your call to action.

1. Start with verbs.

Verbs are the action words that make it clear to readers what you want them to do.

Instead of saying, “Ready to get started?” simplify it to “Get started now” or “Start saving now”. 

By using an action phrase, you’re more apt to get your intended results.

Believe it or not, some verbs are stronger than others. This has to do with the cacophony of the word (hard K, G, D sounds) coupled with the strength of the action suggested in context.

The word “buy” feels more powerful and urgent than “purchase”. “Get your copy” feels more powerful than “Download your ebook”.

You also want to be specific with the action words you choose and the instructions that follow them. 

A “feed the children,” campaign, for example, wouldn’t be effective if they just said, “help us today.”

Instead, choosing “donate to help feed a hungry child today” or “sign up to deliver food to a hungry child” are more specific, giving people exact ways they can help.

This increases the likelihood that they will.

You should also support your action words and instructions with descriptions that help explain why it’s so beneficial to the customer. “Start your free monthly trial” sounds better than “Start your trial,” Right?

2. Don’t Use Filler Words

Adverbs and adjectives can get in the way of the action you want your readers to take, so choose them selectively.

That’s why the graphic above says, “Add some adjectives,” and not, “Add a buttload of adjectives.”

You should have already done the work of convincing people to take the action before presenting your call to action to them.  

Try your best to avoid words ending in -ly. “Click here” is better than “Click here quickly.”

There are exceptions, though. For example, you might hint at exclusivity by saying “Get your custom ebook now” instead of just “Get your ebook”.

3. Keep Things Short and Simple.

Make sure to use simple, common, and short words.

This isn’t because you think that your readers aren’t intelligent or illiterate.

You’re trying to prod their base emotions, and don’t want anything to get in the way of those emotions.  If your reader has to process complex scenarios or thought processes, they may get distracted and not take action.

Also avoid buzzwords, jargon, and any word that feels “empty” and can be ignored by the reader. If you use a lot of ignorable words in your call to action, your entire call to action could be ignored.  

If you absolutely have to use descriptive words, just use simple and common words that are effective in evoking emotion.

Basically, just remember that language must not get in the way of the emotional prodding you’re trying to achieve.   Keep it simple — basic, easy, and primal words—and not too many words overall—when you make your request.

4. Keep the Request Simple also.

It’s not just the language leading up to your call to action’s request that needs to be simple.  The request itself must also be easy to read and perform.

One to two clicks to complete with as little pain and effort as possible.

If you need more information than a name and email, try to break it up into smaller chunks.

Capture their email first, then you can collect more information from them by following up with them personally or using email campaigns.  You could also get more of their information by having them create an account on your website.

Basically, you don’t want to give your readers time to change their minds.

Think about it.

How many times have you been at one of those big box stores (think about the one that’s famous for only having one lane open most of the time.) and seen people abandon a shopping cart (we call them buggies here in South Louisiana) and walk out the door.

The same is true for your call to action.

The more complicated it is for your readers to complete, the more likely they will manage to change their minds, put away their credit cards, and forget the reason they were convinced to take action.

“Buy Now!” sure doesn’t seem like it’s time-sensitive if someone has to fill out a lot of information, answer a survey, and then reply to an email to verify.  Right?

Lose the sense or urgency and you’ll lose your conversion rate!

Conclusion: Types of CTAs for your website

The types of CTAs you use on your website depend on your website’s goals.

But for every type of website, you’ll be using some mix of CTAs with different purposes.

• Turning visitors into top of funnel leads
• Qualifying top of funnel leads
• Converting leads into customers

Make your CTAs clear. Make them prominent. Offer something valuable. Your website conversions will improve.

And now for a call to action, we really hope that you click on it.

How can we help you with creating awesome CTAs on your website?

Don’t have a website? Check out our pay-per-month website plans.

So you’ve decided to start a new business.  You’ve come up with your logo and brand identity.

Avoid falling into the pitfall of having a family member create your website.

Instead, enlist the design services of a local professional to make your shiny new website, right?

But, there are hundreds of design agencies in Baton Rouge to choose from?

Which one is the best to hire for your website design in Baton Rouge?

In this article, we will discuss 8 items you should consider when hiring your website agency:

Step 1: Establish Your Budget.

Before you even type “Baton Rouge Louisiana web design” into Google, you need to sit down and set your budget for your web design project.

Whether you’re a new startup with a shoestring budget or a large franchise with unlimited funding, you should have a number written on paper before searching for the perfect agency.

Especially for small businesses, you should leave some wiggle room in your budget.  Make sure it’s somewhat flexible and can accommodate upsells — addons you may not have thought about.

Now it goes without saying that you would love for your web design project to come in under budget (you can give us a call to get an idea of what a website should cost). 

Your prospective agency should be able to advise you on web design options that may help you meet your budget while still helping your businesses succeed.

Last, you should have a number for your budget that you’ll tell your agency.

Keep this number lower than your actual budget to allow some wiggle room when you’re dialing in exactly what you expect from your agency.  Keep that number around 75% to 90% of your actual budget.

Step 2: Get the agency’s pricing

Now that you have your budget, it’s time to research various agencies’ pricing.

This can be time-consuming, as many agencies offer different packages and a la carte services.

Knowing what you can afford and what return on investment the agency can provide is a critical part of the process.  Do your homework to avoid spending too much on services that you don’t need.

When it comes to digital marketing and SEO, we don’t offer one-size-fits-all SEO pricing; each project and SEO campaign is custom-tailored to your small business’s goals and needs.

How much will your website cost with Blacksheep creative?

Because we’re dedicated to transparency and helping small businesses maintain their budget while seeing results, we give you a tool to find out approximately what your web project will cost you.

WARNING:  As you research web design prices, you will get amounts all over the place.   Some as low as $500, some $5000+.

How much should it cost to build my website elsewhere?

We’re going to be completely transparent here.

Going the DIY route is the cheapest way to make a website, but it’s also cheaper in part because you’re putting your own sweat equity into the process.

If you want to hire someone to build your website, you’re going to pay for the same basic infrastructure costs…plus that person’s sweat equity…plus a hefty premium for their expertise.

So what does that cost?

Sorry for the annoying answer, but again it depends on:

• Your needs. (do you need SEO? Graphic design? Videos?)
• Who you’re talking to.

To try and give you a rough idea, We dug into some Facebook communities for people who build websites for a living.

First, we found this poll of 111 designers who build WordPress sites with Elementor. These estimates are for a “basic 10-15 page website”:

Similarly, we found a similar poll of 158 designers who build WordPress sites with the Beaver Builder page builder:

Because both these polls cover designers who build sites using WordPress and a visual page builder and don’t include coding and special functionality, these polls represent the bare minimum of what you should expect to pay for a simple website.  And if you need something beyond a basic website, costs can quickly rise.

Ok, so now that you’ve got an idea of what your website should cost and what you can afford, let’s look at the next thing you should consider when hiring a web design agency.

Step 3: Ask about fees and charges

Even after you’ve asked an agency about pricing, there is still one last piece of financial business to inquire about.

Sometimes, an agency has a secret list of fees they issue, and they don’t always tell you about them.

They might be in the fine print of your contract, or they might not list fees anywhere at all. But if you hire an agency without asking about surprise fees, you could quickly find yourself over-budget with a website that you don’t like.

That’s why you must talk to your agency about their policy on fees.

• Do they charge for making unscheduled updates to the site?
• Do they charge you for the time that their designers and developers spend working for your company every month?
• Can you wind up spending more for an unscheduled checkup about your site?

All of those questions are good to ask, especially since there’s no “standard” stance on fees for web design agencies. It’s up to you to get the details you need for success, especially if they’re not presented upfront.

Once you have your finances in order, you can move on to the next important step of agency evaluation.

Step 4: Look at their past clients and testimonials

Every established web design agency will have previous (and current clients if they’re doing their job correctly).   If you want to know what to expect from a particular agency, look at the work they’ve done for those companies. (here’s what our clients have to say about us.

This will help you learn what you can expect from that agency and give you a list of their clients you could contact to find out more.

In doing this, you get to see examples of the agency’s previous work and get the information you can use to contact their clients directly.

While it’s important to see examples of an agency’s work, you should contact their clients to learn about their individual experiences with X-Y-Z Company.

If they speak highly of the agency, you can rest assured that you’re in good hands. If they say they can’t wait to get out of their contract, then you may want to start looking elsewhere.

Basically, learn from companies who came before you.

Was partnering with this agency the best choice they’ve ever made? Or are they not seeing any return on investment? Either way, you’ll have a clear idea about whether or not you should contact that agency.

If you’re considering other options, read about the pros and cons of hiring a web designer on Fiverr to make an informed decision.

Step 5: Ask about their client retention rate

Most will hover around 60% or so, and anything below that indicates that there’s something sketchy going on with the agency itself.

Retention rates of about 70% — especially 90% or above — show exceptional client satisfaction.

The higher the client retention, the better the chance of a successful partnership.  Remember, a website isn’t just a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. You don’t just toss a website up overnight.  Successful websites take time, strategy, and execution to help you reach your goals.

If an agency doesn’t have a decent client retention rate, they’re missing one of those elements, which means they won’t be able to give you the results you want.

But when you find an agency with a high client retention rate — and when they publish it online for everyone to see — you know that you’ve found a quality agency.

Step 6: Ask who exactly will be responsible for your site

Get to know the individual or individuals that will be working for you in designing, creating, and maintaining your website.  Be sure to get their contact information.

By doing this, you have a point of contact (or contacts) at the company with whom you can contact immediately to ensure that your site gets the attention it needs, or you get your questions answered in a timely fashion.

Step 7: Ask about other customer support

Even though you may have one dedicated point of contact, there may be situations where you may not be able to reach them.  Kids get sick, people take vacations, and life happens.

Find out who can give you the support you need if your primary point of contact is out of pocket.

Whether it’s the agency’s owner, your contact’s coworker, or someone who looks after clients for people out of the office, you need to know so you can continually keep the agency accountable for your progress.

Plus, it shows that your business is more than just a number.

If something goes wrong with your site, you need to be able to contact them to fix the error. Can you call whenever you want? Or do you have to wait for certain hours? Either way, you need to know. (We give you our cell phone numbers and encourage you to call us anytime.)

Step 8: Ask who can update the website

Spoiler Alert! 

Most of the time, we use WordPress for our websites because it’s easier for the end-user.

And you’ll need to update your website.

Because WordPress is designed for the least technically savvy person, we give you the option to update the site or do it for you.

As a matter of fact, we prefer a combination of the two:

• You create the content (you’re the subject matter expert, after all)
• We take care of the search engine optimization (SEO) of your content to make sure that search engines such as Google love it.
• We style it up and post it on your site (we can even handle your social media marketing if you desire)
• You watch your sales increase.

Some agencies, however, prefer to keep everything in-house and keep your site under lock and key.

Regardless of which policy your agency has, you must educate yourself on it to better understand how you will be working together and who will be responsible for what.

Bonus Tip:

Ask them about their experience with search engine optimization (SEO).

A website is useless if people cannot find it. Here are some suggestions on what to look for in an SEO agency.

Step 9: Now, choose the agency that’s right for you!

With all of this information, you can now make a good choice for a web design partner for your business.

Find the best fit for your needs and ensure they’ll work with you through all of your questions and concerns.

And if you think of other questions you want to ask, always ask them — a good web design agency will never turn away your questions or give you vague answers.

We like to think we’re one of the best Baton Rouge web agencies.  Check out our recent web builds and view what our clients have to say.  Or get in touch with us, and let’s discuss how we can help you smash your business goals.

Your business website is your livelihood. It’s where you make your money. With Tropical Storm / Hurricane Barry looming down on South Louisiana, it’s important to minimize the effects on your business. Read how to ensure your website survives the storm or any disaster.

It feels like. Mad Max movie at times.  With disasters happening simultaneously,  it’s critical to prepare your business and your website.  Think about July 2019 alone:  there were earthquakes in California and Hurricane Barry is breathing on the Louisiana coast as we type this.  From tornadoes, flooding, wildfires, and most recently hurricanes, everyone stays prepared by stocking up on necessary items and disaster-proofing their residence.

But as a business owner, do you know if your website is ready for an emergency? Learn how to ensure that your company’s website survives the worst of storms.

Back that thing up.

If your computer were to crash, get damaged from the disaster, or even get lost, your files will most assuredly be gone, deleted, or vanished. Backing up your files remotely should be your first priority for surviving the storm in the event that something happens to your machine.

Have your critical information handy.

Keep all of the important and necessary information about your website with you. Have a physical copy, a digital copy stored on a flash drive, and another stored on a cloud-based server. 

Data redundancy is important to ensure your business survives the storm!

Also prepare a document with all the information about your website:

• Website host information
• Account numbers
• Username and passwords
• List of vendors used and their contact information
• DNS and C-Panel information
• Billing information

Make sure that your website is responsive.

Why do you need a responsive website?  During an emergency, your lifeline to the outside world is your phone or your tablet.  A responsive website enables customers in the affected area to find you (it’s a must for search engines,) and for you to continue serving them.

Make sure your contact information is visible and easily found

During an emergency, it is critical that your customers can easily contact you. Display your phone number so that a single click on the phone dials for the user.

Have an error page ready.

An HTTP 503 response is a temporary service not available error. Whether it is due to some technical error or maintenance purpose.  In the event that your site goes down during a disaster, this 503 error page could be the only point of contact your customers would have. Create a 503 page that gives customers the information they would need in the event of an emergency such as:

• A message that your site is down or that an error has occurred and that you are working to fix the problem.
• Contact information where customers can learn more or voice their concerns. The page should Include an e-mail and any social media accounts you manage.
• Links to any backup websites

And now for the good news.

As a BlakSheep Creative client (we prefer to call them partners,) we do all of the work for you and make sure that your website is prepared for any disaster, natural or man-made.
We do this by having redundant servers throughout the globe to ensure your downtime (although highly unlikely,) is minimal. 

Your data is safe and secure. 

We can even handle all of your social media needs and communication needs to ensure your customers that your business is just fine and ready to provide your goods and services during these tough times.

Fill out the form below to get your personalized quote.

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