Website Optimization for Service Providers
Optimizing your website to effectively communicate what you offer and attract your ideal clients.
Clear and Descriptive Website Content
The importance of clarity over cleverness in your website messaging.
Many service providers try to be too clever or creative with their website titles and messaging, often at the expense of clearly conveying what they actually do and who they serve. Your website visitors are trying to quickly understand your offering, so prioritize clarity and directness in your headlines, titles, and copy. Don't sacrifice being easily understood for the sake of being creative or clever.
Action Steps:
1. Review your website's titles, headers, and core messaging with a critical eye - does it instantly communicate what you offer?
2. Get feedback from someone outside your industry on how clear your website messaging is.
3. Rewrite any unclear sections with a focus on simple, straightforward language.
Using descriptive site titles and headlines to improve visibility.
The site title (what shows in the browser tab) and main headline are two of the most important areas for communicating what your website and services are about. Avoid vague titles like just "Home" and instead use descriptive titles that incorporate keywords people would actually search for related to your offerings. This will improve your visibility in search and help set accurate expectations.
Action Steps:
1. Brainstorm a list of keywords and phrases your ideal clients might search related to your services.
2. Craft a new, descriptive site title utilizing some of those keywords.
3. Ensure your main homepage headline succinctly explains what you offer.
Using Video and Multimedia Effectively
The role of video content in supporting website messaging.
While embedding videos can provide helpful multimedia content, videos alone are not enough for optimizing your website's ability to rank and convey your offerings clearly. Search engines have an easier time processing and categorizing text-based content. Using video transcripts alongside embedded videos allows you to leverage the engaging multimedia while also providing crawlable text.
Action Steps:
1. Transcribe any existing video content you have embedded on your website.
2. Post those transcripts on the same pages as the embedded videos.
3. For new videos, create and post transcripts immediately when publishing.
Structuring website content like a book for clarity.
Your website should be structured similarly to a book, with clear hierarchies, sections, and supporting subheadings to orient the reader and provide scaffolding around the core content. Avoid just having pages of unbroken text with no guides or signposts for the reader. Use descriptive section titles, bullet point breakdowns, and content chunking to make your website content skimmable and easily navigable.
Action Steps:
1. Review your website content and identify areas that are just walls of text without breaks.
2. Break up those sections with descriptive subheaders, bulleted lists, and shorter paragraph chunks.
3. Implement a consistent hierarchy of heading styles to delineate sections.
Understanding Your Audience's Language
Aligning your language with how your target audience searches.
A common pitfall is creating website content using insider language and jargon from your industry, while your potential clients may not be familiar with that terminology yet. They likely don't know the "correct" phrases and may be searching in more colloquial terms describing their problems/desires related to your services. Do research into how your target audience articulates their needs in their own language.
Action Steps:
1. Identify some of the core jargon and insider phrases you commonly use related to your services.
2. Brainstorm how a complete newcomer might describe those same concepts in a more plain language way.
3. Incorporate those alternate phrasings throughout your website and pay attention to if it improves your engagement.
Considering the typical buyer's mindset and journey.
When someone lands on your website from a search, they are likely in one of these mental states: 1) They have a specific question or problem they want answered, 2) They want to buy a product/service related to that problem, or 3) They are researching to find the right provider for that product/service. Your website content should be mapping to their current mindset and moving them along that exploratory journey.
Action Steps:
1. List out the common questions, problems, and pain points your typical buyer has before finding you.
2. Ensure your website has content pathways that address those concerns and queries.
3. Optimize your website flow to guide visitors naturally from those entry points to your offering's solution.
Key Takeaways
The main insights from this content emphasize the need for clear, descriptive, and audience-aligned messaging throughout your website. Prioritize explaining your offerings in simple terms over creative phrasing. Structure content for scannability. Optimize text, titles, and multimedia with your target audience's language in mind. By framing your website messaging from your potential clients' perspective, you'll be more effective at attracting and converting your ideal customers.
- Additional Key Points
Understanding Search Intent and User Experience
Recognizing Different Search Intents
The three main types of search intent that bring users to your website.
People landing on your website from search engines typically fall into one of three main intent categories: 1) They have a specific question or problem they need answered, 2) They want to purchase a product or service related to that problem, or 3) They are researching and comparing providers to find the right solution. Your website's content and user experience need to cater to the current mindset and goals represented by each of these different search intents.
Action Steps:
1. Identify the common questions, problems and pain points your target audience has before finding your offering.
2. Ensure your website has dedicated content pathways that directly address and answer those concerns.
3. Map out the typical user journey from each of those entry points to your product/service's solution.
Adapting website content to match the user's current mindset.
Description - Based on the search intent that brought them to your site, users will be in different mental modes of either: 1) Wanting a specific question answered, 2) Being primed to make a purchase decision, or 3) Researching to evaluate their options. Your website content should be tailored to intuitively guide them through the next logical step for their current mindset versus trying to force them onto a path they're not ready for yet.
Action Steps:
1. Audit your existing website flow and content for areas that may be misaligned with common user intents.
2. Adjust content and calls-to-action to feel more natural depending on each intent; don't try to sell too soon.
3. Implement intuitive pathways and nurturing content to warmly progress users to conversion-ready when the time is right.
Creating Content Clarity and Hierarchy
Structuring website content like a well-organized book.
To make your website easy to navigate and consume, take inspiration from the way books are structured with clear hierarchy and signposts. Avoid overwhelming visitors with dense walls of text. Instead, incorporate elements like helpful titles, section headers, bullet point breakdowns, and chunking of content into separate pages/tabs when needed. This allows people to quickly skim, grasp an overview, and easily dive into sections that are relevant to their interests.
Action Steps:
1. Review your current website content and identify any areas lacking adequate structure and separation.
2. Break up text into shorter paragraphs, pull out key points into bulleted lists, and use descriptive section headers.
3. Explore options for separating larger guides/resources into chapters or separate pages within a logical content hierarchy.
Leveraging both text and multimedia in website content.
While pure text content is ideal for search engine optimization purposes, smart use of embedded videos, images, and audio can enhance the overall user experience when balanced with descriptive text elements. Search engines continue to improve at extracting meaning from multimedia too. Utilize video transcripts, image alt-text, and text summaries surrounding that rich media to get the best of both worlds.
Action Steps:
1. Audit your existing multimedia content and ensure it has accompanying descriptive text elements.
2. For new video/audio content, create and publish text transcripts or thorough text summaries alongside it.
3. Optimize images with keyword-rich alt text that describes the visuals helpfully for users and search engines.
