Home Inspection Websites

Just getting your business online? Have a website and you’re frustrated with the results? You know you need to use the internet to promote your business. But how?

Your customers are looking for you online. Your competitors are getting them because prospects can't find you. Or because your website doesn’t attract business.

A few people might still use the yellow pages. Some might see your newspaper ad if they happen to be looking at house listings but…

What most people are using is the internet; it's quicker and easier.

All you do is go to a search engine like Google and type in whatever you want to find.

In a micro-second you have your answer. It doesn't get any easier than that.

81% of Americans have computers in their homes or place of work and have access to the internet.
64% said that search engines were the "main way" they find things on the Internet.
64% said "search engines are better" than printed yellow pages for finding commercial information.
52% said search engines are better than other "offline" sources such as newspapers, magazines and direct mail

Your potential customers are looking for information. If your business is nowhere to be found you lose out. And you’re leaving money on the table so your competitors can put it into their pockets.

To maintain your competitiveness you need to be online and you need to be seen period...

Getting A Website Is Simple - Having A Successful Website Is Not...

Okay, so you want to be marketing your business online. Putting together a website and getting online can be simple, but having a successful website is not simple. There are plenty of websites that don’t get their company any business, even if they’re on page 1 of the search listings!

It can all be pretty confusing… there’s a lot of information out there. A lot of the information is bad... some of the information can outright hurt your business. It’s confusing, it’s misleading, it’s frustrating…

Stop, take a breath and keep reading, don't just go out and hire some website designer to build a website for your business or decide to build a website yourself... because if you do you may be sorry that you did...

Whether you decide to hire a website builder, build a website yourself, or work with us, make an informed decision and save yourself money, time, and aggravation in the long run.

I could talk for hours about how you’re being misled and told half-truths. But I bet you’re busy so I’m just going to cover 5 critical topics that will help you to have a website that gets you sales and leads. If you want to hear more you’re welcome to sign up and get even more information.

Web Designers Are Just Builders

When most companies think about getting online they think of hiring a website designer. Maybe this is the route you’ve already taken. I have a lot of respect for the talents of these people for putting together websites and their technical knowledge. But I think the more appropriate term for them is website builder. They will simply build you a website. Usually they expect you to tell them what you want and supply the information to put on the website. Sometimes they have some sample layouts for you to choose from.

Unfortunately most of them don’t know anything about how to get your website to drive sales and leads for your business. Using your website as a marketing tool requires specialized knowledge of online direct marketing including the psychology and behavior of people searching online.

Did you know you only have 7 seconds or less to get a website visitor to stay on your site?

Your website builder must know how to immediately get the visitor’s attention and get them to stay on the website for more than 7 seconds.

Have you ever met someone who does nothing but talk about themselves? You can’t wait to get away from them can you?

But wait a minute!! - It’s my party (website) so I get to talk about me! What else would you expect me to talk about on MY website except ME or MY COMPANY?

Instead of taking this personally, if you get this, really get this… your success rate will skyrocket.

People DO come to your website to find out what your business can do FOR THEM!!

Using headlines and good direct marketing copywriting isn’t about hype… it isn’t about slamming someone with a sales message and twisting their arm until they buy.

Good copywriting techniques provide you a way to tell your website visitors what you can do for them. First you connect with them. And you let them know that you understand and can help with what they want and need. Then you back it up with information about your company.

There are very few web builders who understand this and even fewer with any copywriting skills. If you’re going to do your own website, whether on your own or using a template, this is more important than any other skill you’ll need.

The other vital skill is understanding keywords - how to find them and how to use them.

Most website builders have no idea how to determine the right search terms to target for your site. Or worse, they do know and don’t bother to include it in your website. Or offer it only as an extra fee. This is part of what’s known as search engine optimization - how to get your site listed high in the search results for the terms (keywords) that searchers use to look for your services.

These days website builders will tell you that in the website coding, the meta keyword tag isn’t important anymore, but it still is. This is the code from a site that has targeted keywords and is on page 1 of Google:

And this is the code from a site on page 10 of Google. They have so many keywords that the search engines don’t know what to do with the site, so it’s buried on page 10 of the search results where no one will find them:

This is just one little piece of search engine optimization but it’s so easy to get this right. So, why do so many web builders get it wrong?

With a website builder you spend a lot of money for a website that may or may not make it into the search listings. And even if it does, it probably won’t bring you any sales or leads without using good copywriting techniques.

There is not enough information on a flash website that the search engines can read to know how to list your website. If you change your website to a flash website expect to loose any search engine listing you do have.

Don’t even use a flash graphic. Your website visitor’s eyes and attention will be drawn to anything that is moving.

Do you want your website visitor to be constantly glancing at the pretty clouds moving on your site - or do you want them looking at the information you have?

Enough said.

The third topic to cover today is template websites. This is becoming the choice of many home inspectors for getting their website online.

It’s a great alternative to hiring a website builder because you have the ability to change and update your information on your own.

There are some pitfalls that you should be aware of before you go this route. First is the learning curve. While many of these template sites have gotten much better, you’ll have to spend some time figuring out how to use the system.

You’re also limited in what you can do with the site and how it looks by the limitations of the template system.

Most of the template websites don’t provide you with the ability to do any search engine optimization for your site and this is a major issue for you. If you can not input your own search terms for the site, create your own title and page names, and control the layout of the site than you have very little control over how your site will be ranked by the search engines.

Also you should know that the sites on these template services are hosted on shared servers. If you go with an industry-specific template service, then there are going to be a lot of sites on these servers with very similar content and this can potentially hurt you with the search engines.

If you ever decide to leave the service, you can’t take your site with you. Since you used their template to create your site, you can’t just leave the service and take your site with you. You leave, your site’s gone. Period.

So, do they offer a service worth giving up this kind of control over your business asset? Is their customer service good; will it continue to be good? What are their prices since you’ll be paying this as long as you have a website? And what if they raise their prices?

If you decide to do your website yourself - from scratch or with a template - start studying copywriting. If you want a successful website, this is the best skill you can obtain.

At a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting I talked with a gentleman who told me his website was consistently in the number one or two spot in the search engine listings. That is until they hired a website builder to “improve” their website. Their site is no longer anywhere near the top of the listings.

Many website builders do not know how to transition an existing site to a new site so there is minimal impact on an existing search listing.

And definitely beware of companies offering search engine help with your website. Be very careful of what they are offering to do for you. Some don’t tell you what search terms (keywords) they will get you listed on. You pay to get high listings on terms that are useless to driving sales and leads for your business. Others use techniques that will temporarily raise your listing - long enough to get your money - but the techniques they use are not liked by the search engines. In a short amount of time you may find your site has a lower listing than you started with or worse yet has been removed from the search engine listings.

There's a lot that goes into getting a good search engine listing. Since the search engines operate on their own, website builders really can't guarantee a high listing. But your website should be built using best practices for search engine optimization from the beginning.

This includes using proper meta tags (like the keyword example you saw earlier), using good layout for the site, using proper page names and titles, and optimizing graphics and content. All of the sites we design and build use best practices for search engine optimization. There is no "extra charge" for properly building your site in the first place.

As a business owner you understand being in control of your business. You should be in control of your website too. Your website should be looked upon as a company asset. Just like any other company asset you may let your employees use it or manage it. But you don’t let go of your ability to control that asset.

Most important is to control your domain name. Don’t let your website builder or your hosting company or anyone else buy it for you. Buy your domain name yourself.

I can’t tell you how many very sad stories I’ve heard of a company letting the website builder buy the domain name and then later having a falling out with them. They not only lost their website but they lost their domain name too!

Next, make sure you have access to your hosting account. If you don’t have this information, get it. If you paid someone to build a site for you the site should be yours. You should be able to access the files and move it to another hosting company should you ever choose to. Even if you don’t ever do this work yourself, make sure you have the information to supply to someone else.

Another horror story from a Chamber of Commerce meeting was hearing from a lady whose website builder died suddenly. Her company did not have any of the access information for the site. They had to hire another website builder, have them create a new site and pay a hefty fee because they needed to have current information on their site in a hurry.

And don’t forget what I said about template services. You will not have your website without continuing their services or if they go out of business. Talk about controlling you!

Having a website for your business is all about getting sales and leads. Otherwise your website is nothing but an expense and a financial drain on your company.

Building a website for direct marketing is not about how pretty your website is or how much stuff you can put on the pages, and it’s not just about search engine optimization and getting a good search engine listing.

In a handbook from a company that specializes in publishing best practices for online marketing they had this to say…

“Our own marketing team altered the format of our… pages to eliminate columns and clarify eyeflow. Nothing else was changed. At the time our web designer remarked:

‘You made the page more boring.’

Conversions, paid sales, immediately increased more than 40%.”

Designing a website that is simple to use and simple to understand is actually harder than throwing a lot of stuff up on a site. Most website builders say the same thing about direct marketing websites - "they're boring". Ask yourself, would you take boring if it meant more sales and leads?

Direct marketing websites should be built by an online direct marketing specialist. If you needed a heart valve replacement would you want a foot doctor to do the surgery? How about an intern? Of course not. You’d want a specialist! You deserve to have a specialist design and build your direct marketing website.

Okay, so that’s pretty dramatic. The reality is you can hire a website builder, you can use a template service, you can even create your own website.

Designing and building a website that drives sales and leads for your business requires more expertise. If you’re ready to work with a company with online direct marketing expertise, than consider working with our company.

Direct Marketing Websites For Home Inspection Companies

We specialize in direct marketing websites for home inspection companies. We are not just website designers.

Your involvement is very minimal. We do the work for you. We know your business and we know how to pull in sales and leads.

After the site is completed you will have total control - you can have us perform your updates, you can choose to make updates yourself, or you can hire someone else if you’d like. We’ll make sure you know how to do any of these that you choose.

Most web builders don't get a site indexed for two months or more and you won't even be near the first 5 pages of Google.

Most of the direct marketing websites that we build are indexed by the search engines in one month or less and quickly achieve good listings.

If you already have a website, we know how to transition to your redesigned site with minimal impact on your current search engine listing or with improved search engine listings.

ATTENTION: Home Inspectors...

"Get More Sales And Leads With
A Direct Marketing Website..."

Getting A Website Is Simple - Having A Successful Website Is Not...

Web Designers Are Just Builders

Direct Marketing Websites For Home Inspection Companies

ATTENTION: Home Inspectors...

"Get More Sales And Leads WithA Direct Marketing Website..."

Getting A Website Is Simple - Having A Successful Website Is Not...

Web Designers Are Just Builders

Direct Marketing Websites For Home Inspection Companies

"Get More Sales And Leads With
A Direct Marketing Website..."