We are going to post a few blogs about how to increase your conversion rate and keeping users on your site. Today we are discussing Brand Names and building relationships with users by your website.

Brand Name

Have you got a brand name that users can connect to and build a trusted relationship with your company? When somebody searches Google for a product or service they will want to see a brand name and not just an exact keyword match as a domain name. This is highly important as you need to build a relationship with the user before they even click on your listing. The examples we will give today will be in the SEO UK industry. Users will want to see a brand, a company to do business with.

If your domain name is an exact keyword match, the chances are you will not be able to build this relationship up with a client before they have even clicked on your site. Yes, it is good for SEO to have your keyword in your domain and possibly having a 100% match for your keyword may even get you ranked very highly with performing minimum SEO, but there is no ‘trust’ between you and the user. It’s almost as if you’re trying to trick them, would you answer the phone with a different name? No of course you wouldn’t so why try and trick someone from the start. Build that trust and relationship with your client by using your real company name from the start and let your brand work for you.

Below you will see what we mean; if you search SEO UK you will see the results. The top 2 positions are filled by websites just using a 100% keyword match for the keyword but as you go through to their website, they are called something completely different!

I know it’s only small and some people may not even pick up on it, but if you conversion rate is low; this might be one factor that’s the cause of it. It’s worth putting the extra time in with your SEO to build up your own brand and domain instead of trying to cut corners and using a 100% match domain.

Build A Relationship on Your Website

Not only should you build your brand up through your domain and how you look on Google’s results, you also need to build a relationship up with your potential clients when they are on your website. Give them the personal touch, let them know who you are. What do you mean? Well a person looking to spend money with a company wants to know exactly who you are, who they will be working with, where your company is, who is the main point of contact to deal with their enquiry.

The best way to do this is by having your own images on your website instead of generic stock photos. You know the ones where there is a group of people in an office, all with perfect hair and skin, all suited and booted and smiles (below). Use your own images of your staff, let the user know exactly who they are working with and the environment you operate in.

Include your full business address on your pages to tell your potential customers, this is where we work, we are a UK company based in the UK and if you have any questions or concerns you know were not 1000′s of miles away.

On your contact page you should list the names and numbers of people within your company that handle the task the user wants, eg, for Local SEO call Joe, National SEO call Mark, Web Design call Dave…… As well as your main office number such as 0844, 0800, 0845 you should also have a direct point of contact to the member of staff either a mobile or a direct line or extension. Also use images of your staff or a fun avatar just to give that personal touch, again have your companies address on the contact page so they know who they are dealing with.

You will get more response by having this information on your website rather then just a phone number and a contact form.

Next time we will discuss other ways to improve your conversion rate.