From a marketing perspective, the digital explosion fueled by the internet is the biggest change for sweeping service company owners since the birth of the yellow pages.  Properly conceived and implemented, a website is one of the most effective tools in your marketing arsenal.  With this said, it is easy to get complacent about your website, and like most things in life, complacency is never a good thing.

By explaining what we have learned from developing and implementing www.1800sweeper.com, we hope to arm all of our partners with helpful information that can be used to improve your individual company websites.

For our readers lacking a website, it is time to start taking advantage of the benefits associated with online marketing.  If you already have a website, ask yourself these key questions:

• When was the last time your content was updated?
• How well does your website chart in the search engines?
• Is your site optimized for local search?
• Is your site mobile friendly?

Content Is King
Have you ever wondered how and why your competitor’s website floats to the top of the search engine rankings?  Although there are number of factors determining ranking in search results, the most important component is content.  Companies striving to present fresh, original, and most importantly, relevant content are the winners on the web.  In simplest terms, these sites offer superior content by answering the W questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Explained in these terms, most business owners quickly grasp the importance of going beyond brief (and singular) references to generic phrases such as power sweeping and parking lot maintenance. The real struggle begins when business owners are asked to say something new about their company’s capabilities.  The response usually goes something like this:  “We have been sweeping parking lots and construction sites for 30 years…I am not sure there is much of anything new to say about what we do.”  Refreshing existing website content and adding new copy in the service sector can be difficult, especially if you don’t fancy yourself as a writer or a reporter.  With this said, collaborating with a partner possessing a keen understanding of the sweeping industry and search engine optimization /web usability best practices, combined with the skill set required to write effective copy for the web can help you reach your online sales and marketing objectives.  If you are wondering how and why the 1-800-SWEEPER website manages to chart well on the search engines, remember this simple phrase:  content is king.

Geography Matters
The power of effective content building isn’t the only lesson learned from the development of www.1800sweeper.com.  We’ve also learned that geography also matters.  A large number of our searches combine a geographic reference along with a core service offering.  This is why your landing pages have the title tags and on-page headlines tied to a specific geographic area.  Prospects searching the web and visiting the 1-800-SWEEPER website match the profile of buying influences that should be visiting your company’s website too.  The takeaway is simple:  play up your service areas and remember that all references to your location should be readable text rather than image based.  You can also gain a leg on your competition by creating and taking advantage of listings in Google Places and Google+ Local.

Be Mobile Friendly
Another interesting lesson is the power of mobile search.  When you think about the target audience for a sweeping service company, the increased popularity of mobile search makes perfect sense.  Many of our customers work in the field, and a quick search for a sweeping company completed on a smart phone instantly delivers a list of qualified vendors.  With a mobile friendly site, customers can review your capabilities, and with a quick click on the phone number, they can instantly place a call to discuss their service needs with your customer service reps.  Rather than simply optimizing a single landing page for mobile search, the entire 1-800-SWEEPER website is optimized for mobile, and the results are telling.  Consider the following statistics detailing the devices used to visit www.1800sweeper.com over a two year period.

Next Steps
If you are looking for help with content creation, search engine optimization (including local), or usability for your own website, 1-800-SWEEPER can help.  We have partnered with the same team of web experts responsible for the creation and development of our website to create a new service offering for companies in need of website marketing.  Whether you are seeking to improve an existing site, start from scratch, or you’ve never invested in a company website, the folks from NetTrack Marketing are interested in hearing from you.  After an initial consultation, you’ll either walk away from the conversation with some action immediate items to discuss with your local developer, or NetTrack can develop a website marketing proposal tailored to your specific needs.  This is a limited time, first come, first served offer, so you’ll need to act quickly to take advantage of this program.  To learn more about website solution offerings available as a 1-800-SWEEPER partner, contact Carolyn Bell for more information.