With experience of running a business, one learns that the website is the face of its business, and is very important for the company's success and growth. It is the key platform where your business interacts with leads and clients. Your website design needs to work for you. You should probably ask these questions.

• Is my website making me enough money as it should?
• Is it bringing quality leads?

In the majority of the cases answers will be disappointingly no. Your website should look like an online billboard; it should be operating as a lead generating machine that motivates the potential client to make purchases of your products and/or services. It should speak for itself.

Design of your website is the main component of lead generation. Most of the successful business websites have the following four aspects in their website design:

1. Content of the website should be professionally written.
Content writers can help to create quality content for your website with their unique talent of writing and expertise in marketing and selling services to buyers. If you want to have an increase in the leads generated from your website make sure it’s written by a professional content writer, otherwise you won’t be able to reach the targeted audience.
Content writers use the following tactics to increase the lead:

1. They research about the service and know the targeted audience.
2. They have an expertise in marketing strategies.
3. They present the problem in a unique way gradually reaching a solution and hence selling your service in a creative way.

2. Website design oriented towards lead generation.
Every website should be designed for a specific purpose and have a clear "cal-to-action", in our case it is to generate quality leads. An experienced web developer understands the importance of the good website design. If your website is well designed it will lead the user to the contact section which will add conversions. Without a thoughtful web design, users may lose interest. Make sure you give importance to these issues while designing a professional website.

1. Colors scheme and tone
2. User friendly
3. High quality images

You can also view portfolios to get understanding of how a good website looks.

3. Websites need to be search engine optimized.
Every business owner knows the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s very helpful to succeed for a business by ranking it high on search engines. The design, content and key words linking with your service gives good results when we talk about lead generation. While launching a website, good use of key words, structure and solid back end is just not enough for ranking. Social marketing is also very important.

4. Superiority in Website Functionality.
You won’t be able to get a lot of reach if your website is broken, not updated and slow. To get more leads your website needs to be fast, and should have a structure that is easy to understand. Some of the common mistakes can be:

1. Website navigations that are sprawling
2. Information not easily accessible
3. Pop up adds and scripts that slow down the loading of the page

Make sure to follow these four aspects in your website design to get more reach. Contact us today with any questions or to discuss your site needs.

The top 9 local search engine marketing tip series intends to help business owners to better reach a local demographic using websites and tools on the internet. If you do not have a well coded website, get one. Then use these local search engine optimization tips:

Tip #1: Create Quality Content With Plenty of Keywords
Search engines and customers use keywords and phrases to find your website. Make sure you use plenty of the words you would like to be found for in the text of your website. Website designers and owners should create plenty of pages that display all of the content necessary to tell a search engine to show you as an expert for your keywords.

Take the time to look at your competitors' websites to try to have at least as many pages as they do, if not more. One last important tip for local search is to take every opportunity to put your location in your text. This helps Google Local rankings, and effects the value of your Alexa ranking.

Tip#2: Update Content Often With Local Information
Take every opportunity to add new pages to your site which discuss local topics and events. Search engines will see that you are discussing local events with local keywords and move up your ranking as a local expert. Participate in local events and get your company name on charity and community websites with links back to your website. These types of links are invaluable and can only be acquired through hard work and giving back to your community.

Tip#3: Use Available Resources
One of the best tools we have found to help promote websites locally is the Google Business Tools Suite. This amazing resource center allows website designers and managers to analyze, manage, advertise, and invest in a website's online presence. Google has put most of their main business tools together in one location for easy use and understanding.

Check the relevant business tools out, read about them, and sign up for the ones that apply to you: Google Website Optimizer, Google AdWords, Google Apps, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Base, and Google Local Business Center.

Tip#4:  Pay Per Click - Monitor Closely and Spend Wisely
If you can set up and optimize your pay per click campaign, it can be very successful and sometimes the results are amazing. That being said, we have witnessed many different cases where Pay-Per-Click advertising has burned through an entire budget in a couple of days. This can happen if you don't take the time to read through the entire process before making your selection. Use local words in your PPC campaign to save money by competing locally instead of globally. Remember, spending money to make money is necessary, but spend wisely.

Tip#5: Local Search Engines: Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local
This is an obvious and easy way to increase your local exposure. We have all used search tools that have given results with a map and indicator dots on related business locations. If you would like to come up for these types of local searches, carefully submit for these specialized location based results. The search engines will often request some sort of verification through a call back or traditional mail and pin verification.

Tip#6: Yelp!
Take the time to list yourself on Yelp and register your business. Make sure that you spend the time on these postings that you would for any piece of marketing material for your business. Yelp! and websites like it, are sometimes the only chance to give an impression you will have with a customer. Be careful. These types of listings are double edged swords... If you don't maintain a high standard of service and quality, this will also be the location that customers will go to vent about their frustrations. These listings will also count as a quality inbound link for search and is useful to increase your search rankings.

Tip#7: Chamber of Commerce
You should become members with at least one local chamber of commerce. This is a great way to establish credibility and become a member of your local business community. Once you have this membership, make sure that your listing on the chamber website is a direct link to your website. Chambers of Commerce are considered to be local experts, and their link to you is a valuable one.

Tip#8: CitySearch
CitySearch is very similar to Yelp in that it is a popular local search engine. Make sure that you spend some quality time explaining yourself and your business. You should also make sure to check back and monitor your reviews often.

Tip#9: Press Release Services, Facebook, and Twitter
Social Media and local publicity can be very important for local results. Make sure to use locations and city information in your profile descriptions. Search engines will look at social media websites, and if you do a good job of mentioning local search words with your search engine keywords, you will begin to see additional results from search engines. Press releases can be the most important local marketing item a business can employ.

Implemented wisely, a well optimized press release or social media blast can bring you first-page visibility for your keywords very quickly. Sometimes you can take over more than one spot on the first page of Google.

Do you know how your business listings appear in local directories?
Directory Marketing, Link Building, Social Networks, and Search Engine Optimization  are all crucial parts of maintaining your online presence. The potential to attract new customers via local search is enormous. Let us help your local business build and improve its search engine presence through optimization & directory marketing. Click here to learn how...