Your Website at the Center of Your Marketing

Every Channel Ends on Your Site

Ads, search listings and social posts all send people to your website, and most of them arrive on a phone. If the page is slow, confusing or hard to act on, you pay for the click and lose the customer. Google's own research on mobile behavior shows that visitors leave within seconds when pages are slow to load.

The Five Things That Matter Most

First, speed. Your pages should load in under three seconds on a mobile connection. Second, clarity. A visitor should know what you offer and where you are within the first screen. Third, proof. Reviews, photos of real work and recognizable client names reduce doubt. Fourth, one clear action, such as book, call or order, repeated where people expect it. Fifth, forms that ask only for what you need.

Landing Pages for Ads

An ad about emergency plumbing should land on a page about emergency plumbing, with a phone number at the top, rather than on your homepage. Matching the page to the ad is one of the biggest improvements you can make, and it costs nothing in extra ad spend.

How to Know It Is Working

Track how many visitors take the action you want. A local service site that turns three to five percent of visitors into calls or forms is doing well. Online stores usually convert one to three percent of visitors into orders. If you're far below these ranges, fix the website before you buy more traffic.

Putting This to Work

Before you increase any marketing budget, ask what share of visitors become customers today. Improving that number multiplies the value of every channel at once.

In Practice

Sources

1. Djamasbi, S., Siegel, M. and Tullis, T. (2010). Generation Y, web design, and eye tracking. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(5), 307-323 doi.org
2. Accessibility fundamentals, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative www.w3.org
3. Google Search Central, page experience developers.google.com
4. Think with Google, mobile and speed research www.thinkwithgoogle.com
5. most of them arrive on a phone www.pewresearch.org

Platforms change often, so confirm details in the sources above before acting on them. This guide is general information and is not marketing advice for your business.