Michael is a FIre & Security company director. He contacted me to say:
All our work is through word of mouth and I want to expand. What can you do for me?
Word of mouth enquiries are great. They are really warm leads but they are only a small sub-section of your potential customers.
There is a whole raft of other people whose first port of call when they have a question is their PC, laptop or mobile phone.
So, Michael. If you’re relying solely on word of mouth to generate new work, you’re missing out on an 800lb gorilla of enquiries called Google.
But Fire & Security is a very crowded market place! Especially online.
So how can YOU get YOUR website in front of all those people who are searching for the best way to protect their homes or business premises?To make the most of the opportunities Google can offer, here are our top tips for driving more traffic to your website.
1. Google Ads
You can pay Google to put your company at #1 on the page of results for your best search terms.
But Fire & Security companies need to be careful. The Google Ads’ Stupidity Tax can lose you a shedload of cash without much in return.
Get a Google Certified Partner to set this up properly for you AND check that you are not wasting loads of cash on people who are not ready to buy. Research keywords and phrases should be covered by your blog posts.
2. Organic SEO
If Google doesn’t know that you fit CCTV, she can’t send people who are looking for CCTV installers to your website. Google is a search engine. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It’s putting the right words on your site in the right place so the search engines know what you do.
Want to see where your business is ranking for your best search terms for people searching in your local town? Click here to download our checkup report. The Rank Checker is section 3 of the report.
3. Local Business Listings
Have you added the Name, Address and Phone Number of your Fire and Security business with all the FREE local and industry-related directories? Where possible, you should also add your website’s URL. Remember, these are free. You don’t need to pay for these. There are some paid opportunities but it is unclear whether these increase your chance of ranking.
If you have an accreditation, don’t forget to check you have been listed on the NSI approved member directory or SSAIB member page. And that your listing is displaying your details correctly. Particularly your website’s URL.
You can see if your business has been added to the most important of these local directories by downloading your free Website Checkup. It’s section 4 of the report.
4. Grab your Google My Business map listing
These are the first of the free listings on the search results page. They get a big display on mobile phones. And they show for searches like [keyword] near me or [keyword] in [town].
Check to see if one already exists for your business and claim it. If there is no listing, then create one.
Three things Fire & Security companies need to watch out for here.
- Understand the difference between having a store front and being a Service Area Business. If you are working out of your home, you are most likely a Service Area Business.
- Choose the right category for your business.
- Remember to ask happy customers to leave you reviews on your maplisting. You can get 5 gold stars that help your listing to stand out.
Find out how well your Google My Business map listing is performing by downloading this free checkup. It’s section 6.
5. Apple Maps for iPhones and iPads.
Many of your customers will have an Apple device. And Google is not the default browser. They use Safari. Apple now install their own maps app on their mobile phones and tablets. To get in front of these mobile prospects, you need to be listed with Apple Maps.
Here’s a post that we wrote to help SECURITY SYSTEMS INSTALLERS to get listed on Apple Maps
6. Blogging
Are you blogging regularly? Adding extra, fresh content to your website is a great way to show Google that you are an expert in what you do. It’s another factor that helps her to rank your website in a higher position on the results pages.
It’s a great way to answer all the FAQs that your prospects regularly ask your sales team. If people are asking YOU those questions, they are also typing them into Google.
Help Google to match up the answers in your blog posts to the questions being typed into the search bar. Remember to use your SEO Checklist on your blog posts as well as your pages.
7. Social Media
Don’t forget the power of social media. Updates and images on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram can all drive traffic back to your website. And you can also pay to get seen by the right people.
So making sure that your Fire & Security company makes the most of all of these opportunities will help to drive more visitors to your website. These are visitors who are looking for help with Fire & Security but didn’t already know your name.
They have not come through a word of mouth referral. They have been typing questions into Google’s search bar or looking on social media. And they have been able to find your business as a result.
Have you got a strategy for getting Fire & Security website visitors?
REMEMBER as powerful as all these tips may be, the most important thing to understand is that they need to be part of an effective marketing strategy.
Lollipop have a proven process called Website With TLC – Traffic, Leads and Customers. We’ve been using it since 2010 to help Fire & Security professionals to double or triple their website traffic.
The first thing we ALWAYS do is an audit of what you’re currently doing to market your business.
And we’re now able to offer one of the audit reports that we use direct to YOU. Download your free website and online performance checkup here. Or Click the image below.