Within a few weeks of our first security company website design going live, it generated a SALE worth £20k.
The normally dour Sales Director was positively glowing in his praise.
We had crossed the enquiry into the box and he had knocked it in!
Howzat! To mix up my sporting metaphors…
Jo had met him whilst rolling around on a karate mat. And he’d asked:
Do you do that ‘digital marketing stuff’? Could you do it for a security company?
We started working together in 2010 and that first enquiry paid for the website and Lollipop’s ongoing SEO retainer for the rest of the year!
But that was just the installation. It didn’t count the ongoing maintenance, upsells and upgrades for that happy customer over the next five to ten years!
The company’s previous website had never generated a single enquiry. All their work had come through word of mouth and the outbound prospecting efforts of the owner and sales team. They needed to explore new ways to generate leads if they wanted to double their sales.
Our first Fire & Security website design
In the graphic below, you can see the website that they started with. The one which had generated zero leads. It was fairly typical for the time.
The blank space used to show their logo. The navigation was suggesting that people look at User Manuals and a Case Study.
There was nothing here for SEO. Nothing to help Google understand what the company did. And very little to help anyone who did land on the website to really know what they did.
Click the BLACK arrow on the right to see how we fixed this.
Our first Fire & Security Website design
When we took over the site in 2010, they told us they wanted phone calls… and, failing that, emails. Enquiries for the sales team to speak to.
So we made it really easy to see the phone number and the email address. The navigation clearly shows what services they offer AND that this is for homes and businesses.
There’s a second chance to understand that both domestic and commercial are covered with clickable buttons further down.
The next slide shows that there is copy further down the page for Google and her bots to crawl. It’s a much bigger and bolder site. And it did exactly what was required.
Get ranked, attract traffic AND generate leads. A huge step in their goal to double their sales
Website design for security groups
The next slides show the website template we designed for the group who bought out this local independent company a few years later. There were a lot of personnel changes but they continued to retain the Lollies as their web designers.
The brief was a template which could be replicated across several of their other security company acquisitions. It had two colours which could be matched to the two main colours of each company. This one was yellow and green, another was red and black, another blue and white.
Website design for security groups
The goal was to get people to phone or complete a contact form for a site survey. And to show off their accreditations and client portfolio.
Those websites soon started generating leads too. Helping them to get closer to doubling sales for the group.
Curiously, the level of digital marketing retainer for each allowed us to see what a difference regular blogging can make to the generation of leadss. The graph below show the number of enquiries made as a result of ‘lots’, ‘some’ and ‘limited’ blogging.
We also highlighted ways to improve the way their sales teams worked their new website leads. For both domestic and commercial alarm systems. These strategies are now at the heart of our sales acceleration programs.
Lollipop have helped us understand our web traffic better… As a result the quality of our enquiries has improved!”
Security Group websites kept separate
Having said that, not all groups want their acquisitions to be assimilated into the company brand. Some want them to continue independently under their own names. And we have successfully run two websites for the same security group in the same town – helping them to rank at #1 and #2.
As our Google Ads and marketing coach, Perry Marshall, said:
“If you have 4 spots for ads and 10 for organic, it’s far better for your company websites to be holding 2 of the 4 spots in the ads and 2 or more of the 10 organic spaces! That’s at least 4 out of the 14 available slots that your competitors cannot have“
Websites for local security company marketing
In 2016, we were retained by another local independent Fire & Security company in a different county.
Up until that point, they had relied solely on word of mouth and the networking activities of the owner.
Over breakfast at a networking event, the Managing Director had asked a familiar question:
Do you do digital marketing?
He knew he needed a new website. It had never generated a single lead.
In the graphic below, you’ll see how his first website made him look like a one man band. Some Lolly magic and it was transformed into a powerhouse that reflected their position as the biggest and most well-respected Fire & Security company in town!
Websites for local security companies
The dramatic Home page makes it clear that they provide domestic and commercial installations PLUS specialising in schools and academies. It’s easy to contact them by phone or to book a survey or get a quote.
There is also a little something for those who are not yet ready to speak to a human being – some helpful information about home security and school security.
Not long after the new site went live, they had an enquiry that would go on to generate a lot of future work.
The new lead had seen their vans around town and gone to the website. The lead told our client:
…the wording reflected exactly the type of local, established, family-run one stop shop that he had been looking for.
The Managing Director was delighted.
And things just got better.
The £1m security web design
A few months later, he gleefully told me how his Lollipop website had generated him £1m of… well, lolly!
Yes, a small maintenance job for a big private school had come in through the website. The bursar had been so pleased with their performance that he asked them to quote for a massive alarm upgrade.
After the initial online introduction, these GOOD GUYS had done what it took to be chosen to carry out the contract. Again, their Lollipop website had made the cross that allowed this great company to knock it into the back of the net!
A huge leap in their goal of doubling their sales with the help of the internet!
And, in 2021, we designed a brand new website to comply with the latest Google algorithm update.
Hyper-local security company websites
This graphic shows a website that we took on in 2018. Again, it wasn’t generating any leads. At first glance, you can see that the phone number is there – although it could be clearer. And there is a simple contact form.
Hyper-local security company websites
So why weren’t people signing up?
What our web developer quickly realised was that the file for the image of the CCTV camera was HUUUUGGGGGEEE! All websites need images that are in pixels NOT megabytes. This image had not been resized for the web and was stopping the site from loading quickly. This was repeated with another image further down the home page that was even larger so it only ever half loaded.
It was the same story across all the website’s pages. Massive images that took a long time to load. And copy that didn’t fully reflect the company’s message about why people should buy from them.
Rather than rebuild all the pages on the website, we refreshed the design, updated the dull copy and replaced those big pictures with better resized images.
The new layout made it easier for website visitors to understand that this security company could offer both domestic and commercial installations.
AND also highlighted the company’s promise that they will always get to their customers within a certain time frame. So they only take on customers within a specified range of their company premises.
Combined with a regular blogging strategy and some SEO, the website started to rank for the security marketing keywords most likely to attract traffic in the required locations. And the copy resonated enough to start bringing in new leads.
A big push in the direction of doubling their sales.
I want a Lollipop website for my Fire & Security company
Websites that work 24/7 even in a global pandemic
One of the things we are most proud of is that, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Lollipop websites continued to generate leads from NEW customers who were searching online.
The SEO that had been done on the service pages and blog posts in the months and years prior to that global game changer kept those web pages at the top of the rankings for the keywords that mattered.
And the copy meant that those website visitors were happy to give their contact details so a Fire & Security expert could get in touch.
For these security companies, their previous investment in SEO for their website paid dividends in 2020. It was a gift that kept on giving – even though we had paused our retainers and were not doing any blogging, social media or SEO work for them at that time.
Security companies are not just installers
No, indeed. In 2020 we designed a website to attract Fire & Security installers for an alarm receiving centre as well as helping a security Saas company to improve their SEO and website conversion.
Security Company Website Design
So what is it about Lollipop’s Fire & Security website design that make us so confident they will generate leads for industry good guys like you? Is it just the design? Or is it something else?
Ongoing website design training
Seeking out the best people to tap into their expertise is essential to the Lollies. It comes from our days in the karate dojo where too many people could say they were a 10th dan only to be exposed as lacking.
Google’s algorithms change regularly and designers need to stay on top as best they can. The Core Vitals Update will see many security websites impacted for slow loading. But the Lolly design and development team are reading all the available info so you don’t have to!
Continually learning from our own experience
Over ten years of it. Some huge successes – along with one or two mis-steps that stay with us to this day. We learn huge amounts from those and try to offer helpful interim solutions to any Fire & Security company that we can see are not yet ready to take the steps required to work with us.
The SEO on our websites attracts the traffic required and the wording is designed to build the trust required for those visitors to become leads. We put a huge amount of time and effort into finding out what makes YOU special. YOUR Message That Matters is what makes you stand out from your competitors. And helps your website’s visitors to choose YOU.
But surely every security company needs a website designed by an industry specialist?
I was fed up with going to copywriters and graphic designers who didn’t know what I wanted. But this is what you do. You KNOW what you are going to do. There is a plan and a structure…
Michael Lynch, Executive Partnership Group
Sadly, some Fire & Security companies have already invested a lot of money in a website… but it’s not generating the leads they were expecting.
Just because a designer says they have built websites – even Fire & Security company websites – it doesn’t mean that they have designed a security website that is proven to generate leads.
And, without the revenue from those non-existent leads, they have no budget left for a Lollipop security-specific upgrade.
However, in many cases, we are able show them some quick wins that will help them to generate the revenue required for their website investment.
Improving your Fire & Security website design starts with a call to find out what you need and how we can help.