Author: Chris Heiler
When a new contact, or lead, is generated through our website I like to view that individual's "conversion path".
A conversion path is simply the trail of pages the visitor viewed before ultimately filling out a web form on our website and becoming a lead. This conversion path gives us a lot of insight into this new lead.
You can view an example of this in the screenshot included here (start at the bottom of the image and follow the conversion path upward). Here's what happened with this visitor:
- He did a Google search (unknown keyword phrase) and found our blog post about the best ways to advertise a landscaping business on the search engine results page.
- He then viewed seven different pages on our site before visiting our Contact page.
- He filled out the form on our Contact page and became a new lead.
This new contact met certain criteria – job title, size of company, etc. – so was re-classified as a "Sales Qualified Lead", or SQL. We'll come back to this in a minute.
There are a couple of reasons I'm sharing this with you. First, I'm going to show you why the number of web pages on your landscaping or lawn care website is so important. Second, I'll explain why the different types of content are so important for converting anonymous visitors into actual leads you can follow up with.
The amount of content on your website is critically important
I think you would be surprised by the number of pages a visitor actually visits when on your landscaping or lawn care website. Your prospects will go deep when researching your company. The power is in their hands and they will use it.
They want to learn as much as they possibly can about you before they pick up the phone or fill out a web form.
Dating back to the beginning of 2014, our website has generated 59 Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) to date. Remember, these are companies in the lawn and landscape industry that I consider to be highly qualified to do business with Landscape Leadership.
On average, these 59 SQLs have visited Landscape Leadership's website 10.5 times and viewed 29 pages. That's what I mean by going deep, folks. This is 59 qualified leads spending a tremendous amount of time reviewing all of the content and information on our website.
These 59 SQLs found our website through 21 different pages. Many landed on the Landscape Leadership homepage, but, for most, the first page visited was an individual blog post. This is exactly what happened with the sales qualified lead I mentioned above – he landed on our blog post about "advertising a landscaping business".
The screenshot below shows a sampling of these sales qualified leads along with the pages they have viewed (Note: this is a view from the HubSpot CRM we use).
Here's my main point:
Most landscaping and lawn care websites only have between 10 and 15 pages. That's just not enough content. It's not enough pages to allow a prospect to do sufficient research on your company. And, it's not enough pages to give you an opportunity to rank in the search engine results which is what will attract the prospects to your website in the first place.
If your company does not generate enough (or any) qualified leads from your website, one reason is because you don't have enough unique content to keep your visitors engaged on your site. Your site is not educating them sufficiently or giving them the information they seek. This is how you build trust and credibility. Without these, your prospect is not going to fill out a web form or call you. Instead, they quickly bounce to another website after only viewing two or three pages on yours.
(RELATED READING: 7 Unique Web Pages All Green Industry Websites Should Have)
The type of content on your website is equally important
The screenshot below shows the top 10 most viewed pages on the Landscape Leadership website since the beginning of 2014. What you'll notice is that seven of these top 10 pages are blog posts. Three blog posts sit at the top, even ahead of our homepage.
This points to the importance of having a blog on your company's website where you regularly share educational articles.
A blog article often serves as the initial touch point. It's how a prospect first finds you. This is a common "doorway" a prospect passes through to get deeper into your website.
This is played out over and over again on our own website, including the visitor-turned-lead I mentioned at the opening of this article.
The reason for this is quite simple: Each article, or blog post, is a unique web page on your website. Each has an opportunity to rank in the search results for many different long-tail keyword phrases.
Google anything related to "advertising landscaping" and you are sure to find one or two of our related blog posts on the first page of the search results.
That's the power of blogging. Now, multiply that by the endless number of topics that can be covered and you can quickly see why purposeful, regular blogging can drive an incredible amount of visitors to a company's website.
Generating traffic through your blog is one thing... turning those visitors into qualified leads is another.
This is where your other site pages come into play.
Go back and review the conversion path of the sales qualified lead mentioned earlier. He visited five different blog posts on his way to the Contact page. And, he also visited three other very important site pages:
- Meet Our Clients page: This is where we highlight many of the companies that we work with. This does an excellent job of creating "social proof" in the eye of the prospect.
- The Landscape Leadership Team page: This is where we showcase the members of our team, with full bios and photos. This adds a personal touch and the prospect begins to see that this is a real company with real people.
- Our services page: This is where we discuss our services, who we work with, our pricing, etc.
This is a very common conversion path that I have personally seen over and over again on the Landscape Leadership website.
(RELATED READING: How Much Do Landscaping Websites Cost to Re-Design? 3 Factors to Consider)
Set yourself apart from your competitors
I've talked about how important the number of pages is on your website and also touched on the importance of having different types of pages.
So where to go from here? Let's look at how you can separate yourself from your competitors by avoiding the mistakes that they make.
Companies in the lawn and landscape industry make common mistakes related to the content on their websites, including:
- They don't have a blog, thus losing their single best means of driving traffic to their website.
- Their "service" pages are not detailed enough with information about what they do (and what they don't do), who they work with, where they work, or what they charge for their services.
- They don't showcase their team and employees sufficiently, failing to let potential customers see behind the curtain and connect with them on a personal level. An opportunity to begin building trust and credibility is lost.
- Their projects and work are not documented well enough. This is a major oversight for B2B companies who deal with a buyer who is very different than your typical homeowner.
- They don't have in-depth, educational resources for visitors like hiring guides, whitepapers, or tip sheets.
Understand, the prospects visiting your company's website and interested in your services want this information. They expect it. If you give it to them they will go deep into your site as you earn their trust and credibility along the way.
This is how you will attract more prospects to your website, keep them engaged and, ultimately, convert them into new leads.
Who doesn't like generating new leads? We certainly do. And we love sharing our insight and experience doing exactly that with all of you. If you enjoyed this article and want to continue learning more about how to use your website to grow your lawn and landscape industry business, then be sure to subscribe to our blog. Do it here or add your email to the form below. And be sure to download our free e-book, "25 Website 'Must Haves' for Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales", to turn your website into a lean, mean lead-generating machine.
