Free resources from Actual Wizards.

Imagine a ship built strong and sturdy out of lines of code and keywords. The ship is out there, somewhere beyond the broadband horizon, leading businesses to a treasure trove of leads and everlasting traffic to their websites. Its name is local SEO. The vessel is notoriously difficult to track down and even more difficult to bring into a dock. But if you can manage it and hop aboard, you’re all but guaranteed to succeed. Every business with a physical location needs to understand local SEO. With a few key words typed into Google, a map showcasing the top businesses in the searcher’s area spring forward. It goes without saying that any business interested in growing wants to appear on the top of the map section. If your knowledge of local SEO isn’t as refined as you’d like, this guide is the one for you. We’ll tell you everything you need to know to land that ship. We’ll start this local SEO guide in the most logical place, its origins.

A Brief History of Search Engine Optimization and Its Evolution

Traveling back in time to the first days of the internet, it was pretty sparse. There were few websites to visit, so navigating the internet was simple and straightforward. It was similar to visiting a small local store. There isn’t much to see. However, fast forward a few years, and the internet expanded, a lot. Soon enough, it became massive. It had grown to such an extent that it was nearly impossible to navigate as you once would. It was no longer the lovely, innocent mainstreet shops. Now, it’s a mega mall with more stuff than anyone can conceive. Thankfully, search engines came along. They allow users to find the website they are looking for with less difficulty. The way that the search engines worked was simple. You type a certain phrase into the search bar, and the engine shows you websites that include that phrase. Even Google used that same approach. However, like any good business, Google had a trick up its sleeve. Google became the first search engine to use links between websites as a sign of which websites were trustworthy. Similar to how we as people trust a stranger more when they have a connection to someone we know. As of today, Google has ramped up even more. They now use hundreds of factors, which all carry different levels of importance to rank your website in search results. Like all things having to do with the internet, search engines and their ranking systems are complex. If you need help understanding it beyond the surface level, book a call with Wizard of Ads™.

The Difference Between SEO and Local SEO

Most people’s first question is, how is local SEO different from traditional SEO? Meanwhile, others fail to realize that there’s any difference between the two at all. Both SEO and local SEO focus on improving your rank in search engine results, so that more people will be able to find, contact, and convert into an appointment and subsequently, a sale. With that said, there are differences that you should definitely understand before you go moseying along. The first is that traditional SEO hones in on improving your website’s visibility on a national or worldwide scale. It aims to get your brand seen from coast to coast, no matter the physical location of your business. It’s perfectly happy introducing your brand to someone in New York, even if you’re in L. A. On the other hand, local SEO, as you may have guessed, allows you to hone in on your local search area. It reaches locals in your city in an effort to capture their attention. While you’re grasping for a smaller audience with local SEO, you’re in front of more of the right people. 46 percent of all Google searches have local intent, and 80 percent of local searches on mobile devices convert into viable leads. That’s a massive opportunity for your business. However, even if they’re different in their overall aim, traditional SEO and local SEO use the same strategies. Aside from a few special ones, local SEO uses to connect you with your audience, including Google Local Service Ads (LSA). You're not to blame if you aren’t familiar with Local Service Ads. They are fairly new on the Google scene. But you can learn more here.

Ranking Factors

Do you recall the hundreds of ranking factors that are each valued differently? Well, it’s time that we revisit those and come to understand them on a deeper level. Don’t panic! You don’t need to understand all 200, only those with the highest value. At their core, ranking factors are the criteria that Google uses when evaluating websites to determine the best order of results. Understanding those factors is necessary for effective SEO. That goes for all marketers, creators, and everyday SEO professionals. If you don’t understand them and you’re trying to make effective results in those fields, good luck. Unfortunately, you’ll need it because they aren’t the only important thing, but they are essential to elevating your domain rank. An elite user experience leads to more conversions. Below, we’re going to cover the most important factors.

Major Categories of Google’s Ranking Factors:

The following categories and factors within are the ones proven to yield the strongest impact on search results. They’re sort of similar to those weighted questions on those exams we all dreaded. This time your grade isn’t on the line. Your business is. So continue reading below and study up.

1. Domain Factors

Domain factors are all the ranking factors that connect your domain (website) to search engine results. If there were levels to these factors, these would be level one. The domain factors that Google will pay attention to include:

• First keywords in your domain
• Domain registration length
• Penalized WHOIS owner (Google designates owners of spam websites as Penalized WHOIS owners.)
• Public WHOIS instead of private WHOIS
• Keyword in subdomains
• The history of the domain
• The age of your domain
• Keywords in your domain

2. Page-Level Factors

Page-level factors are fairly straightforward. There are factors on each page that you can optimize. Essentially, all the pages on your website. Those factors include:

• The appearance of the keyword in the H1 tag
• The frequency of keywords used in the content
• Keyword at the beginning of the meta title
• The length of the content
• Word count
• Presence of a linked table of contents
• Density of keywords
• The presence of the keyword in the title tag
• Keywords in the meta description

3. Site-Level Factors

Site-level factors go beyond the surface level of the page, and instead, they look at the entire website. Basically, a bird's eye view of the website. Site-level factors include:

• The presence of a sitemap
• Long-term downtime
• Location of the server
• Appropriate contact information
• Content on site that brings value or insight
• TrustRank (how closely linked your website is to another trusted website. This is that factor that Google launched early on that we mentioned.)
• Website updates determine a freshness factor
• The architecture of the website
• The presence of a contact us page

4. Backlink Factors

Backlink factors look at the websites linking you to determine where to place or rank your page. Typically speaking, the higher quality websites linking to your website, the higher you’ll rank. That is assuming you have high-quality content to match. Backlink factors include:

• The trust factor of the linked page
• The number of referring domains
• The age of the linked domain
• Anchor text of backlinks
• ALT tag of image links on the website
• The number of connections from separate c-class IPs
• The number of referring pages
• Number of links from .edu and .gov domains
• The trust factor of the linked page

5. User Interaction

If there’s one thing we know about Google, it’s that they love a website with an elite user experience. Even in the update announcements, they show how important it is. To demonstrate how serious they are, they use several factors to measure user interaction. Then rank your page accordingly. User interaction factors include:

• The organic click-through rate for the exact keyword
• The organic click-through rates for every ranking keyword
• Repeat visitors
• Blocked websites
• Dwell time (dwell time is the measure of time that a user spends viewing a document after clicking a link.)
• How users interact on your website
• Overall direct traffic
• Bounce rate (the number of people who visit your page and leave without viewing other pages on your website)

6. Special Google Algorithm Rules

A handful of Google Algorithm rules do not link to your page or domain. Believe it or not. They involve factors that look at personalizing search results for the user or better search results in general. Here are some of those rules that you should know about:

• Diversity in the SERP
• Freshness in the SERP
• The browsing history of the user
• Search history of the user
• Adult content or curse words (websites with that content are not present in safe search results.)

7. Brand Signals

Many heavily valued factors are linked directly to your brand. Those factors include:

• Branded searches
• Your brand and keyword searches
• Branded anchor text
• Brand’s official LinkedIn
• Your brand’s Twitter with followers
• Facebook page, ideally with a lot of likes

8. On-Site Webspam Factors

Let’s get one thing straight. Spam doesn’t rank on search engines. If your website even looks the slightest bit spammy, you could be hurting your search engine results. Here are some factors that Google uses to track your spammy traits:

• Links to sketchy websites
• A lot of redirects
• Popups that are difficult to close
• Over-optimizing the site
• Hidden redirects
• Flagged server IP address
• Low-quality content (honestly, who likes that?)
• Distracting/spammy appearing ads

9. Off-Site Webspam Factors

Off-site webspam factors take a deep look at all of the websites connected to yours. Specifically, looking at what they do. The off-site webspam factors include:

• Low-quality backlinks
• A high percentage of links from unrelated websites
• Automatic links inclosed in widgets
• An unnatural and sudden increase in backlinks
• A hacked site
• Links from sites with the same server IP
• Low-quality directory links

Get Started with Local SEO

Okay, we’ve covered the history of search engines, the difference between traditional and local SEO, and many, many ranking factors. With all of that serving as the foundation of your knowledge, you’re undoubtedly ready to get started. So it’s time we get to the highlight of our epic little guide here. Here are your step-by-step instructions on how to get started with local SEO. Let’s jump right in.

Claim your Google Business Profile

Formerly known as Google My Business or GMB, Google Business Profile is hailed as fantastic among business owners. Why? Here’s a quick rundown of Google Business Profile. Keep in mind that we’re only going over the basics here. Google Business Profile is a totally free directory listing tool offered by Google. It allows businesses to create and manage their online presence across all of Google’s platforms, including search results, maps, and more. Using a GBP, you can quickly build your online presence, not as an influencer but as a business. For instance, you can upload images and videos, create post updates, respond to customer reviews, and even optimize your website for visibility in search engines. There’s truly no better way to win a search engine’s game than using one of their tools, right?

Local Directories and Listings

A local business directory lists vital information about your business. That information can include your hours, location, contact information, pictures, and other relevant information, like reviews and important links. These directories and listings can be local, such as one for HVAC companies in [BLANK] part of New York. However, they can also be global, such as Google Business, which is the single largest one available. These directories and listings can also be free to join, so you have no excuse not to be on them.

Test for Mobile-friendliness

The user experience is incredibly important to Google. It’s equally important to your potential customers. And with 80 percent of mobile searches converting into leads, it’s in your best interest to ensure your website looks and operates well. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool to check your website. You test through code or URL. Give it a try.

Utilize Local SEO-relevant keywords

The first step to utilizing those keywords is finding them. And to do that, you need to understand which search queries most of your audience uses to find you. For that, you use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner. It gives you insight into how often people search for certain words and how those searches have changed over time. There’s also [Semrush](https://www.semrush.com/lp/keyword-research-b-1/en/?kw=google keyword planner&cmp=US_SRCH_Keyword_Magic_Tool_EN&label=keyword_magic_tool&Network=g&Device=c&utm_content=485546553093&kwid=kwd-59330883096&cmpid=11126975927&agpid=112799974527&BU=Core&extid=124582948312&adpos=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzLCVBhD3ARIsAPKYTcSbjDt0sK0j0dCr-z_ychBu6aj08qoofY1wWKkH1OSSptj5ay-dl14aApPSEALw_wcB), which works nearly the same.

Get more Google My Business reviews

Google reviews provide essential information to people viewing your Google Business Profile and help your business stand out. To get more reviews, Google recommends verifying your account so that you appear on maps, searches, and other services. But they also recommend that you remind customers to leave reviews and reply to reviews as they come in.

Use Local Schema Markup tags

Schema markup is basically a code you can use to markup elements for your website. When you markup those elements, you help search engines understand them better. Thus, making them rank higher. It also improves your digital brand presence, which is always more than helpful. Here’s [a good resource](https://neilpatel.com/blog/get-started-using-schema/#:~:text=How to Use Schema Markup for SEO) that can tell you exactly how to use Schema markup to your advantage. There it is… our epic guide. That covers the majority of what there is to offer on local SEO. To wrap up, let’s go over what you need to do now that you’ve come this far. First, reread this starting from Get Started with Local SEO. However, as you read it this time, click every link we’ve inserted. That way, you can fully absorb all the information you truly need to understand. If you can do that, you’ll have a much easier time setting up your Google Business Profile and every other step after that. When you’re ready for more help on your SEO journey, something that goes beyond all of the guides out there, book a call with Wizard of Ads™.

Gone are the days when people looked through phone books to find a Plumber. These days, people use ‘The Googles’ for anything and everything, including finding home service providers. In order to be found online, you need to have a website, paid advertising, and a healthy digital presence. But even if you have those things, you still need to let people know what kind of characters they are working with and why you are the provider of choice. This is where home service ads come in. Have you come upon the task of writing home service ads? Or approving the ads written by others? Then you should know hard it is to write a great ad.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo Da Vinci

Not just any ad will do. There are two essential elements that make up a successful home service ad. Keep reading to learn what they are! But first... We should probably talk about the elephant in the room. Ya know, the invisible ads that don’t actually live for more than 7 days, tops (because, you know…science).

Invisible Ads

You know the ones. They list every service you offer in minute detail and they read like a laundry list of features, hours of operation, location, and huh. What? What was I saying? Oh right. The ads that tell people how long you’ve been open, the friendly and knowledgeable staff who all have passed a background check (except for Bruno. We don’t talk about Bruno, though, no no no). These ads are often created by a committee of people who think more is better. They want to make sure the reader knows everything about the company and how and what they do, never why they do it. But here's the thing... Nobody cares. I mean, literally nobody. The only thing any given person cares about is making the pain go away, and a return to peace…order…calm…normalcy, if and when that pain ever were to arise, which, in their minds, will likely not. So boring them with this ASMR patter is simply white noise. Wizard of Ads® understands that funny little gatekeeper in the brain known as Broca’s Area. We know how to kick down the door, bust past that little tyrant, protecting the brain from the mundane. If you don’t have a clue what Broca’s Area is or how to persuade your way into the imagination, the only thing you have to do next is book a call, cause your nonsensical adspeak isn’t getting you anywhere. You're probably wondering how we do it. We won't write feature-heavy ads because we know they don't work. Instead, we focus on creating ad copy that is new, interesting, and different, so that your incredibly entertaining message takes up residence in the echoic retention of the brain. Trust me, I’m a nerd.

Clichés are Déjà Vu

Look, you’re not writing the script for Groundhog Day. Clichés are cliché for a reason. They are too familiar.

#1 best! Friendly and Experienced! Better prices! 40 years in business! World-famous!

**STOP IT!!!**We've all seen ads like this before, and we tune them out instantly. Why? Because they are unsubstantiated claims that literally anyone can (and often do) say. Not only do they blend into the background, they make you look like a bit of a knob. If you want your ad to be memorable, you have to say something worth remembering. Since only a fraction of 7% of your marketplace needs your thing at any time (that hasn’t been spoken for), you’re going to need advertising that entertains people far before they ever need your thing. This opens you up to 68% of your marketplace and gives you the time to build an earworm inside their heads with an evolving message that they WANT to recall. Cause it’s funny. Or interesting. Or downright different. And when your thing makes them look more funny, interesting, and different, you win. Listen to this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J47Rbo2BQmhGtIRL6MJPWnWCVKVvr0jB/view?usp=sharing Now that's entertaining! And it's something that sets this plumbing company apart from ALL the others.

If you want an ad that people will remember, you need to say something worth remembering. -Ryan Chute

2 Essential Elements for Successful Residential Home Service Ads

When it comes to creating successful residential home services ads, there are two key elements you need to keep in mind: Impact and Frequency.

IMPACT

Impact means that your ad needs to be new, different, and interesting. The best way to do this is to say things that nobody else would say, speak to the real felt needs (money, energy, and time) and entertain the trousers off them until they need your thing.

• Targeting Strategy: The truth is that you can target a prospective buyer in 2 ways. You can target them by dialing into demographics, geographics, and psychographics, cutting out all the other potential listeners or viewers. Alternatively, you can target with copy, saying things that will naturally be shared by both the ‘right people’ and ‘wrong people’. Bought right, you will spend a fraction of the cost with copy targeting.

FREQUENCY

Frequency of the right message is key when it comes to effective, long-term advertising. You need to make sure your ad is heard by as many people as possible, and the only way to do that is to repeat it at a very specific frequency for it to seep back from the electrical memory into the chemical memory. The more people who hear your ad (reach) at the correct frequency, the more people who will sell you real estate in their heart and mind for that faithful day that they need your thing.

• Sleep: Sleep is the ultimate eraser. The average person is exposed to over 25,000 sensory inputs a day, and most of them are forgotten within seconds. If you have something really worth remembering, and the receiver has made an effort to retain the information, the longest your message can ride it out is 7 days. This is any and all information with low impact that is residing in the electrical part of the brain. Essentially, this is the working RAM of your brain, where you typically can retain up to 7 things at any given time. That's why it's important to make your high-impact ads follow a very specific frequency. With a great message and sufficient frequency, you can make your way into the chemical area of the brain when you’re brand is put into long-term storage. The high the impact, the easier it is to recall. The higher the frequency, the more likely it is to retain.

Beware the lawyer who takes himself as a client. There are many many more ways to get taken advantage of in a media buy than there are to get it right. Do not be fooled into believing that you will get the right frequency, at the right time, with the right crossover traffic of listeners, at the right price, with the right advertising copy, from your media buyer. They simply have no idea how to build the right frequency, let alone the right creative, to get you the results you deserve. Always leave your media buy and creative to the experts, like us. Call for a no-obligation conversation to see what I’m talking about.

UNRESOLVED: The Silent Assassin of Advertising

Bad advertising is about you and your company. Great advertising is about your customer and their life. But how do you go about telling your story in these little episodes you are putting on the air? Ads that poop out a bunch of uninspired information about your business or try desperately to entice the audience to answer your Call-To-Action (even though they don’t need your thing right now) are stupid. There, I said it. You’re wasting your money. It is heartbreaking. But this time it’s different! This time you have something interesting to say. This time you have a story about your customer that you want to tell. But what is the best way to tell it? Try this:

• Problem: Your hero (the customer) has an insurmountable challenge. A villainous foe that is eating up their money, causing them stress, or devouring their time (keep it to one thing).
• Transition: Oh No! What shall they do? I know…
• Resolution: At your company, you solve this one terrible thing, use this potion, elixir, weapon, process, or service, and live happily ever after.

If you don’t tell the story of the problem, you’re not saying anything interesting. If your message is all resolution, you’re not eliciting an emotional response trigger for the felt need. THE PAIN! These ads feel incongruent and limp. These ads are not worth remembering. You in no way can tell them something new, interesting, or different if everything is ONLY coming up Millhouse. The assassin? You tell a great story but don’t leave room for the resolution. Your ad feels…unfinished. Unresolved. Ads shouldn’t have cliffhangers. The more your ad resolves things in a satisfactory way, the more you resonate with your audience.

Are You Starting to See Why Successful Branded Advertising is So Rare?

Are you?If not, let's take a step back and examine what we've learned so far. First, we know that to be successful, an ad must be impactful. It needs to stand out from the rest and capture people's attention, certainly, but most importantly, it needs to lead to an eventual appointment with your company, not your industry. Second, we know that the ad must be delicious to the marketplace. When you entertain the socks off of people, EVERYONE will be chattering about you. The more buzz you create with a highly repeatable and referenced ad, the deeper your embed into the chemical long-term memory of your marketplace. And finally, we know that your ads have to run at a very specific frequency. If your ad doesn’t get HEARD at least 3 times a week, every week, 52 weeks a year, for the rest of their lives, they forget about you. When we buy media, we use software that calculates the optimal mix for your frequency and reach based on all channels. The last media buy presented over 5.2 billion possible combinations to choose from. Our 40-year veteran expertly traverses these options to create media buys that you would think required a certain amount of divine intervention. So there you have it. All you have to do to run a successful branded advertising campaign is say something incredibly interesting, select the right frequency from literally billions of options, and reach as many people as your budget will afford. Simple, right. #geeshThere always comes a time when you will need some help in designing the right marketing strategy for your business. If you’re interested in a true partner in crime. A ride or die. A real wingman in all things marketing, give Wizard of Ads® a call. We partner with business owners who are looking for accelerated growth and deliver a world-class buying experience. We are not a supplier. We are not a vendor. And we see ourselves as the Anti-Agency for a number of fascinating reasons that serve our clients exceptionally well. If that sound like your jam, book a call.

Bonding campaigns that attract relational customers are the most powerful form of branding possible for the vast majority of local businesses.

And that goes double for Ugly Duckling Businesses.

[And if you’re not familiar with those terms, follow the links]

So what’s the downside?

There is no downside, but there is a risk. And it’s a big one.

To quote Spiderman’s Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility”.

When you form an emotional bond with customers — when an audience feels as if they know you and what you stand for — the great responsibility that comes along with that persuasive power is this:

YOU MUST LIVE UP TO YOUR PROMISES AND DECLARED VALUES

Normally, when a business falls short, customers are merely disappointed or frustrated.

Not so with relational customers and businesses to which they’ve bonded.

When those businesses let them down, relational customers feel betrayed by a friend, rather than merely disappointed by an impersonal company.

This is why smart ad consultants always build branding campaigns around the truth.

The resultant campaign may romanticize or dramatize the truth, but it starts with and remains centered on the truth about the owner and the company.

What to Do When You Goof

But no one is perfect! Even great companies occasionally goon things up.

Sure. But when that happens, you have to understand the seriousness of the situation.

The worst thing you can do is treat it as no big deal, or attempt a half-measure during your service recovery operations.

As in “Oh, we broke our promise that the owners been vowing to you on the air for the last X years? Well, how about a slight discount on _____”

Sorry, but, no — a slight discount ain’t going to cut it!

First, your communication to the customer has to acknowledge the terrible gap between what’s been declared and promised and what was delivered.

If your staff communicates with the customer as if this is not that big a deal (i.e., a routine mix-up), you’re sunk.

The customer will feel as if she’s seen behind the curtain to discover just another crappy company rather than a trustworthy friend.

Second, your attempts to “make good” must be full-measured rather than half-hearted.

Half-measures add insult to injury and further indicate that your company sees this as just a minor blip, rather than a major failing.

Third, if possible the owner should personally reach out with an apology.

Again, treat this situation as if you’ve let a friend down rather than had a business snafu.

The good news is that proper service recovery can strengthen the bond between the customer and the company, making them an even stronger advocate for you.

The bad news is that improper service recovery can lead to poisonous word of mouth from that customer.

Again, with great power comes great responsibility.

And bonding campaigns are the most powerful advertising you can run.

Is there one magic answer to increasing your website’s conversion rate? Sadly, no. There are, however, a number of factors that can affect how many visitors turn into customers. In this article, we will take a look at some of the statistics around CRO (conversion rate optimization). We’ll offer conversion-boosting techniques any website can use.

Conversion Rate is Greatly Dependent on:

Visitor Interests

Conversion rates are greatly affected by the interests of your website visitors. If you want to boost conversions, it’s important to understand what interests your target audience so that you can cater to those interests. By doing so, you’ll be more likely to conversion rates and make your website more successful overall.

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But truly understanding the subtle, and at times, hidden nuances of visitor interests can be challenging. Many digital marketers miss the mark completely when it comes to aligning with their prospective audience.

But you’re probably wondering how you can be sure you’re hitting the mark understanding your visitors’ interests. The Google Analytics tool is a helpful resource for loads of information about your site visitors.

Attractiveness of Your Offer

You may be wondering how you can make your offer more attractive to potential customers. If your offer isn’t attractive, people are less likely to convert.

Here are a few tips to make your offer more attractive for higher conversion rates:

1. Use images. People are visual creatures, and an image can be worth a thousand words when it comes to attraction. Make sure the images you use are high quality and relevant to your offer.
2. Be clear about you’re offer. Vagueness will only turn people away. Be specific and simple. Let people know exactly what they’ll get when they take you up on your offer.
3. Be different. If you offer what nobody else offers, and your value stack is bigger than your competitors value stack, you are sure to turn some heads. Not incongruent different. Not weird different. Better different. No brainer different. Be like Costco.

User Experience (UX)

You’ve likely heard that user experience is important for things like website design and conversion rates. But what exactly is user experience, and how can it impact your conversion rates?

User eXperience (UX) is all about how a person feels when using a product or service. This includes everything from the initial interaction to continued use. A good UX is important because it will keep people coming back to your site or product. On the other hand, a bad UX will drive people away.

So, how does UX impact conversion rates? Simply put, the better the UX, the higher the conversion rate will be. This is because people are more likely to convert if they have a positive experience with your site or product.

How about a little magic potion of what features formulate the best user experience? You should have:

• Fast site speed.
• Easy navigation.
• Responsive design.
• Humanized Copywriting.
• CTA buttons.
• Landing pages.

Now, this is getting a bit interesting, eh? Well don’t worry. If you have questions, just book a call with Wizard of Ads®!

Important Conversion Rate Statistics

Marketing Researchers devote a significant amount of time to organizing, developing, and implementing tests, as well as assessing the outcomes. They are continually working to improve KPIs and outcomes.

Whether it’s figuring out the ideal subject line for a higher open rate, the perfect CTA and creative combo for click throughs, or shaving time off your website load time to lower bounce rate. Let’s take a look at some important CRO statistics.

• A/B testing is the most common type of CRO testing, with 56 percent of marketers employing it.
• 7 out of 10 CRO marketers use the results to guide further marketing activities.
• Roughly 22 percent of companies are happy with their conversion rates.
• A normal website conversion rate is around 2.35 percent.
• A Facebook ad’s average conversion rate is 9.21 percent.
• Videos on landing pages can boost conversions by 86 percent.
• Companies who increased their conversion rates last year performed 50 percent more tests and used 47% more approaches to boost conversion.
• Businesses with more than 40 landing pages produced 12 times the number of leads as those with 1-5 landing pages.
• When companies raise the number of landing pages from 10 to 15, they experience a 55 percent boost in leads.
• More than 90 percent of visitors who read headlines also read CTA copy.
• More than 20 percent of firms indicate that they lack an effective approach for landing page testing.

What Drives a Higher Conversion Rate?

Higher conversion rates are the result of a well-executed marketing strategy. By targeting the right audience and offering them something they want or need, you encourage more people to take the desired action. Additionally, making it easy for potential customers to find your website and navigate your pages can also boost conversion rates.

Here are some tips for driving higher conversion rates:

1. Know your target audience.
2. Offer something they want or need.
3. Make it easy for them to find your site and navigate your pages.
4. Use persuasive copy and calls to action.
5. Test, test, test! Try different techniques and see what works best for your business.

Factors that Affect Conversion Rate — Your Ads or Your Website

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you already know that conversions are the key. What’s the use in spending all that money on ads or designing a website that looks great if no one ever converts?

But what causes people to convert? Is it the design of your ad or your website? The wording? The offer? It can be hard to figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Let’s examine some of the factors that affect conversion rate so you can start seeing better results.

Value Proposition

Your value proposition is what affects your conversion rates in advertising. In order to have higher conversion rates, you need to make sure that your value proposition is strong and clear. There are two factors that affect your value proposition and, as a result, your conversion rates.

The first factor is the offer itself. The more compelling the offer, the more likely people are to convert. Make sure that your offer is addressing an actual pain point (Money, Energy, Time). Avoid discounting in lieu of value stacking.

The second factor is the audience. If you have been running a branded campaign in alignment with your lead gen, then stick to a message consistent with your branding and appeal to the relational buyer. If all you want are Transactional Shoppers, then focus your copy on the things that appeal to people looking for the lowest price. This matters a lot if you haven’t been running a complimentary branded campaign that would give a person a reason to measure on something other than price.

Relevance

Making your ads relevant to your target audience is one of the most important factors in achieving higher conversion rates. If your ad is not relevant to the user, they are less likely to click on it and more certainly going to ignore you.

There are a number of ways to make your ads more relevant. These include targeting specific keywords, customizing your ad copy, and using relevant images.

When it comes to advertising, relevance is everything. Making your ads relevant to your target audience significantly improves your chances of converting them into customers or leads.

Relevance becomes far more meaningful when you run a well crafted branded campaign that brings more and more brandable chunks to the forefront of the conversation and reticular activator.

Clarity and Consision

It’s no secret that clarity and concision (eliminating redundancy) are important factors in advertising. If your message is clear and concise, people are more likely to understand it and take the action you want.

Virtually no one understands your products, services, and website, so it’s really important to make it as understandable as possible. Short, sweet, and to-the-point is how we roll.

Credibility

It’s no secret that conversion rates are important for any business with an online presence. Conversion rates are what determine whether or not your lead generation is effective. Credibility plays a big role in conversion rates. Studies have shown that credibility can increase conversion rates by up to 200%. So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.

So, what makes a website or advertisement credible? There are a few key factors, including design, customer reviews, and testimonials.

For example, a well-designed website or an advertisement with a landing page is more likely to be seen as credible than one that looks like it was slapped together quickly without much thought.

Sense of Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most effective ways to increase conversion rates on your ads or website. By limiting the time or supply of a specific solution, you can encourage people to take action now rather than later.

There are a few different ways to create a sense of urgency. Be specific, because when you use unsubstantiated claims like, “act now”, or, “while supplies last”, you just look like an asshole. Instead, tell a story about a specific quantity buy, where, when they all run out, they gone. Like, gone gone. This is known as a feature buy, and doesn’t need to be a discounted price to sell, it just needs to be an accessible price.

Another way to create urgency is to offer discounts for a limited time only. This can be an effective way to get people to buy now rather than wait, but you will both lose your credibility as a company with integrity and you immediately eliminate you chance of making it into the long term memory of the buyer when it does come time that they need your services. If you are desparate to fill the board with appointments, a limited time offer with a ridiculously aggressive price are always a last ditch effort. Just be carful not to get addicted to the false hope they are instilling in you, even as we speak.

Best Practices in Improving Your Conversion Rates

• Remove all extraneous form fields.
• Insert relevant branding.
• Remove all distractions.
• Make the first step as simple (and cheap) as consistently possible.
• Include a third-party sign-up service.
• Improve your CTA.
• Include live chat on your website.
• Consider a more relevant offer to actual pain points.
• Provide a risk-free guarantee.
• Include a countdown timer (#dangerzone).
• Start with the small sale to gain their trust and loyalty.
• Run A/B (split) tests.

What’s Your Conversion Rate?

If you’re not sure, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Accurately measuring conversion rates can be tricky to calculate, and even trickier to improve.

We’re here to help. We’re happy to walk you through everything you need to know about conversion rates, including what to measure, how to calculate them, and what you can do to boost your conversions. Book a call with Wizard of Ads™ when you’re ready to increase conversions.

Did you know that the average click-through rate (CTR) for display ads is a measly 0.05 percent? Ouch. That means if you have a banner ad out there, only 1 in 2,000 people will click on it. So how do you make sure your ad has the best chance at being clicked? We're here to help! Keep reading for our tips on improving your CTR and getting those all-important clicks.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR): Definition

The CTR of your ad is the number of clicks divided by the number of times it is shown: clicks / impressions = CTR. A CTR can provide you with insight into the performance of your keywords, advertisements, and free listings. Think of your website like a shop on a busy street. If the store is clean, brightly lit, and has interesting displays, more people are going to stop and look. The same is true for your website. Love it or hate it, one of the most essential measures is the clickthrough rate (CTR) for digital marketers. But what is CTR, exactly? And how can you make sure your content gets the best possible CTR? If the content is well designed and easy to use, people will be more likely to click through to your content. In this blog post, we’ll explain what CTR is, how you can improve yours, and some tips for doing so.

Organic CTR

The clickthrough rate (CTR) is a key metric for measuring the success of your online advertising campaigns. It tells you how many individuals really click on your ad when they see it. A high CTR means your ad is relevant and engaging. And that there is a need for what you have to give. A low CTR could indicate that your ad is not relevant to your target audience or that it’s not well-designed. Organic CTR is a measure of how often people click on your organic (unpaid) search results. A high organic CTR means that your website is relevant and attractive to searchers. A low organic CTR could mean that your website needs some work. Organic CTR is often indicative of a healthier branded advertising campaign running in alignment with your SEO efforts.

Google Ads CTR

We all look things up on Google. And each time we do – boom – the first results that pop up are always ads. But what makes these ads so special that they’re at the top of the list? Isn't that where you want your adverts to appear? #yup But advertising is no longer throwing money at an advertising platform (like Google) and expecting it to produce impactful results. High CTRs takes grit, talent, and of course, following the guidelines Google requires. This step takes structure, intention, and planning. If you don’t manage your Google Ads account correctly and effectively, your CTRs will be low – oh no! Woah, woah, woah…no need to worry. Because booking a call with Wizard of Ads® will help you with how to advertise on Google.

Why Should You Care About Your Google Ads CTR?

Without becoming an ad for Google Ads, let’s briefly discuss the pros of paid ads. You have a lot of control over how you spend your money with Google Ads. For example, there is no minimum. You can also decide how much money you want to spend on a monthly, daily, or even per advertisement basis. You only pay if someone clicks on your ad. So I suppose the trick is, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money, just configure terrible ads. I guess. Maybe not…The most common marketing tool today is Google Ads. By optimizing your CTR, you can significantly increase your chances for success with Google Ads. Here's why marketers care about Google Ads CTR:

1. CTR is a key metric for success with Google Ads.
2. A higher CTR means more successful campaigns and lower costs per conversion.
3. CTR is a good indicator of campaign effectiveness and can be used to track progress over time.
4. Optimizing your CTR can have a significant impact on your campaign results.
5. By optimizing your CTR, you can help your campaigns convert to sales.
6. Google Ads can be customized to meet your specific marketing needs.

Save Money by Optimizing Your Clickthrough Rate

If you're not using Google Ads to promote your business, you're missing out on a huge opportunity. With over 2 billion active users, Google is the most popular search engine in the world. And that means there's a lot of potential customers out there who could be clicking on your ads. But if your clickthrough rate (CTR) isn't optimized, you could be wasting a lot of money on those ads. Luckily, there are a few simple things you can do to improve your CTR and get more bang for your buck.

8 Ways To Improve Your Google Ads CTR

1. Improve Your Quality Score

What is a quality score, exactly? If you don’t know, it’s the perfect place to begin with your Google PPC ad campaign. The Google Quality Score is a number that determines how effective your ad campaigns are going to show up nearer the top of the search results. The Google Quality Score is a number that determines how effective your ad campaigns are. As a result, click-through rates are higher and cost-per-click is cheaper. Check out Google’s guide for quality score here. Here are some tips on how to improve your quality score:

• Use relevant keywords in your ad campaigns. Relevancy is one of the key factors that determines your quality score, so make sure you're targeting the right keywords.
• Check to see if your advertising are appropriate for your landing pages. Your adverts and landing pages should have a strong connection. Otherwise people will click away from your site before they even have a chance to conversion.
• Use positive customer reviews and testimonials.

2. Optimize Your Ad Extensions

One of the most significant things you can do to boost your ad's click-through rate is to use ad extensions (CTR). Ad extensions are extra pieces of data that you might include in your ad. These can be anything like your phone number, address, or a call to action. Google offers a variety of ad extensions, and you can use as many or as few as you want. However, it's important to note that not all ad extensions are created equal. Some ad extensions, like callouts and structured snippets, are generally more effective than others, like sitelinks. Callouts are short pieces of text that highlight specific features of your product or service. They can be up to 25 characters long, and you can have up to 4 per ad. Similar to callouts, structured snippets allow you to convey extra information about your product or service. Unlike callouts, however, you can't control what information is included in your structured snippet. Sitelinks are hyperlinks to other pages on your site that you wish to draw attention to. You can have up to 6 sitelinks per ad. Some other types of Google Ad extensions are:

• Sitelink ad extension
• Call extensions
• Promotion extensions
• Price extensions

Ways to optimize your ad extensions:

• Think about what information would be most useful to potential customers. If you're a local business, for example, then including your address and phone number may be more effective than including additional links to your website.
• Keep it relevant. Only include ad extensions that are relevant to the product or service that you're advertising. Including an extension for your business hours or ‘Book an Appointment’ are great examples of ideal ad extensions.
• Keep it short and sweet. Don't try to cram too much information into your ad extension.

3. Use Smart Bidding

What is smart bidding? Smart bidding is a feature in Google Ads that allows you to automatically set bids based on your goals. You can tell Google that you want to maximize clicks. Or that you want to get the most conversions at the lowest cost. Why should you care about smart bidding? Because it can help you improve your click through rate (CTR), which is one of the key factors that determines your ad quality score. A higher quality score means your ads are more likely to be shown, and they're also more likely to be shown at a lower cost per click. There are a few different ways to use smart bidding to improve your CTR. One is to use keyword level bidding, which allows you to set separate bids for each keyword. This way, you can make sure that your most important keywords are getting the biggest bid. If you're looking for a way to improve your Google Ads CTR, smart bidding is a great option. By using smart bidding strategies, you can make sure that your ads are effective.

4. Test Your Ads

Like I said before–”test, test, test!” Advertisers on Google Ads are always looking for ways to improve their click-through rate (CTR). One way to do this is by testing different versions of your ad. Ad testing, also known as A/B testing, is a process of comparing two ads to see which one performs better. To test your ads on Google Ads, create two identical campaigns, with only the ad copy differing between the two. Then, run each campaign for a week and compare the CTRs. The campaign with the higher CTR is the winner! Ad testing is an essential tool for any advertiser looking to improve their Google Ads performance. By constantly testing and improving your ads, you can ensure that you are getting the most out of your advertising spend.

5. Create Captivating Ad Copy

If you want your Google Ads to perform well, you need to start with captivating ad copy. After all, no matter how well-targeted your ad campaign is, it won't matter if your ad doesn't capture attention and persuade users to click. So how do you write captivating ad copy that will improve your click-through rate (CTR)?Here are some pointers:

• Write a strong headline. Your headline should be attention-grabbing and relevant to the user's search query.
• Use engaging visuals. Ad images can also help to captivate users and encourage them to click on your ad.
• Use persuasive language. Choose your words carefully to convince users that your product or service is the right solution for their needs.
• Offer a compelling value proposition. Make sure that users know what they can expect by clicking on your ad, and make it clear why your offer is better than the competition.

By following these tips, you can create captivating ad copy that will improve your CTR and help you achieve success with your Google Ads campaigns.

6. Utilize Negative Keywords

If you're running a Google Ads campaign, negative keywords are your best friend. Negative keywords help improve your click through rate (CTR). By ensuring that only individuals who are truly interested in what you're selling see your ad. For illustration, in a case where you offer men's shoes, you'd need to include "women" as a negative keyword. This is so your ad doesn't show up when someone searches for "women's shoes." Adding negative keywords to your campaign is tedious, but it's well worth the effort in terms of improved CTRs. So, following time you're setting up a modern Google Ads campaign, take the opportunity to add some negative keywords. Then watch your CTRs improve.

7. Split Test Your Ads

Split-testing your ads is a great way to improve your click-through rates (CTRs). By split-testing, you can compare two different versions of your ad to see which one performs better. For example, you could split-test the headline of your ad, or the call to action. To split-test your ads, simply create two identical ad campaigns in Google Ads. And then change one element in one of the campaigns, leaving the other one as written and designed. For example, in one campaign you use the headline, "50 percent off first purchase," and in the other campaign you could use the headline "Get your first purchase half price." Then, run both campaigns for a period of time and see which one gets more clicks.

8. Run a Dynamic Remarketing Campaign

Have you ever been scrolling through your Facebook, and see an ad for something you were looking at on Amazon? That’s remarketing, and it can be a powerful tool for driving clicks and sales. But what is remarketing, exactly? How can you create a remarketing campaign that will improve your click-through rates (CTRs) on Google Ads? Remarketing is the method of targeting ads to people who have indicated an interest in your item or service. This can be done through a few devices. Cookies, which track people’s online activity is one way. Or through pixel tracking, which permits you to target individuals who go to your website. There are two primary ways to set up a remarketing campaign: through Google Ads or through Facebook Ads. Google Ads offers a more traditional approach to remarketing. Allowing you to target people based on their previous interactions with your website. Facebook Ads give you the opportunity to create custom audiences. Which allows you to target people based on their interests and demographics. If you’d like some help increase your click through rates, booking a call with Wizard of Ads®!

We’ve all heard of Search Engine Optimization, but have you ever heard of Human Optimization? SEO is when you spend a bunch of money on trying to appease the Google Gods. You use your money at the Google Ads alter, sacrificing your cash in hopes of making the Google Gods happy — giving you grace and good fortune. For a plentiful harvest. For a favorable volume of leads. So you can feed and grow your tribe. Humanizing (Human Optimization) doesn’t idolize these false Gods. Rejected are the nonsensical notions of keyword stacking and unread blogs. Human Optimization serves as a beacon of light for your customers. It lets them know you’re a real boy, and if you tell a lie, they’ll see your nose grow. Building credibility on directories like Home Advisor or Angie’s List is a helpful step but, if your home services website design doesn’t bond with your customers better than others, they might just go ahead and hire another company that does. You’d never invite local contractors into your home that you didn’t feel like you could trust. Or that you couldn’t relate to on a personal level to some professional degree. Sometimes families work with the same home service company for years, but what happens when you don’t have that kind of relationship with your customers? A company that does have the ability to bond with people will quickly replace you. If you rely solely on lead gen and are not fostering a sense of community, it might be time for an upgrade. The best home services websites make their customers feel a sense of relational connection. So, what message does your website send to potential customers? If you only care about generating revenue, your website could make your business feel cold and void of character. The good news? Taking the necessary steps to humanize your website doesn’t have to resemble a walk through a minefield. It’s not WHAT you say. It’s HOW you say it.

Building Home Services Website “Inside Out” is a Trap!

Unlike Search Engines, humans have emotions. As a business owner, you might think using humanity to your advantage could stifle sales. Now, let’s step into the customer’s shoes for a moment. How far has emotionless content and messaging truly gotten you when you are shopping? J. Peterman took a failing catalog order company and turned it into a world-renowned success. Apple was a failing company until Steve Jobs returned from leading Pixar and shifted to a storytelling phenomenon with an actual purpose. As people, we are compelled to create a business strategy defined with nuts and bolts. But what if we trusted in a strategy that had less direct measurable feedback, and instead told a brand story in a way that emotionally connects with your audience? What if you bonded with your customers through trust as defined by your philosophies and principles?Then the trick is to — in a very simple way — deliver that message on your website. Your customer is Little Red Riding Hood. They are trying to get to Grandmother’s house safe and sound. The problem? The forest is wrought with predators and competitors whose only wish is to lead them astray. “SALE SALE SALE”, says the Wolf. “All the better for you”, he hisses with charm and wit.“Come sit beside me deary”, says Grandma. “Let me tell you a story”, she says warmly with a knowing smile. Do you want to be the Wolf or Grandmother? You can continue telling people about you, your business, and why you matter so much, but it all starts to sound the same as all the other Snake Oil Salesman out there, whether you are or not. But who doesn’t trust someone with whom they share a deep bond? Building your home services website from the “inside out” is a trap. Nobody in the history of air conditioning, water heaters, or electrical panels has ever wanted to buy your thing. Sure, they want it, but they certainly don’t want to pay for it. Serving your customers at the highest level requires you to consider their actual felt needs, not the ones you or your industry have concocted in your imaginations. Without this foundational understanding, you’ll never be able to connect with your audience or provide a necessary solution, because your message will not be relevant or compelling. When you operate with your own interests as the top priority, you can, and will be, the Wolf. Wizard of Ads™ will guide your brand transformation and help you connect with your audience the right way. If you’re ready to shift your perspective, book a call today!

The Benefits of Building Your Website “Outside In”

So how do you shed those wolfish tendencies and become a welcoming and trustworthy presence for your customers? Build your residential home service website from the outside in. This means thinking about what you say from the perspective of any normal person’s 3 fundamental CORE Needs: Money, Energy, and Time.

The 3 CORE Needs

Naturally, it should be apparent to customers that you’re there to serve them, not just empty their pockets. This should be apparent on your website with how you honor and respect their money. This is especially true when it relates to the time they trade you to service them, and how much time they will need to trade to pay for your recommendations. Money is the first, and often most protected of the 3 CORE Needs as it is the one that is easiest to measure. Time, of course, is the most precious as it is the only one that is non-renewable. And it is actually Energy that we are all truly pursuing. The energy to enjoy life. The reward, the pleasure, the happy, are all forms of positive energy. A positive resonance. This is why we avoid the things that just don’t feel quite right, have a negative resonance, or are perceived as risk or punishment. “Everything humans do in this universe comes down to the pursuit of positive energy.” _- Ryan Chute -_This is why we are selective about where we shop and work. The money has to be right in both situations for the time we agree to trade-off to enjoy the energy and time we have left over from the exchange. When we have M. E. T. (see what I did there) the 3 CORE Needs of your customers, you will have a much higher conversion, average sale, and profit from the prospects you are most interested in attracting and serving in your business. These are the Relational Customers. These are the high intent, High CAP customers that are in it for the long run, as long as you continue to help them win in a trustworthy and grateful manner.

CORE Communication

Think of your communication from the standpoint of customer-oriented relational experiences (CORE). This includes all the visual and written communication on your website. Taking a customer-oriented relational approach will help you increase conversions. What does a customer-oriented relational website look like from the outside in?The home page must focus on the customer and their actual felt needs. Your message and intention should be simple to understand. Your website must be easy to navigate. Above all, it should be crystal clear what your business does and how you have already M. E. T. their real felt needs. You may know these as a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Describe what sets your home services apart from other competitors, but this time, as a way of honoring what the customer cares about most — their money, time, and stress avoidance. Aside from clarity, this statement must be concise. You’ve got about 2.5 seconds to get it right. Put your single most powerful value proposition into one sentence. This is your CORE Promise. For example, “We show up on time or you don’t pay a dime.” This CORE Promise creates a self-imposed punishment on the company for untimely service by speaking directly to the real felt needs of money and time. Goettl’s CORE Promise is to “do it the right way, not the easy way”, speaking to the real felt need of energy. They aren’t delivering cheap, or even the quickest solution. They are certainly delivering a positive energy and the banishment of the negative energy (ie. stress, frustration, callbacks, warranty work, etc.)A website is not the place for a lengthy sales pitch or any sales pitch at all. Skip the stuff you would say during the sales pitch, and keep the communication less granular and what marketers call, “top of funnel”. That is why your CORE Promise must reside above the fold. This is the headline and subheading that appear first on the website, at the top, before the device cuts it off and the prospect is forced to scroll. Remember, your website is not about you or your business. It’s about the customer's actual felt needs. Keep this top of mind as you make design and copy decisions. Other customer-oriented relational experiences on your website include:

• Navigation. Navigation is the most essential element of any website. Complicated, SEO-intended navigation is company-centric and naive. Your solution should be easy to find and your call to action (CTA) should be simple — call or click to book an appointment. The home page should link to every other page that actually matters on your website, and eliminate any pages that do not matter to the people navigating it.
• Salience. The more helpful and relevant the information is on your website, the more salient it is. Research tells us that low salience is the number one reason for bounce rate. This means practicing exformation as much as information on your website. You aren’t going to win the game of SEO against the multinational aggregators in Residential Home Service, so spend your Money, Energy, and Time most wisely on saying what matters most to your desired audience and abandon the futile pursuit of answering questions that nobody is asking.
• Responsive. Your residential home service website should have a clean design that functions properly on all the different devices.
• Color. Stick to a branded color palette to maintain a sense of cohesiveness. Branding companies like KickCharge Creative will identify the 3 to 4 core colors you should be using in conjunction with your overall visual identity. Colors are a language and should be treated with the same reverence and care that you choose your words when looking to persuade. The wise use of white space will lead the eye to what matters most.
• Accessible. Make your call to action simple, clear, and readily available. Making it difficult to find your conversion button will result in people going elsewhere. Asking for a variety of different calls to action is confusing and results in analysis paralysis.

The goal is to convert. Period. Nothing more. Nothing less. When you cut out all the clutter and speak to your preferred audience about what matters most to the audience, you are doing precisely what you would do in a relationship that you are looking to pursue. The most powerful stories, songs, and art all speak to the audience's sensibilities and leave out the boring parts.

Humanizing Your Website Also Means Humanizing Your Brand

Humanizing your brand means stepping into the Grandmother role and becoming relational. Imagine coming home to a plate of warm cookies or a seat at the dinner table reserved just for you. Build that connection and sentiment for your target audience through your brand image and messaging. Make it clear through your marketing that your only purpose is to help them win in a trustworthy and grateful manner. Think of your brand identity as an art form, not a tactic. In an art gallery, each piece is accompanied by a story that evokes emotion from the viewer. No matter the price tag, customers trust brands and products that they can relate to. This may sound easier said than done, but here are some simple ways to humanize your brand.

Tell Your Story

Every brand has a story. Are you telling it? Are you telling the right one? Are you telling the story that the audience cares about? Do the visual elements of your story align with the narration? Customers want to know what you stand for, who you are, and what you stand against. They are trying to decide why they should trust you. Share your brand story on your website, social media, and any other marketing materials you create. The more customers feel they know your brand, the more likely they are to do business with you.

Be Authentic

People can spot a fake a mile away today. It’s essential that you are authentically aligned in your brand and your actions. Be honest about your capabilities and limitations. Don't make promises that you can't keep. Do what you say you are going to do, then do something extra to deliver a delightful experience. When you are consistently authentic with your employees and your customers they will love your brand even more.

Cut the Catfishing

People are naturally drawn to faces. Primarily so they can determine if you appear trustworthy or not. They are looking, quite specifically, for warmth and competence. Showing faces is a symbolic maneuver in showing your good faith. Whether it's through team headshots on your website or featured customer stories, consider putting a face to your brand. Doing so will help build trust and connection with your audience.

Insider Language

Have you ever noticed that strong teams always have a secret language? I’m not talking about industry jargon. I am talking about a common inside language that everyone on the inside instantly understands and appreciates. The stronger your inside language is across your customer base, the stronger the affinity is to your brand. To create and deepen your unique tribal language, you need to say something that is highly congruent and sticky over and over again until the greater group takes it over as part of their vernacular. These can be done in mass media advertising, ritualizing specific content, and regularly using it from the top down until adopted by all. Most importantly, the way you speak to your customers should be clear. But don’t ignore the incredibly powerful nature of inside language.

Show, Don’t Tell

People are bombarded with a huge amount of information every day. Unless it is new, surprising, and different information than what they currently have, you will not change their behavior. Broca’s Area on the left side of the brain will see to that. If you do, however, say something that gets through the gatekeeper, you want to paint a picture in the mind's eye, the imagination, for a person cannot go where they have not first yet been in their mind. Telling someone you are trustworthy is hopelessly untrustworthy. Showing them you are trustworthy through expert storytelling is exponentially more persuasive.

Live Gratefully

Research has clearly identified that the secret to happiness is gratitude. It isn’t your Lamborghini that makes you happy. It is the set of circumstances that allows you to own a Lamborghini that makes you happy. When we come to understand this simple truth, we have an endless abundance of happiness. Gratitude is a higher-level brain function and resides in a place of abundance and wealth. Wisdom allows us to abandon the Ego back in surviving mode and we begin to embrace an abundance mindset. This is how we are able to shift from rewarding new customers to rewarding only our most loyal. This is how we are able to curate extraordinary value stacks, abandoning discounts and delivering only world-class buying experiences. When we can get away from celebrating the domination of customers and taking their money, and start celebrating how exceptional we served them instead, we have the basis for legacy and generational wealth.

Be Authentic

You can only pretend to be authentic for so long before people will see through your lies. The length of time depends on the size of your market and how well you can avoid direct exposure, like Google Reviews. In a world of transparency, you have to be one of the good guys. The only sustainable way is to tell the truth and have a purpose. People without purpose have no north star to point to when your character comes into question. This means you have to tell your true story. If you don’t have a story…if you don’t have things you stand for… or if you are kind of a shitty person… then you should really think hard about what you’re doing, and if you even deserve to enjoy the rewards of a successful company. If you are good in your core, then start figuring out what you stand for, and what you stand against — in your industry, and for your tribe.

Fascinating Flaws

There is an innate appeal to raw truthfulness. Transparently disclosing your flaws and shortcomings is incredibly trustworthy, and most people will be very attracted to this. Most smart business owners see this as an affront to their value, power, and image. 200 years of conditioning is to blame for these leadership and success myths. The truth is that being vulnerable is the most courageous thing you can do. You cannot have courage without vulnerability, by definition. And for those who are too afraid to show their flaws are being held back by the Ego. You can certainly make money without ever expressing your flaws, confronting and facing your flaws head-on, but these people will never know the immense amount of money they have left off the table by being brave. Don’t be seduced into thinking your flaws won’t eventually be exposed. The only difference is that when you choose to expose them you control the narrative, and when you don’t you appear disingenuous.

It’s How You Respond

Customers appreciate brands that are responsive to their questions and concerns. Making sure you're available to address your customers' concerns promptly, no matter the severity, will win you more followers than it will cost you in time and money. Every interaction you have with a customer allows you to provide a great experience, or drop the ball. 50% of your customers will never tell you that they are unhappy. No Google Review. No feedback. No screaming match. Nothing. Literally nothing. You will never hear from them again. The whiners are actually a gift. They are the minority that are willing to stand up for what they don’t see as right or just. For every one person that complains, there are 10 that say nothing. When you create an environment that makes it easy and valuable for people to provide sincere feedback, employees and customers alike, you have the chance to do something about it. This is where you go against your natural primal instincts to fight, flight, or freeze, and take radical proactive action to make things better than right. It’s not WHAT you say. It’s HOW you say it. Meet their pain points — their CORE Needs. These are the things you can celebrate on your website, in your social media, and in your branded advertising.

How To Human Optimize your Residential Home Services Website

After building your website from the “outside-in”, it’s time to human optimize it. You already know search engine optimization. We cannot ignore the relevance of maintaining a healthy website in the eyes of the Google Gods, but Google isn’t making the buying decision — your prospect is. Fun Fact: Your prospects are made of people. You may want to communicate with them as such. There are several ways to achieve this, but here are five of our top tips for humanizing your website.

Be Fun

Entertainment is the currency of a too-busy public. If you are going to elicit a reaction, you need to say something fun, interesting, and entertaining. This means you can’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t worry if you’re not the outgoing extrovert type. You don’t need to be. Some of the funniest people we know are the dry, straight man-styled humor that has us coming back for more. With a well-constructed character diamond of your business brand and of the prominent players that will get the public appeal, you will find it much easier to find your entertainment style.

Elicit an Emotion

People love stories about other people. People buy from people. People look to people for solutions, not businesses. It’s your people for which you are judged, so find ways to add in the good, bad, and ugly about people. Talk about the way people have messed up. Talk about how people fixed it. Talk about the pain points that customers have… the real felt needs. And talk about how your people M. E. T. those felt needs, and exceeded expectations. Stories allow people to step into your gravity well and elicit an emotion. Stories can do what descriptions and information cannot. Make people FEEL. Whether you make them laugh, cry, or get angry, you will win the public appeal, when you make them FEEL.

Be Worthy of Trust

Trust is a CORE Principle that cannot be denied it’s just dessert. Without trust, you can only have a transaction, and as such, you will have to be the lowest price to otherwise earn the sale. While pointing to your Google Rating is one way to demonstrate that you have acted in a trustworthy manner on previous occasions, even Google Reviews are under scrutiny for how much they can be trusted. Heck, if you have a perfect 5-star rating, that unto itself is untrustworthy. To really win the game of trust, you need to start before the game has even started. That means a well-thought-out and strategized branded advertising campaign, both online and offline. You then need to take those most memorable phrases and words and align them with your brand image and website. The more consistent you are with your message, the more persuasive you will be. When your target audience eventually needs what you sell, you will already own some real estate in their heart and mind. Once you’ve won them over, it is imperative that you keep their confidence. Hell hath no fury like a relational buyer scorned. The more they love you, the more they will hate you when you brake their trust.

Practice Exformation

One of the most counterintuitive practices in modern web design is the practice of exformation. With digital weasels running amok trying to convince you of the importance of now ancient SEO practices because that’s the fun bits of their job, they riddle your otherwise lovely website with a bevy of unnecessary nonsense and pseudo-value. When a prospect comes by your website through paid and unpaid channels, it is essential that you CONVERT THEM. Period. Get the dang appointment and move on, son. This isn’t a damn museum. It’s a residential home service website. Nobody cares about 99% of the nonsense you have paid too much money to post. Cut. It. Out. The perfect way to humanize your website is by eliminating all the BORING BITS! People want to do business with people, not some faceless corporation. When you share your story on your residential home services website, you give your customers the chance to judge you against your competition. Are you going to be the interesting, charming, suave person who has lots of interesting things to say, and has a great sense of humor? Or are you going to be the weird guy talking in lingo and trying to overjustify your value with all the stupid stuff that nobody cares about or already expects to be the minimum standard? What web content is valuable, you might be thinking? Aside from all the necessary bits like privacy and terms of use, here’s what really counts:

• Above the fold, you want a call to action and a crystal clear definition of what you sell. If you have a single, well-articulated statement that demonstrates your difference, be sure they see it in the headline. Smattered about the site, you’ll want to have a bunch more of the exact same CTAs in the form of an online scheduler and a single phone number.
• Your service area is always one of the first questions for new visitors, so make it easy to find, navigate, and interpret.
• Your point-of-entry price will also be one of the first questions on anyone’s mind. How much do you cost to come out? Is it complicated or easy? Is it expensive or cheap? If you’ve done a great job attracting relational buyers, they don’t care that you cost $99 to show up. If you’re appealing to transactional shoppers, asking for money without resolving the problem will be an affront to their good sense.
• Your values are more important than your blog, and it’s high time someone told you. What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What do you stand against? Strong, unwavering universal truths that allow your prospects to align or move on. You can tell these stories in a variety of places, including the home page, about us page, guarantees page, and your FAQs.
• Your services are your keywords, not menu items. You don’t need a page for every single last thing that you sell or provide. You just don’t. That’s not how people engage with websites today. Tell people what you provide in the most concise way possible and make it ridiculously easy to navigate.
• Your club membership is the most valuable piece of your business. Not because it pays for itself, unto itself, but because it locks up your customer’s mind. Customer’s on your well-designed club membership don’t go shopping, are more likely to refer you, and don’t click on your PPC ads.
• Your warranties and guarantees are a clear indication of how you serve your customers. Simple, fully transparent, and deweaseled warranties and guarantees are a great way to win the hearts and minds of prospects. While warranties outline how long you warrant your parts and workmanship, guarantees are the self-imposed punishments you put on yourself in service of your customers.
• FAQs are the questions you actually ARE being asked. Unlike blogs, people will actually ready your FAQs and that makes them a great place to generate attention, interest, decision, and action (A. I. D. A.) for your business. Start by asking your call team what questions they are consistently being asked and then write up a response that gets you the best conversion into appointments that you would actually be willing to do consistently.
• Careers are not a thing you have the luxury of turning on and off anymore. You have no idea when the perfect candidate is going to show up at your door. Do you want to have the closed sign hung in the window when they rock up, or do you maybe want to have a chat with your next champion? You would be absolutely astounded to hear that a small percentage of prospects will read your career listings and if exceptionally well written, not only will you get great candidates, but you may just get a great customer show up too. We’ve seen it first hand.
• Your Call to Action must be easy and fast. Keep a static phone number on the site. Have a live online scheduler that books an exact appointment time. Minimize the form fill questions. Keep the CTA the same throughout the website. You have one goal and one goal only. Book. The. Appointment.

Some of the things you may be surprised that you don’t need are testimonials, images of your products, stock images of ‘tradespeople’, or transitional CTAs. No one is going to sign up for your newsletter. Website testimonials are not to be trusted, and nobody in the history of humankind has cared what a water heater looks like. Secondary CTAs only distract from the singular goal of your primary CTA, so just don’t do it. _Less is more. -Ryan Chute If you are going to use images, use real pictures of your real team, your actual trucks, and the area you serve. If you’re going to say something, only say what matters to get the appointment, and skip all the other boring bits that are losing you more customers than gaining.

Protect and Defend

_The number one greatest failure in business today is the utter absence of an actual CORE Purpose. -Ryan Chute People are far more simple than we want to admit. We react to internal and external motivations to pursue a better life than where we are currently in our state of mind. While the majority of people are living in survival mode, there are many others living in the first layer of thriving mode too. If we ever hope to sell them stuff, we need to meet them where their mindset is today and motivate them with what matters to them most. In the absence of the 3 internal motivators Identity, Purpose, and Adventure, the only motivations left are Price, Power, and Praise. When you operate your business with a powerful and committed CORE Purpose, you will attract the people who want to share the Adventure with you, aligning their Identity with your brand identity. The alternative is to give them the lowest price, affording them power over you, so they can earn the praise of others for how good a deal they got from you. A humanized (human optimized) brand is a relatable brand, and a relatable brand is a trusted brand. People prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust. If you show your customers that you are real people, you're way more likely to win their business for a lifetime. If you’re ready to enhance your home services website, book a call with Wizard of Ads® today!