Does Your Website Make The Grade? 6 Elements of a Successful BSC Website

A website is no longer optional. As janitorial buyers continue to get younger, a BSC needs an online presence to meet clients where they like to shop. More than two-third of service-based companies find leads because of their websites; if you’re not among that number it’s time to take a critical look at your website.

To stand apart from the competition and convert more browsers into buyers, make sure your website includes these six critical elements.

1. Problem/Solution

Possibly one of the most overlooked parts of a website are the words that greet visitors. Too many companies put the focus on themselves, but the smart move is to mention your client’s pain points first and frequently. Customers are searching online to find an answer to a problem (also called a pain point).

Calling attention to your customers’ most common pain points—then showcasing your solutions—will encourage sales. Keyword research is a great way to figure out your target audience’s pain points. As a BSC, if you see that many people are searching “how to keep bathroom smelling fresh” or “how to make a facility green,” include these phrases in your website. Moz.com offers an awesome tutorial on keyword research for beginners.

2. Useful Content

A website without content is like a house without walls or roofs. It’s a start, but it isn’t complete. As a BSC, you want to offer visitors plenty of relevant content, like cleaning guides, case studies, or video tutorials. Providing educational content shows your audience that you’re an expert they can trust with their cleaning needs. It also makes your site a destination worth returning to, which is important as a potential customer mulls over who they want to hire.

3. An Active Blog

In addition to the content above, it’s smart to add a blog to your site. Consistently blogging creates nearly seven times more natural traffic than a basic static website. The more pages you create, the more Google will index your site and the better the chances of your site ending up higher on search results. Google’s search algorithm filters out spam content, so thoughtful blog posts have even greater weight.

Your content needed be complicated or detailed. Straightforward posts of 500 to 1000 words are most likely to be shared. Again, the key is to offer stories that are of interest to your target market. Don’t be afraid to give away your knowledge and share information about how to keep buildings clean. Rather than costing you sales, this approach will earn you good favor with customers looking for a knowledgeable BSC.

4. Your USP

While your website should primarily focus on your customer’s needs, it must also offer a little information about your company. Your “About Us” page should include the basics (how long you’ve been around, the types of clients you work with, who are the principals of your company, etc.), but also much more.

This is often one of the most-visited pages of any website. Take advantage of that traffic by highlighting what sets your company apart from the competition. Have you won awards, been featured as an expert in the trades, earned LEED certification? This is the place to share. More importantly, be clear here about why your service is the best solution for your customers’ pain points.

5. Smart Design

To come across as professional and trustworthy, your website should be clean and consistent, easy to navigate, and fully functional (check your links regularly to make sure they still lead somewhere). Only use high-quality images, stick to just a few colors and fonts, and avoid too many distracting animations or calls to action.

Finally, ask your web designer whether your site is “adaptive.” That means the site automatically changes layout to match the size of screen it’s being viewed on, so it looks as good on a smartphone as it does on a laptop. This is a big deal because many companies now receive 25 to 50% of their web traffic from phones and tablets.

6. Contact Information

It sounds obvious, but many companies fail to make it easy for web visitors to interact with them. Your contact page should include a phone number, email address, and contact form. Make it a priority to reply quickly to any messages received through the web. Also, add basic contact information in the footer of your website so it appears on every page. The less people have to click around to find a number, the more likely they’ll be to actually make the call.

If your website isn’t measuring up, it’s time for a redesign. Unless your problems are minor or you are extremely tech savvy, this is probably a task best left to a professional web designer. It won’t come cheap, of course, but the the money you spend will come back many fold in more and better leads.