Recently, I met with a local businessperson about how to attract more customers via his website, e-newsletter, and so on. I’m going to change the details of his business for confidentiality, but the rest of this story is all true.
As a professional, I’d thoroughly perused the business’ website in advance of the meeting. The website projected a business that was a paint store. Not just a run-of-the-mill paint store, though, it sold a custom line of paint that no one else in town sold. The high-quality paint was moderately priced and — best of all — even after ordering a custom paint color, customers were allowed to return the paint if they were dissatisfied. Try to think of any other paint store that allows you to return custom-mixed paint. I thought to myself, “This guy knows customer service and has a great USP (unique selling proposition).” I was eager to meet with the owner to see how I could help them recruit and retain customers.
At the appointed hour, I arrived at the paint store. Walking inside, I first noted no customers about — and no staff people, either. I wandered around the store, which had paint chips and actual cans arranged artfully on tables throughout the small space. I liked the setup, almost like a boutique setting. You might expect home decor to be sold in such a fashion, but it was an unexpected presentation for paint. After a couple of minutes I called out, “Hello!”, which brought the owner scurrying. We walked to his office, in the rear.
During my little walkabout, I noticed every horizontal surface in the shop was covered with dust. Dust, dust everywhere. I refrained from touching anything, or brushing against a table, because I didn’t want to get my hands or clothes dirty. I wondered how the owner expected customers to buy anything if they, as I, were put off from picking up paint chips or hefting a can of paint.
Well, our appointment was to discuss the company’s online marketing, not the setup of the store, so naturally I didn’t say anything about the dust, but it did strike me as odd.
We talked about the website, which had been professionally designed by a local firm, including the copywriting and SEO. I told the store owner candidly that I thought the homepage copy was too brief and lacked keywords. I said, “If your target demographic is paint buyers, you need more keywords that actually reference paint.” Then I received a shock.
“Oh, no,” the store owner replied, “we’re not a retail business. Our main business is custom painting services. We market our painting services, and then kind of sell this paint line through the backdoor. We don’t really get any walk-in, retail-type traffic.”
I was floored. The website clearly advertised a retail paint store. I said, “Hm. That’s not the impression I got from your website. It looks as if you’re a retail paint store.”
“Well, maybe that’s true if you come in via the homepage,” the owner said, “but if you look through the site, you’ll find the page about our custom painting services. We optimized the site to land people on that page when they do Google searches.”
As I was driving home after the meeting, I thought to myself, What kind of sense does that make? Why would you optimize your homepage for something other than your main service? I understand long-tail SEO strategy, but that should serve as an adjunct to good homepage SEO.
In case you’re wondering, I didn’t get the contract. I think the owner felt I didn’t understand his business well enough and was, frankly, a bit offended that I criticized his website.
My question to you is: Does your business’ homepage reflect what your business does and your USP? If it doesn’t, if your business has evolved over time and your focus has changed, you need to rewrite your homepage. Because you’re not doing anyone a favor by misleading prospective clients about what you do. If they’re looking for a paint store and show up at your location only to discover you’re actually a custom painting service, they’re going to be unhappy. And you remember the old saw: And unhappy customer will tell 10 people.
Takeaway: Don’t sabotage your business with a poorly written homepage. Check out your website today, with fresh eyes, and make sure your homepage precisely reflects what you do.
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