# #1 Most Overlooked Aspect of Web Sites



## parodi (Mar 15, 2010)

I say to my wife, "Your hair looks great, the dress is perfect, you smell great but you forgot to wear one thing."

"What now?"

" A smile."

People spend tons of money for sites, they run around getting content photos, they shoot videos write copy and they forget THE most important thing....it is that your web site is advertising for you. By that I mean "advertising" in the _Mad Men_ sense.

Do blondes have more fun? (Clairol 1960's)
Will I really 'just do it' if I wear Nikes? (Nike 1990's)
Does what happens in Vegas really stay in Vegas? 

I see a lot of websites that really make no effort to "be advertising" and it shows. Just because a searcher makes it to the site because you did the SEO to get it on page one that doesn't mean they will stay for more than twenty seconds. 

You are reading this post because I used a tried and true copywriters technique for broshures in the thread title...the "grabber" line. I could have written "Top 10 Mistakes People Make With Their Websites" but I only have 3 today

Got Milk? (the dairy council. brilliant.)

Know what the longest running unaltered tag line in the whole world of advertising is? "You're in Good Hands with All State." Bow down to that one. It has been running since 1934.

If you are DIYing your site IMO stop worrying so much about the nuts and bolts, the coding, the SEO and try to expand your mind to come up with something a little bit grabbier for it. Maybe you could even think up something fun.

(1965 Photo of VW Bug .....Lemon.)

Remember you don't have to be great you just have to be grabbier than the other painters in Peoria. (Inspiration for that sentence is from a great book in YP advertising by Maher.. Mahler?..."you don't need a big YP ad it just has to be bigger than your competition.)

Keep in mind that very, very few website people offer creative advertising as part of the package of templated sites so YOU are going to have to do it---unless you have a brother in law in the ad game.

I suggest you go the library and get a book on the history of advertising and while you are there pick one up on basic marketing.


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## parodi (Mar 15, 2010)

#2 Most Overlooked Aspect of Web Sites:

Few People Ask:
*
Who is my customer and what am I doing to appeal to that person?*

Let me put on my phoney baloney psychologist's hat for a moment and talk about transactional and relational customers. 

The transactional customer is the one who will drive you crazy with all kinds of questions, may bother you for a second free estimate and then hire the station wagon guy. There is one thing that keeps the transactional customer awake at night and it is the question *"Did I pay too much?"*

Never try to appeal to this person unless you are the cheapest guy/gal in town.

You should be going after the relational customer. A relational customer is the type of person who is thrilled that he has finally found a top notch mechanic that he can bring his E-Type Jaguar to. He can brag to his other idiot Jaguar Club members that he has the "best Jaguar mechanic" in the county. The relational customer is kept awake at night by the nagging question *"Did I make the right choice?"*

The priority for the relational customer is value not price, and trust that they got the value they paid for. Does your web site copy appeal to this person?


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## Ultimate (Mar 20, 2011)

parodi said:


> #2 Most Overlooked Aspect of Web Sites:
> 
> Few People Ask:
> *
> ...


I have taken the gist of this post and gone from last year trying to close every sale, working double overtime and making little to a transition from the end of last year to now working less and making more picking this type of customer to do business with. HUGE difference in the quality of my life as a result. Now, got any psychological moments of clarity type understanding with acquiring good people as help?


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## parodi (Mar 15, 2010)

FatherandSonPainting said:


> Now, got any psychological moments of clarity type understanding with acquiring good people as help?


I have no practical experience with hiring anybody. Paperhangers are notorious cranks who like to work alone. The only time I even subbed was 2 years ago. It was a great commercial job but they needed it done by the time the office came back from vacation....so I hired a paperhanger.

We finished on time but I had to return to the job several times over the next 6 months to install wallpaper behind the file cabinets in several rooms. My genius helper thought file cabinets were built in.

But here's what I read in a book once and you can take it for what it is worth:
If it is a toss up between hiring based on experience or intelligence go for the intelligence. The example in this book was a study on waiters. The waiters with years of experience were set in their ways and many times they were inefficient. The higher intelligence waiters (but with less experience) could get their station ready for the rush while there was a lull. They understood that it was more important to feed the "supply chain" and get orders fast so that process could get going in the kitchen rather than to run around and check everybody's water glass in the dining room.

Here's another piece of advice from my departed Aunt Marge and it goes out to any women who are looking for a husband.....*"find a guy that likes to work."* I guess it also holds for trying to find a helper....find an intelligent helper who likes to work.


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## parodi (Mar 15, 2010)

Check out more on this subject of hiring in the post I just made in Off Topic "Coming Apart --Charles Murray."


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## Seattlepainting (Jun 8, 2010)

I just read a report that meta data was key to the spiders finding your painting site on the internets.


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## Mass Painters (May 19, 2011)

Seattlepainting said:


> I just read a report that meta data was key to the spiders finding your painting site on the internets.


The meta-title tag is still very important, but the meta-keyword tag has lost much of its importance. If you choose not to use a meta-description tag, Google will display a snippet from your page instead.


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## MktgforContractors (Aug 20, 2012)

The #1 most overlooked item on websites is a call to action!

Tell your prospect to do something. Call me. Get a Quote Now. Sign up for our Newsletter.

The #2 most overlooked item on websites is a form to capture prospect information. Building an email list of interested parties is a critical function of your website for your future marketing efforts.

The Meta Title tag and Meta Description tag are your AD on Google. It is your HEADLINE. It is what people read to determine if they will click on your link. While they are not used by Google to determine your rankings, they are very important.

Now H tags on your text and Alt tags on your photos are very important to your SEO.


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