Here’s the deal; we all fill out online profiles for a whole slew of directory style websites such as Yelp, Angieslist, Facebook, Nextdoor, Homeadvisor. This gets us exposure to their users, although often minimally if not paying, and it also helps us in the search engines by giving us a local citation and possibly ranking for a few keywords.
But have you ever read what your profile says? Chances are, like most service provider profiles, it is just a few sentences of generic, valueless filler text. It goes something like this one from a plumbing company in Southwest Florida.
Nothing outstanding, and quite frankly it’s near impossible to craft unique and different text for these profiles.
What could be better?
Encourage the user to take action. Encourage the user to leave Yelp.
Rather than generic service provider text, use the space to tell users to go to your website! Say something like:
“We’re among the top-rated plumber contractors in SWFL. Visit our website to find out why and learn more about our company and services.”
Some directories such as Nextdoor.com will let you hyperlink in the text while Yelp Will not.
Why is it better to direct users to our website?
Avoid competitors.
On yelp for example, if a user decides to request a quote from you, Yelp will by default to submit the quote request to other service providers. Getting the user to your website to take action cuts out the stick fingers of Yelp.
Great Impression
Your website can make a powerful impression on interested consumers and that impression can be the differentiator that wins you the job at a premium price. It’s happened for my business time and time again that a customer specifically mentions our website as a deciding factor.
Accurate Information
When you’ve got a dozen of these online profiles it can be a righteous pain to keep all the information current. It is much simpler to just worry about keeping your website accurate!
Concise contact
This one hits a nerve, and I’m sure you can relate. As we all struggle to keep up with our own email inbox, each directory allows the customer to message through their own portal. This can mean that we have to log into something to reply. It’s not step in the way of our flow. Getting users to the website and messaging through a single platform helps ensure top notch customer service and response time. Concise and focused!
What next?
Get your website up to snuff to capture leads using our lead machine contractor website framework. Then update all of your online directory profiles to direct visitors to your website.
THEN if you have the Facebook pixel installed you can re-target them with ads, keeping the attention on you!