The Top Ten Mistakes. That CEOs And Business Owners Make With Their Websites (And What To Do About It). By Dan Kaplan, CoFounder of periscopeup

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1 The Top Ten Mistakes That CEOs And Business Owners Make With Their Websites (And What To Do About It). By Dan Kaplan, CoFounder of periscopeup

2 After 15 years of building and promoting websites, I ve seen CEOs and business owners time and again assume their team or vendor is doing everything needed to generate as many leads as possible from their websites.

3 Here are the ten most common mistakes business owners and leaders make when it comes to their websites, along with concrete steps you can take yourself to ensure your website becomes a 24/7 salesperson that doesn t sleep.

4 ..but first, some shameless self promotion. Free Offer Want know how many leads or sales you could be getting from your website? Call (866) or contact us for a free consultation.

5 Do you personally know how many leads came in from your website last month? #1 Only you can ensure the success of your site. Even if you don t understand technology, you should know how well your website performs. Have your marketing team or person provide you with monthly reports on Key Performance Indicators. A good place to start would be the number of leads, number of visitors, and top 10 keywords.

6 Are your I.T. people running your site? #2 Your website is a marketing tool. Your tech team absolutely needs to have a seat at the table, but your website is a marketing tool and you need to think of it that way. If Marketing is driving the decisions, your website s goal will be to speak to the consumer and drive leads. Things like search engine optimization, cost per lead, and market share of search will then follow.

7 Do you rank high for buy terms? #3 Rank for terms that prospects are searching on when they want to buy. A buy term is something like marketing consultant where the searcher is clearly looking to purchase. An about term might be marketing where the searcher is looking to learn more about the topic. A brand term would be a company or person s name, such as periscopeup. New prospects will find you only if you rank high for searches on your products and services. Have one page on your website devoted to each product or service, each targeting the right buy term.

8 Does your website present features and not benefits? #4 Give people solutions to their problems. A feature is what your product or services does; a benefit is how it improves someone s life. When people search, they re seeking solutions to their problems. This isn't about you. It's about how you'll make them sleep better at night. Your website copy should be a sales pitch: match up their pain with your solution.

9 Does your website have a telephone number prominently displayed on every page? #5 Make getting in touch easy. Don't make users struggle to find a way to contact you. Place your phone number prominently on every page, preferably in the upper right corner. You should be tracking the number of calls as well (see point number 1, above).

10 Does your website give users a reason to call? #6 Give people a good reason to contact you. A good call to action should be simple, direct and enticing. For example: Call Today For Your Free Consultation. This doesn t have to cost you anything, but it may incentivize the reader to pick up the phone, download a form or send an . We recommend adding calls to action directly in your sales copy, once above the fold and once at the end of every relevant page.

11 If your company is local, are you showing up on pin-map searches? #7 Make it easier to find you. Make sure you re listed with Google+ (www. google.com/+/business) and that your listing is both complete and uses the exact same contact information that appears on your contact us page. In the mobile age, users are relying more and more on pin map listings to find service providers closeby.

12 Are you tracking from search to sale? #8 Configure your analytics to uncover what converts. Website marketing is a unique form of advertising in that you can track just about everything. Most companies don t have their analytics packages configured to track completed goals. Done properly, you can learn what drives conversions, then you know where to put your time and money. Make sure your analytics tool is configured to track all leads and form submits.

13 Do you know what provides the best Return On Investment? #9 Identify and take advantage of your best lead sources. Your web statistics provide a wealth of consumer information. It starts with what people are thinking about when they research your products and services on Google. Identify the best traffic sources, campaigns, keywords and websites for lead acquisition. Then tailor on and offline sales and marketing strategy to exploit these opportunities.

14 Are you improving month after month? #10 Out-do yourself every month. Here s the #1 secret to improving website performance: every month, increase both the number of qualified visitors and the percentage of those visitors that contact you. If you compete against yourself month in and month out, and consistently improve in these two areas, you ll blow away your competition. Don t just set it and forget it.

15 Conclusion These are hard-learned lessons for turning your website into a lead-generating machine, and it starts at the top. If you haven t personally committed to your website s success, now is the time. Marketing on the web has become a dogfight. Beat your competition and they're going to put resources into getting back - at your expense. Google is thought to have over 200 million searches per day, and unlike social media, people go to Google to search and buy. Commit to your website and reap the rewards.

16 . Free Offer Want know how many leads or sales you could be getting from your website? Call (866) or contact us for a free consultation.

17 About The Author Dan Kaplan is the Co-Founder of periscopeup, a search-marketing firm based in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC. He blogs about how business owners and marketing leaders can get more leads and sales from their websites at periscopeup.com.

What is PPC? PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click.

What is PPC? PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click. When you market your website with a Pay-Per-Click campaign, your website is prominently displayed on the search engine results pages to customers who are looking