Occasionally we pull a site, do a short evaluation and share suggestions.John Bogs
PropaneNorthCarolina .com (circa 5/2016) is a site created for a state organization as a “customer facing” site.
That means it was developed for consumers and not for members of the organization.
I’m assuming the goal is to promote members within the state by offering information to consumers to entice them to get related work done and suggesting members of the organization as vendors to complete the job.
Please note the data is NOT based on private information generated from their site. These numbers are not perfectly accurate. We believe these numbers to be generally correct based on our ability to access public data using our proprietary tool. But that’s our guess and you can take the numbers any way you like.
Let’s start with traffic (visitor) numbers
According to our tool, there’s only been 13 visitors month to date.
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The site started out in a good position (probably due to the keywords in the site name).
Unfortunately it appears it was hit by a Google penalty or something was done incorrectly
As of this evaluation date the site is appearing for 200 keyword searches.
The highest position is #27 (essentially found on the third page) and the lowest position #93 or page 10.
It’s so far down the rankings and difficult to find, it might as well not even be on-line.
No visibility
No one finds you
No one visits
No one clicks
Nothing Happens – No Sales – No Growth
I’ve attached a screenshot of the
PropaneNorthCarolina . com home page below
From a newbie web designer’s perspective I understand the interest in the video on the home page.
But from a consumer / visitor perspective I fail to see the value or the benefit of a shower.
The shower video becomes very annoying and captures my attention until my eyes hurt.
I DO NOT want to continue deeper in the page or the site. I want to RUN!
Here’s a good example of a video on a site
that we are building right now
The video introduces a speaker,
makes a bold statement that is his trademark
and goes on to build credibility,
social proof and excitement
Best Practices: A clickable link appears directly in the video.
(See actual video on www.KurtisLeeThomas.com)
The link goes deeper into the site. It also has a circle with an arrow to guide the viewer further into the page.
It has a message that directly ties into a story that is marketing based and marketing driven.
It offers value and has a purpose that is tied into the target audience.
Those pieces make for a great, entertaining and powerful video.
Let’s Get Back To What I See As The Goal
The “Dealer Locator” on propanenorthcarolina.com
Ultimately driving sales to members and helping to grow their business is the main objective.
I like the concept of keeping the visitor on the site, especially when they are searching for retailers in the area.
BIG CHALLENGE
Make sure that all the links are working…
In this case when you click EFRID-QualityGas you’re taken to a bad page. (see below)
It’s called a broken link and it makes people angry and frustrated
This tarnishes the value of the site with a poor user experience. The EFRID-Quality Gas Company looks bad too.
Processes need to be in place that catch these issues quickly and correct them.
It has been almost 3 weeks since we clicked that link and it is still taking me to a bad page.
It’s a real shame. Good concept. Bad execution.
Another Example of a Good Concept
But Bad Execution
The video that was chosen shows an advertisement on top of the video.
From a visitor’s perspective I’m watching this video positioning propane in a good light and shortly into it I get an advertisement that interrupts me.
Ultimately a very poor visitor experience and it reflects on the site and the message.
What’s Worse… The advertisement headline says “Guide to hacking adwords”.
(This is an advertising method that you can use to advertise on videos)
If I had come from a natural gas site that was advertising using this method, I would have seen an advertisement for that natural gas company.
Or the natural gas company could have targeted their advertisement to appear here on purpose.
Either way, a BIG potential challenge for the North Carolina Propane Association.
Summary
1.) When you create a site, make sure you have that one person who is your target visitor in mind… ALWAYS.
You may have more than one type visiting your site but you need to identify who they are and keep them in mind as you develop your site (details in this report)
This will make it easier to create a site your target visitor will use, appreciate and share.
2.) Get people to come to your site.
If no one knows your site exists, no one will visit and you’ll look at the internet as a failure. The internet is HUGE, populated with lots of your prospects. So if your site isn’t “working” take a hard look at how may people are actually visiting it.
3.) Just because your site is online it could be VERY hard to find.
Instead of people finding it on page 1, you could be on page 101. (see #2 above)
4.) What ever you are including in your site has to be there for a reason and it it has to be executed well.
If links don’t work or you’re adding something “cool” you need to make sure it works and does the job it’s intended to.
If not, all that time and money is wasted.
5.) Know that every action has a consequence.
If you don’t know the ramifications you could be giving your competition a chance to steal your customers.
For example, using the video above your savvy competitor could run advertisements on your site (with in that video) promoting their business to your site visitors.
You need to understand the internet in order to prevent these problems
from slapping you in the face and making you looking foolish.
A recent study showing the industry’s level of comfort online
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You have a business to run and leveraging the net with its ever changing rules and opportunities is a full time job.
Spend your time on what you do well and let us work on what we do best.
If you’re ready, go the contact us page and let’s talk.
If you’re not ready yet, visit our resource page and sign up for our weekly email to learn more about good marketing inside and outside the industry.
State Of The Propane & Heating Oil Industry
To better understand the concepts and terminology shared here,
you should read the Special Report On The Internet!
