Becoming an authority in your industry isn’t as easy as it looks. You need to get your message out to your ideal customer with the first stop being your website.
You know that you know your stuff and you are great at what you do or you have a great product to sell. You have a website that you’re happy with and you are showing up regularly on Social Media but you still need to build credibility and sales.
Using your website to show that you’re an authority in your industry is the next natural step but you’re not sure how to do it.
Here are 9 ways you can use your website to become an authority in your industry:
Hire a copywriter
A website will only be as good as its content. You can have the flashiest, most up to date design and fabulous branding but if the copy isn’t great, people will leave. Using a copywriter can feel as though it’s going against the grain, after all, you know what you’re talking about otherwise you wouldn’t be creating a website about it. However, being good at something and writing about it can be two very different things.
A good copywriter doesn’t need to be a specialist in your industry. Instead they’ll research your competitors, ask all about you – who you are, what you do, what parts of it you enjoy, what’s your USP and what are you trying to achieve. They then turn this information into copy which will draw your site visitors in and make them want to use you/buy your product.
Copywriters are used to working with website developers and branding specialists so they’ll be able to produce copy which fits seamlessly in with the overall design of the website. Copywriters can also specialise in the type of copy they create so if you need someone more technical than chatty, a quick LinkedIn search or personal recommendation (I know a few different types of copywriters) will get the right match for you.
Use keyphrases
Keyphrases (also known as long-tail keywords) help search engines, such as Google, to narrow down their search results and display your website when someone’s searching for your service/product.
Keyphrases play a big role here – the more specific you are about your product or service, the more likely you are to match someone’s search results and that person be your ideal customer. If you are struggling to think of the right key phrases you can use this free tool.
You can find out more about the relevance keyphrases play in websites in this post.
Use relatable images
There was a time during internet advertising where website designers and Social Media advertisers used images to invoke feelings/responses rather than industry related images. This is great if you’re working in an industry dealing with emotions and empowerment. Not so great the rest of the time.
Brand it out
Great branding goes a long way in getting you noticed and is more than just a logo. Branding consists of:
- Brand colours
- Design elements
- Logo
- Typography (fonts)
The combination of these elements will influence the overall styling of your website and keep the look and feel consistent across the whole site. Consistency really is key – the more consistent your website design is, the more reassured your user will feel and it will inspire them with the confidence needed to choose you when they’re looking to buy.
I would 100% recommend using a branding designer when you’re ready to put yourself online as they will help create your online persona and give you a brand you’re completely happy with and comfortable promoting.
Make processes easy
Have you ever been on a website and loved the look/feel of it but not known how to take it further? It would be great to use that service/buy that product but other than a flimsy contact page you don’t really know how to get to the point of purchase/engagement. Don’t be the owner of that website!
If you’re selling a product this can be pretty easy – have a ‘buy now’ button on each section of the website and as long as your brand, images and content are good, you should make sales.
This isn’t as easy for service based businesses. There are many competitors in all service industries and often your user will need quite a lot of convincing to choose you over your competitor. That’s fine, after all you’re an expert in your field and you’ve followed the steps above, now it’s time to guide your user around your website. This isn’t as easy as you might think. If a website has a lot of content then people won’t read all of it and they won’t necessarily navigate their way around your site fluidly. It’s your job, alongside your website designer, to navigate your user to where you’d like them to land next. You can do this by using buttons, linked texts, anchor links to take them directly to containers with essential information in them, and using your navigation menu.
The easier the process for the user, the more likely they are to choose you.
Use testimonials
Testimonials are the number 1 Social proof a website can actively use to sell a product or service.
Social proof works like this:
- Someone uses you/buys your product.
- They have a good experience and write a testimonial/review
- A potential client lands on your website, sees your rave review and it convinces them to use you too.
- They have a good experience and they write a testimonial/review.
- Repeat….
Therefore testimonials are a great way in building your credibility. Using testimonials from current and past clients on your website shows people you are the real deal. You can have detailed testimonials on a dedicated page. I’d also encourage you to use testimonials on the main pages of your website as often users won’t visit every page of your site and you don’t want them to miss the great things people are saying about you.
Start blogging
Whether you’re a blog lover or hater you need to have a blog on your website. It gives you a platform to really show your audience that you are an authority in your industry. It also is great for your search engine rankings and will help your website feature in search results when people are looking for your product or service.
Your blog should be updated monthly as a minimum and you can use it to write about anything in your industry. It’s a good opportunity to get inventive with your content – if you have a product based business use your blog to write about different ways to use your product, feature customers who have had success with your product and posted their results on Social Media platforms. You can also go a bit wider and write about how the product is made/environmental factors it effects/supports. The options are limitless.
If you’re a service based business use your blog to post tips about the service you’re offering. Showcase your skillset and ensure your posts are helpful, informative and solve a your customers’ problem.
If you’re time poor or just hate the thought of writing blogs engage a copywriter or Social Media manager to do it for you.
Run your updates regularly
Your website theme, plugins and WordPress itself all update regularly for performance and security reasons. It’s important that when they release these updates you run the updates on your website. This will help keep your website performing well and secure from any issues which can arise from having out of date software on your site.
Whilst your users won’t know that you’re doing this in the background of your site, Google will and it will choose your website over others which haven’t been updated, when choosing which websites to feature in search results. You can read more about this here.
Conclusion
When putting your business online you need to consider both, what your user wants the experience to be like and what search engines, such as Google want to see. Keeping this at the forefront of your operation when planning your marketing and updates will help you leap ahead of your competitors who, most likely, won’t be doing all of these things and it will help showcase your authority within your industry.
TL;DR
Here’s an infographic I created as a Too Long;Didn’t Read version. Feel free to right click and save it to refer to later.
Get Social
Your website is only one third of the marketing trinity which consists of:
Having a website on its own won’t do everything you need it to do. Use your Social Media channels to promote your website. Good branding will also help here as you can ask your graphic designer to create Social Media templates to use across the different platforms, promoting brand consistency and leading people to learn more about you via your website.
You should also be sending a monthly email which directs users back to your website to read more of the content you’ve put in your email (your blog for example).
Your website should feature links to all the Social Media platforms you have to effortlessly direct your users from one to the other.