You have a website for your home staging business. Congratulations. Now you have to get people to visit it.
A home stager’s website is not the Field of Dreams. Just because you built it, doesn’t mean that they will come.
On the first day you have a website, you basically have a store, with no sign, and a door that is hard to find. The store exists, but it’s really hard for people to come in and browse. That’s not good for business, is it?
So how do you get people to your website? There are two ways: directly and organically.
Directly means that people know your website address because they know you or they were given your website address. That’s pretty easy. It’s like when you want to go to CNN, you type in CNN.com because you already know the address.
Organically means that they find you through search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They are searching for a home stager in a town that you service, and your website appears near the top of the search page for them to click the link to go to your website. This is like when you search for something about a current event, and an article from CNN.com shows up high on the search page.
Now that you know the two ways that people visit your website, let’s talk about how you actually do that.
How to Get People to Go To Your Website Directly
This one is easy. It’s so obvious that you’re going to be saying to yourself “of course that’s how I get clients and prospects to go to my website directly.” But you would be surprised how few home stagers don’t actually do some of these!
Ready?
Let people know you have a website.
1. Put your website on your business cards.
Make sure you spell it correctly. If you get a website from Stager Sidekick, you don’t even need to include the “www” at the beginning to make it more concise and professional.
2. Email your website link out to your list.
You have an email list of current and past clients, whether it’s in Outlook, an Excel file, a CRM, or even written in a notebook. Hopefully you keep in touch with them regularly. But even if you don’t, sending them all an email with your new website is a great way to connect and reconnect. Ask them to go to your website, and ask them to forward your website to any of their friends who may one day be interested in your home staging services.
3. Add the link to your social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn).
If you use social media, you use it for a reason. It’s so you can share information with the people you are connected to. Put your website address there, so they know you have one. And whenever you connect with someone new, they will know you have a website as well. While you’re at it, add your website to your Houzz, Yelp, and any other business profile you have as well.
4. How else do you communicated with people?
Put your website address on everything, like Christmas cards, fliers, Thumbtack, or anything you can think of.
How to Get People to Go To Your Website Organically
This one is a little more challenging. You have probably heard terms like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page), keywords, and other things that make you scratch your head in confusion or make you feel like websites are too complicated. Don’t worry. This part is more challenging than putting your website on your business card, but we’ll hold your hand through this one.
People, including you probably, type in a topic in the search bar, instead of typing in a website address. For example, if your website is www.MyStagingCompany.com, very few people are going to actually type that all in. Most people simply type “My Staging Company” or “home stager in <your town>” in the search bar to get to your website.
As you can guess, it is pretty important that the search engines know your website exists and know what your website is about.
1. Make sure your website has great SEO.
Your website developer can help with the SEO…. to a point. Any website developer that promises you that they do great SEO is selling snake oil. Great SEO is up to you. Great SEO is your content, it’s your pictures, and it’s the way you structure and label everything that make the best impact.
2. Submit your website to Google Webmasters, and Bing Webmasters (this includes Yahoo).
These are the major search engines. They need to scan and index your website now. This is a very important step to having search engines knowing your website exists, how it is structured, and what it is about. This will help your website get listed on the search engines, and get listed properly.
3. Create a Google My Business for your business and website.
Google My Business creates a business listing for your company that shows up Google SERP and on a map when someone searches for a home stager in your area. GMB also tells Google the areas that you serve and many SEO experts claim it is critical for local SEO. And Google likes it when you use Google services….just saying.
Don’t force your website to compete against every home stager across the country. Give your website the advantage over the much smaller number of home stagers serving your area. Google My Business gives your website that local advantage.
Oh, and Google My Business is free.
Final Thoughts on What to do Once You Get a Website
A website is a necessity for every home stager. It is a great way for people to learn about your business, see examples of your work, and hear what your happy clients have to say. A website is an important marketing tool for your home staging business.
Just because you bought or made a website, doesn’t mean the work stops there. You need to promote your website so people get to it both directly and organically. Think of it this way, just because you made a flier or business cards for your business, doesn’t mean that people just start calling you. No, you have to actually put those fliers and business cards in places where people can find them. You need to put your website in places where people can find it too.
Don’t feel like you need to do everything on this list all at once. Take it one piece at a time.
If you don’t have a website, or you aren’t completely happy with your current website, Stager Sidekick can help! We make websites for home stagers, and have several options available to fit your needs. Learn more about your new website here.
