By Katherine Andes
Imagine you paid big bucks to get customers to your web site. You hired an SEO specialist to find keywords and embed those keywords throughout your web pages in order to attract search engines.
And you submitted your sites to directories, sent out press releases, worked social media, and engaged in all manner of linking strategies — all just to get relevant links to your site.
Your hard work was rewarded. Your site appears high in organic search engine rankings.
Now imagine that when a customer does land on your page, she’s going to see a well-designed page with appealing content. And maybe in an attractive side bar, she will see logos of all the famous brand names you carry.
Very good.
If she takes her mouse and hovers over one of those brand name logos, it will have a hyperlink that — when clicked — will open up the manufacturer’s web page.
Not good.
After you’ve gone to all that trouble to get a potential customer to your site, why would you want to send her to another web site? That’s like taking a customer who walked through your doors and escorting her — on a red carpet no less — to another store!
You could even be sending your prospect to your competitor. She may click on the manufacturer’s store locator and decide to check out your competition in a nearby town.
Don’t do that!
Easy Furniture Web Tip #67: It’s fine to have the brand logos on your site, just don’t make them active links to the manufacturer’s web site.
Katherine Andes is a consultant who specializes in web content development, including search engine optimization (SEO), writing key web pages, and online web marketing — especially in the home improvement market. You can phone her at 559.589.0379 or email at kathy@andesandassociates.com.