Keep a Line in the Water

My dad and I spend a lot of time fishing on the beach in Rhode Island. Surf fishing can be hard work. The equipment is much larger and heavier than freshwater gear and after a full day of hiking on the beach and rocks in the fresh salt air, sleep comes easy. One simple rule we always try to follow whenever we are on the beach is this: someone is always casting. No matter how tired we are, you've always got to have a line in the water. When we get to the point that neither of us can cast anymore, then it is time to head back to the ranch for some sack time. The fish move in and out all the time, following schools of bait, and they aren't always showing on the surface. If everyone in your group is sitting on the beach shooting the bull and no one is casting, who knows what you're missing?

A friend of mine does canoe trips up to the Boundary Waters on the Minnesota border with Canada every year. While they are paddling from one spot to another, they always troll their lines behind their canoe and occasionally pickup some fish that way. By always having a line in the water, they maximize their fish catching potential on their trip - and since they can only pack so much food in with them, how much they catch has a direct correlation to whether or not they eat well on the trip.

A business' website can be that line in the water, always ready in case any customers swim past. Even if your store or office is closed and your phone lines are going to voice mail, your website can hook'em and land'em for you. If your website is going to be effective there are a couple of simple rules to follow:

1) Your site needs to be found when people are searching. For the most part, this means you need to figure out how to climb to the top of the Google rankings. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a rapidly evolving science. It requires an investment in time and effort to be successful. If you don't know how to do it yourself, you need to invest in having someone do it for you.

2) Your site needs to convert visitors into sales, leads, Facebook friends, whatever you are after. If you are after email addresses for follow up marketing, then when people click to your site from Google search results, the email collection "widget" better be visible on the page they land on. If you are after Facebook friends, then visitors better land on a page that has a Facebook icon on it.  Don' t make people click around your site to find the place where they can convert - because they won't. The conversion opportunity MUST be on the page they land on.

So, do you have a line in the water now? Potential customers are always swimming past.