How to Use Your Website to Generate Leads and Sales
A comprehensive guide to SEO, lead generation, and strategic design.
Most people start to build a website that looks good, with pretty graphics, lots of lovely inspiring words, but sadly doesn’t do much heavy lifting. And by heavy lifting, I mean, become your new marketing bestie. Generating leads from Google, qualifying them (bye-bye to the time wasters and hello to the dream unicorn clients), and integrating them into your sales ecosystem. Call it a funnel, call it your space, essentially, you need to capture them so you can nurture them and tell them how absolutely amazing you are.
See, if you haven’t got any traffic (except the odd visit pushed from social media), then your website is really just a super expensive business card.
When building a website, it's essential to consider how visibility and conversion work alongside each other to geneate leads and sales from your website.
I think there are three key areas to do this. And lucky for you, they’re the three areas I specialise in (yay!)
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
This is an ongoing process that you apply to your website, which tells Google YOU are the go-to expert in your area and to send people to you.
Website Design & User Experience
Once people get to your website, you need to make sure they can find exactly what they need, understand what you do, and either attract or repel them. The experience has gotta be good, or they’ll be off, never to be seen again.
Lead Generation & Email Marketing
The missing puzzle piece. If you expect everyone who visits your website to buy something, or book a call, then you’ll lose a lotta prospective clients. Offer some low-value items on your website and provide free downloads (or free delivery/discounts) to encourage them to sign up for your mailing list. If you don’t like marketing or it makes you feel a bit icky, this is probably why you don’t have this part nailed yet. Trust me when I say that we ALL expect to be sold to when we visit a website.
It’s really not a big deal.
So by the end of this (incredibly informative if I do say so myself) blog, you’re going to have a really good idea of what these three areas cover and why you having them finely tuned on your website is going to elevate (I know it’s not my favourite word either but it really does explain what I’m trying to get at) your visibility.
Part 1 – SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
What SEO is (in human language)
SEO is all about getting found in Google. Whether that’s locally on Google maps, when someone searches for an answer to a question, or looking specifically for the person *who does what you do*.
I won't bog you down with a lot of marketing talk and types of buyers and searchers, but think of it this way.
You’ve got:
People looking for answers to questions. These are the things that they want to know about your industry, perhaps a particular way to do something, or even some in-depth information about what a service actually offers.
These searches can come from people who are already looking for someone like you, or people who don’t even know they need you yet. Either way, these are good people to impress with your expertise and get on your mailing list. You’re going to do this with blogs (or articles, whatever you want to call them), answering these burning questions.
There’s a key question that my client answers SO well on her website that she often appears in position 1 ABOVE the gov.uk websit (which also explains the same thing!) Cool huh? She does it better. And yes, she gets monthly bookings off the back of that article.
Then we’ve got people searching for you. They want an expert! So whether that’s an ‘Expert Copywriter’ or a ‘Hypnotherapist in Birmingham’ – they’re either ready to buy, or they’re starting to do some comparisons.
This is when having a well designed website comes in because this is the only thing that have to compare you with.
For another client, we wrote about how he was the expert in his niche. And sure enough, a few weeks later, we Googled ‘Expert in X’ ‘ and there was his article in position number 1.
Now don’t get me wrong here – one blog isn’t going to cut it. There are lots of other elements to consider when it comes to SEO. So many in fact that as an SEO content marketer I concentrate on all the most important ones that I know will move the needle in your business.
Some of the other things Google considers in a well SEO’d website are:
Speed – How fast does your website load, both on desktop and mobile?
Keywords – Where else are they? Metadata, headers, internal links, alt tags.
Relevance – How relevant is your content? Is it unique? Does it answer the question? Or is it just the same mash-up of everyone else online? Is it written in your tone of voice with a fresh perspective on it?
Why is SEO traffic good for leads and sales?
Unlike social media, when people are scrolling mindlessly thinking about what they’re about to cook for dinner, giving you 1.2 seconds to grab their attention, the Google searcher is in a different mindset COMPLETELY.
They are sat down intentionally searching and ready to read. They are super duper warm. Some are even HOT!
Then on top of that you’ve got excellent visibility.
You’ve got a website that’s rich in content.
They can flit from one page to the next and look at your portfolio, your reviews, your services, back to your home page. You get the gist.
Suddenly, you’re flooding them with everything about you.
Think about it. When you’ve researched someone. And you’ve had a little look at their website. Did you really just visit one page, or did you take your time to really take a good look? We are nosy by nature. We want to find out everything we can about someone once our interest is piqued.
The other thing a website does well is that it’s a long-term strategy. One that compounds.
And by that I mean nothing goes to waste.
The more you do, the better it gets.
It’s nothing like social media. It really is its own visibility beast. People just don’t use it the way it was supposed to be used – and I think that’s a VERY exciting opportunity that you can’t afford to miss out on!
Part 2 - Lead Generation
What does Lead Generation actually mean?
Lead generation is literally what it says on the tin. You are generating leads into your business.
Generating = the act by which you do this.
This could be:
Giving someone a free download on a subject matter that’s important to them, that fixes a need they have right now.
Something as simple as signing up for a discount code or free delivery.
A free video training, a podcast series, a low £9 offer, a free online summit or webinar.
A quiz on your website
You can see where I’m going here? The options are LIMITLESS!
One thing I AM going to tell you is something a lot of people would disagree with.
Downloadable PDFs are not dead.
The only thing that’s dead is the content that's super easy to find online. If you’ve got a specific way of doing something, or an expert opinion on something that’s not very well known, PDFs can be very, VERY good.
All of the other things I mentioned work well too – you just gotta experiment and as I always say, ‘don’t put your eggs in one basket’.
We probably had around 100 PDF guides in the multi-million pound business I worked for. Those that aligned with every type of customer. Ones that were day of the year specific, like Christmas, or Fireworks night. They had leads coming in all over the shop.
It’s up to you if you have one or ten.
However, the more you have, the more you can experiment and see which approach works best.
Why do you need lead generation?
Because not everyone visiting your website is going to remember you. It really is that simple.
Whether you’re a physical store or an online coach, they’re going to have a sniff around and then leave. You lost them.
At least this way, you can track which pages and which downloads are doing well. AND you get them in your ecosystem. Nurture them for a bit, and who knows, they could be your next client!
That’s not to say people can’t do well without a website. Some people I know have built 6-figure empires with ZERO website. But they DID have to market in other ways.
Websites, in my humble opinion, are just the most energy-smart way to do it.
Email Marketing – Nurture Those Leads
This is the part when consistency comes into play, BUT there are some automations you can set up, so don’t panic.
Now that you have these people on your email list, you need to continue to stay at the top of their minds (okay, not the top; you’re probably not quite as important as their pet dog). However, you do need to be in their peripheral vision, gently reminding them that you’re the go-to in your industry and why.
Not only that, but this is also an opportunity for them to get to know you.
People work with people right?
It’s a whole mixing pot of knowing you can solve the problem (that there is even a problem there to begin with) and gaining their trust.
You don’t know at this point where they are in their journey. But they ARE interested in you.
This isn’t about hard selling or spamming people.
It’s all about just being yourself. Sharing your gifts and letting them know you’re there when they need you.
So nurturing your leads happens usually in two ways:
Regular emails – I like to do weekly. Some people struggle with that and do it monthly. I think this is okay for maybe big shops or stores – it works well for one of my clients, for example. Whereas for other people, such as coaches, weekly is better, as there are a lot of coaches out there, and you don’t want to get lost in the mix.
Welcome sequence – you can have a welcome sequence sent on automation for everyone. Or you can have different welcomes depending on the point of entry. Let's say, for example, you download one of my SEO freebies, you’ll go into a welcome sequence that talks about the myths around SEO. If you download one of my lead generation freebies, you’ll go into a welcome sequence that talks about nurturing leads or the different types of lead generation.
There are a whole heap of ways you can get people to open emails, and how to get them to interact with and remember you. But the first step is – just get emailing!
Remember the lead generation process like this using my acronym LEAD
L = Lure
Lure them in with a compelling reason to provide you with their email address. Our emails are precious – we’re bombarded with so much information online now. So make it worth their while. What lead magnet are you going to create that’s going to give your audience a quick win?
E – Engage
Engage them with a juicy nurture Sequence. This isn’t a ‘Hey, my Name is Sam and I live in Stamford’ kinda thing. This is more valuable. What hot take would you like your audience to know about your industry right now? What myths are circulating? Perhaps you just want to remind them that they are an absolute badass, capable of great things. Tell them!
A = ANALYSE
If possible, analyse how they arrived in your world and categorise your audience into segments. It might be as simple as the type of lead magnet they downloaded (which is why I recommend having them for different stages or different areas of the business). When you do this, you can make the nurture sequence even more relevant to them, so they really feel seen and heard. When this happens, they're that one step closer to working with you.
D - Don’t disappear!
This is the hardest bit. Emailing weekly can feel like a chore. Find ways to make it easier. Round up your social media posts that week. Find a weekly newsworthy topic and comment on it. What value can you give that’s as easy as possible for you, but still worthwhile for them? It might be a weekly, insightful storytelling session. (PS, you are ALLOWED to sell in your emails – we expect it. If I like people, I don’t unsubscribe just because they shared their latest offer!)
Part Three – Strategic Web Design
When I started SEO work, although I did have design experience, it wasn’t something I spent a lot of time on with clients, as of course, they had website designers to do that. But over time, I realised how this was an essential part of the process. I could write the most incredible content for a home page, but if the layout wasn’t great, or the important bits weren’t highlighted in some way, you might attract visitors with zero conversion. It could even be down to the naming and placement of the website menus.
There are several factors to consider when it comes to design and experience. Here are just a few to pay attention to on your website and why they matter.
Loss of clarity on your website
I often see homepages where there isn’t a lot of clarity over what the business actually does until I’ve read the entire page from top to bottom. I can guarantee you now that not many people do that! So if your *best bits* are hidden all the way down at the bottom, you’re missing a trick. There is usually somewhere on that page a nugget of gold which explains what you do, who you do it for and the transformation
That needs hiking up to the hero section (the top section before you scroll).
Find it and use it.
The top section of your website does most of the heavy lifting so you need to get very clear and succinct in your messaging.
Why the website user journey is important
Ever been on a website and unable to find what you’re looking for? Or have the menu choices felt a bit clunky and confusing? It happens more often than you think.
Thanks to channels like TikTok and Instagram, we’re accustomed to scrolling through if we can’t find what we need, and we’ll go and look for it elsewhere. One thing you can do is give a friend a list of things to look for on your website and then ask them how easy it was for them to find what they were looking for.
Is your website scanable?
If you nail this, you’re most of the way there.
A lot of homepages I read have a lot of words. I would love to tell you that people are reading it all, but they’re not. Your homepage doesn’t need to explain everything in great detail. It’s the highlight reel. Your service pages and blogs can go into more depth. Our homepage should have clear headers and engaging sections, so make it scannable.
Can I scan your homepage in about 30 seconds and get the total gist of what you do, how you do it, how amazing you are through some of your featured testimonials, and a way to get in contact?
That’s scannability.
I should be able to scan and understand without having to read the whole thing.
It’s an art for sure. But it’s part of great design.
Is your website mobile-friendly?
Websites have no choice but to be responsive now. 71% of users use mobile when searching on Google.
But we all design our websites through our desktop and then neglect the mobile view.
This can leave the design to look plain weird.
Overlapping images, text, and things hanging off the screen.
Most website software, when designed by us, will have a toggle to switch between desktop and mobile views. And you should be able to hide things so that each has its own layout.
For example, your stunning hero image and text might look great on a desktop but awful and barely readable on mobile. This is particularly important for both user experience and SEO.
Conclusion – Your website is a lead generation system that works when you’re not working
Hopefully, you can see now how these things all fit together.
SEO gets those leads in from Google that are specifically looking for you and your expertise – WIN
Strategic Design - If they don’t enjoy the journey or understand what you do, they won’t make it to the next step. Make it clear, make it simple, make it engaging.
Lead Generation & Email Marketing – You can then see exactly what they’re interested in by the things they download. Now you’ve got them on your mailing list, ready to nurture and convert. You continue to market to them until they’re ready to buy, which might be the next day, or the next year. It really just depends on where they’re at on their journey.
The great thing about this system is that once it’s set up, it's basically done – you just keep tweaking it, building on it and compounding those results to get better and better.
It’s also worth noting that if one of these is missing, the whole thing falls down.
No SEO means very few visitors to your website, so no leads
No lead magnet means lots of visitors, but only those ready to buy will engage which is a teeny percentage.
No email marketing means they’ll forget you and buy from someone else.
If you’d like to see what shape your website is in, you can book my SEO strategy package. Not only do you get a fully bespoke SEO strategy with keywords and content plan, you’ll also get some advice from me about how well everything else on your site seems to be working, which pages are serving you well, and which pages could use a little work.
