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A large number of tree service providers have established an online presence. This is a good thing considering more than 81% of consumers in the US research a company online before visiting it or making a purchase.

One thing tree service providers notice, however, is that even though their websites may pull in decent traffic, their conversion rates remain low. If you have a large number of users visiting your tree service website for 10 seconds and then leaving without visiting any other pages, contacting your company via the contact form, or calling your customer support office, that’s a big problem.

The good news, however, is that this problem can be fixed quite easily. The only thing you need to do is optimize your website for conversion. In this detailed guide, we will show you 12 website conversion tips you can use to convert close to 100% of your new website visitors.

Website Conversion: What is It?

When someone visits your tree service website and takes the desired action, that is a conversion. For tree service providers, the desired action could include:

  • Using the phone number on your website to call your office
  • Signing up for your newsletter
  • Following you on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook
  • Downloading your case study
  • Visiting several pages without leaving your website
  • Contacting you via the contact form

Any action that takes the new website visitor a step closer to turning into a paying customer can be considered a website conversion. In the following section, we will take a look at the most effective website conversion tips.

12 Website Conversion Tips to Help You Close More Tree Service Deals

1.       Increase Your Click-Through Rate (CTR)

When a homeowner opens Google and searches “tree service near me,” he/she has the opportunity to choose from 3 options:

  • He/she can click on your company website
  • He/she could choose a different company’s website
  • He/she could decide to close the search results page without clicking on anything

The more clicks your tree service website earns, the more conversion opportunities your business will have.

What is a Click Through Rate?

The term “click-through rate (CTR)” refers to:

Number of clicks to your company website ÷ total searches

For example, if 200 people search for “tree service near me” and 50 of them click your website, your current CTR is 50 ÷ 200 = 25%.

How Do You Boost Your CTR?

The most effective way to boost your CTR is to rank higher for keywords related to tree service. For example, if someone searches “tree service near me” and your website pops up first, your company will automatically enjoy the most clicks.

Ranking higher for the right keywords requires Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and that is a huge topic. Home Service Direct can help you with all Tree Service SEO and local SEO needs. We also provide Tree Service Leads and Tree Service Marketing. These services help your company website appear on the top 3 results for keywords related to the services your business offers.

The other way to boost your CTR is to make the homeowners searching on Google skip other websites and head straight to your website. Some of the tools that can help you include:

  • Your website’s title tag – The title tag is a critical SEO component. What’s more, the title tag is the first thing your potential customers see when your company website appears on the Google search results page.
  • Meta description – The meta description carries the details that appear under the title on the search engine results page. An ideal meta description should communicate effectively in less than 160 characters. When written well, the meta description can encourage the searchers to click your website.
  • The URL – Your website’s URL should match the expectations that a searcher has when he/she types his query in Google. For example, if the searcher types in “tree service providers near me,” an ideal URL should communicate that your company serves the searcher’s area.

When using your Meta Title, Meta Description, and the URL to boost your CTR, consider taking advantage of the tips outlined below:

  • Feature unique selling points about your tree service business. Does your business offer 24/7 emergency tree service? Do you have a veteran’s discount? Do you have a BBB A+ rating? Answering these questions upfront can boost the CTR of your website.
  • Expand your service area. If a competing company says “tree service in Los Angeles,” consider using the phrase “tree service in Los Angeles & More.” This can help your website earn more clicks from nearby cities.
  • Specify your relevant services. “Tree trimming, tree pruning, and tree removal” will earn more clicks than “tree service.”
  • Add contact details in your title tag. While adding a phone number to the title tag can hurt your CTR—because the searchers no longer need to click the link to your website to get the number—it helps you jump straight to the conversion. This tactic can be extremely effective for picking up emergency tree service calls and free estimate calls.
  • Investigate competitors. Do you want to get more clicks for the keyword “tree service Francisco”? Go on Google and search the keyword. Note down the selling points your competitors are using to increase their CTR—this could be free estimates or a free first-time service discount. Also, note down the selling points they are not using. Next, when preparing your website, capitalize on all the areas your competitors are falling short of.

2.     Find a Unique Selling Point You Can Stick With

If you offer the quickest tree trimming services in your city, awesome. If you are the top-reviewed tree service provider in your town, great. If your company has more skills than anyone else, that’s awesome too.

The problem comes in when you try to tell the three stories at the same time. You end up creating what looks like noise to customers interested in the services your company offers.

Instead of trying to use all three selling points, pick one that you are exceptionally good at—and customers care about—and feature it on your company website. The resulting clarity of messaging will help new website visitors understand why they should call your company when they need tree services.

When choosing your selling point, take advantage of the following tips:

  • Check your company reviews to see which words come up often.
  • Check competitor reviews—look for their bad reviews—to see where they consistently fall short.
  • Create a selling point that capitalizes on the words that come up often in your reviews and the areas where your competitors are consistently falling short.
  • Build visuals that complement your company’s main selling point. For example, if your company offers the quickest responses to tree service requests, a stopwatch could create a quick visual metaphor that helps you get the idea across to website visitors.
  • Come up with offers that complement your business’s main selling point. If you are looking for a tree service procedure, you would probably call a tree service provider who offers “same-day tree trimming (or he buys you dinner).”

3.     Ensure Your Website is Mobile Friendly

When people hear the term “custom web design,” they often assume that it is all about making a website look aesthetically appealing. In reality, however, it is more about ensuring the website serves your business.

With more and more people using their smartphones to explore the web, having a mobile-friendly website is extremely vital for any company leveraging the internet to get more customers. A study conducted by Social Media Today determined that more than 52% of online users are less likely to interact with a company if its website is not optimized for use on mobile devices.

You must ensure your website shows nicely on mobile devices just as it does on computers. Ensure the information is easy to find on mobile devices just as it is on a computer screen.

When developing your website, consider working with a team that fully understands responsive web design. Responsive web design helps the website adapt to the screen size of the device being used for viewing.

The website conversion tips outlined below should help you ensure your website is optimized for viewing on mobile devices:

  • Use “tel” links to ensure your contact numbers are click-to-call on all devices.
  • Ensure the critical contact details, such as the company’s office hours, are easy to locate on mobile devices.
  • Avoid hiding pages or content on mobile devices. Ensure your entire website is fully accessible on all types of devices.
  • Instruct your team of web developers to eliminate flash elements. Flash elements no longer work on iPhones.
  • Be extra careful when using popups, animations, and other disruptive elements. These can make it harder or more annoying to use your website on mobile.
  • Ensure all your links are clickable on mobile devices.

4.     Improve Your Website Load Speed

If a new visitor has to spend 10 seconds waiting for your website to finish loading, he/she will decide to find another website that loads faster. Just like that, your company will have lost a potential lead to a competitor.

Page load speed is another vital SEO ranking factor. For this reason, fixing your load speed could help you kill two birds with a single stone.

If you are not sure how to improve your page loading speed, start the process by checking your website on Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool. The free tool should help you identify issues that could slow down your website. The tool will also give you recommendations on how to fix these issues.

Below, we have outlined some tips you can use to improve your website’s loading speed:

  • Scale down your photos. It is not uncommon for photos to have extremely large file sizes. Resizing these images in a program like photoshop before uploading them on your website can help you increase the page load speed.
  • Avoid installing a ton of plugins. Each plugin you install will slow your website down by degrees.
  • Use the Cloudflare CDN. This free service will allow you to create clones of your website with each clone being stored on a different server. Website visitors will automatically load the fastest version of the website.

Working with a team that has enough experience in web development should help you optimize your website for fast loading.

5.     Show Your Expertise with Valuable and Engaging Content

Potential buyers often browse your company website and consume some of your content before calling. For this reason, your website and blog are great opportunities for your company to show it’s an expert in the tree service industry.

One of the most vital website conversion tips, creating high-quality content will help you boost your conversion rate. Below, we have outlined some tips you can use when coming up with content ideas for your business website:

  • If your clients always ask the same questions, ensure these questions are answered on your website. This will show them that you care, which should, in turn, make the sales process much shorter.
  • Ensure you have a page for each service your company offers. Ensure all potential customers have access to the type of content that will interest them depending on the service they need.
  • Have an about page discussing what your company does and who you are.

When creating content, focus on making it easy to read and engaging. Use bullet points, numbered lists, and white space to make the content easy to skim. To make the content engaging, you can:

  • Tell stories
  • Involve the audience with the terms “you” and “your”
  • Use short sentences
  • Use short paragraphs
  • Use words that pack a punch

6.     Use Real Photos to Build Trust

Chances are, you have come across TV commercials and websites using stock photos instead of their own, original images. In some cases, stock photos may work. However, in most cases, stock photos will make you lose business.

In the tree service industry, having too many fake images on your business website can make potential customers lose trust in your company. The website conversion tips below should help you ensure you are using the right photos:

  • Take photos of your team. Customers are not always thrilled to have strangers in their homes. Helping them put a face or two to your tree service company can be a subtle but powerful way of building trust.
  • Take before and after photos. Showing an entire project from the start to the end can tell a powerful story.
  • Take pictures of all your services. This could include tree trimming, tree removal, stump removal, etc.

7.      Collect and Display Real Testimonials

If your tree service company collects handwritten testimonials, takes a picture of them, and uploads them to a page buried deep on your website, you could miss out on a lot of conversions.

To start working on your conversion optimization by taking advantage of testimonials, use the tips outlined below:

  • Add the testimonials to relevant city and service pages. For example, if you get a testimonial from a customer you served in Los Angeles, add that testimonial to your Los Angles page. Similarly, if you receive a testimonial from a tree trimming customer, add the testimonial to your tree trimming page. This should help you break up long pages and will also validate what you are talking about in your content.
  • Create a reviews page. Add a “Reviews” page on your website and put all your testimonials on the page.
  • Link back and forth. Link each testimonial to your Reviews page with a read more button. Also, it may be helpful to link testimonials on the Reviews page back to relevant service or city pages.
  • Share the testimonials on social media. Reviews serve as social proof. When your followers see that you are getting testimonials from real customers, some of them may be inspired to try your services.

8.     Show Off Your Company’s Local Presence

One of the lesser-known website conversion tips involves showing off how local your company is. Below, we have outlined some tips you can use to showcase how local your company is:

  • Include original pictures of your company’s team standing in front of local landmarks.
  • Talk about highly visible jobs your company has handled.
  • Feature local businesses in a different industry from yours. For example, featuring a local coffee shop could show your visitors that you are also interested in the same businesses they use.
  • Support local charities, sponsor a little league team, or use any other method that can help your company show a local association.

9.     Feature Industry Associations

When website visitors see you are associated with popular names in the tree service industry, they are more likely to convert. Below, we have outlined some tips you can use when leveraging industry associations:

  • Use official and most recognizable logo versions.
  • Put the logos close to your contact forms. This will build trust at a very crucial moment.
  • Put the logos in the website’s footer. This will ensure they can be found on any page a customer visits.

10.  Take Advantage of Micro Conversions

Consider this scenario: You knock at someone’s door and say, “Hello, I would like to trim all your trees.”

Do you think this method of selling would work for you? The odds of it working are extremely low.

Immediately pushing for leads and sales can turn visitors off. It is, for this reason, your tree service business should consider taking advantage of micro conversions. Smaller conversions like joining a newsletter are much easier to sell.

Making all your micro-conversions risk-free should increase the number of people who go throw with the micro-conversions. With nice offers, for example, freebies, you should be able to move new website visitors closer to the sale.

11.    Use Specific Call to Actions

A call to action (CTA) tells your website visitors what to do. A CTA instructs the website visitors to perform a specific action. For tree service providers, a CTA could include a button, link, or a contact form.

When creating your CTAs, keep the following tips in mind:

  • Use specific wording. A button saying “click here” won’t provide the same results as a button that says “Get Your Free Estimate Today.” The second button lets the website visitors know what exactly they need to do.
  • Customize the CTAs for different pages. “Get a Free Tree Trimming Estimate” is ideal for a tree trimming page. Using the same CTA on a tree removal page won’t provide a great result. For this reason, customize the CTAs for each page you have on your website.
  • Push for micro-conversions. Instead of forcing the website visitors to take major actions, make them take risk-free micro conversions. For example, offering a free guide on tree maintenance should help you collect their email addresses. You can use these email addresses to maintain a conversation that eventually leads to conversion.
  • Don’t overdo your CTAs. Only put your CTAs where they fit in naturally.

12.  Reduce Conversion Friction

If you are like most tree service providers, you probably want to get as much information as possible about each new lead. However, most website visitors are not going to take the time to fill out long contact forms. What’s more, most new visitors won’t trust you with all their information when they start interacting with your website.

Anything standing between a website visitor and conversion is given the name Friction. Reducing friction will have a massive impact on your website’s conversion rate.

Below, we have outlined some tips you can use to reduce friction:

  • Avoid asking for too much information all at once.
  • Ensure your contact forms are working perfectly on mobile devices.
  • Give your potential customers multiple options to contact your company. Instead of just having a contact form, add a phone number, and even include an email address.
  • Use anti-spam features to reduce spam messages. However, ensure the anti-spam features aren’t too challenging. If the anti-spam features are overly challenging, your potential customers will just leave your website.

Let’s Talk

Let’s start hitting your business goals. Contact us today to speak with one of our digital marketing experts.