Preparing Your Website
If you're considering running Google Ads, it's important to prepare your website for the increased traffic that the campaigns bring in. This can help to ensure your Google Ads Campaign has a strong start. Here are 10 tips to get you started:
#1 Have A Goal In Mind For Your Website
Just like how you need a goal for your google ads campaign, you should keep that goal in mind when preparing your website. That goal will help you tackle the items below.
#2 Have A Clear CTA On Your Home Page
Your Call To Action or CTA, should be easy to locate on your website’s home page. A call to action is a phrase or link on a website that encourages the visitor to take an action. It’s usually placed above the fold where it can easily be seen by users.
#3 Make Sure Your Landing Pages Have Your CTA Or A Contact Form
Just like your home page should have a clear CTA, your landing pages/service pages should also have a clear CTA. CTA’s on landing pages can also be in the form of contact forms.
#4 Have Landing Pages In Mind For Your Ads
All your ads within google ads will need to be sent to a page on your website. The page should be as relevant to your ads as possible.
#5 Have A Google Analytics Account Setup
Google Analytics is a free tool that we highly recommend setting up for your website. When connected with Google Ads it will allow you to track all kinds of data to help you improve both your website and your Google Ads campaigns.
#6 Have Google Tag Manager Setup
Google Tag Manager is also a free tool that you can use in conjunction with Google Analytics and Google Ads, to set up conversion tracking so you can track how your google ads campaigns are performing.
#7 Link Your Phone Numbers & Email Addresses For Tracking Purposes
As part of preparing to track conversions for your google ads campaigns, one of the main things you can track is phone clicks and email clicks. Basically tracking every time someone clicks on the phone number on your site and every time someone clicks on your email address on your site. Phone numbers are linked with a “tel:” link, visible when you highlight the phone number in the bottom left of your browser. Email addresses are linked with “mailto:” links, also visible in the bottom left corner of your browser window.
#8 Have Your Contact Information Easy To Find
Don’t hide your contact information! The last thing you want is a customer that has questions getting frustrated and leaving your website because they can’t figure out how to contact you. Have your contact information all on one page easily accessible from the header of your site.
#9 Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Friendly
If your website isn’t mobile-friendly yet, you should make that a priority. Almost 50% of searches on Google are done on mobile devices, so if your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices then you could be missing out on customers who land on your site and are unable to navigate your site or find it very difficult to navigate.
#10 Have Fast Page Load Times
How quickly does your website load? Hopefully, the answer is very fast. If your website takes too long to load you could be losing customers. No one wants to wait for a website to load, they expect it to be almost instant. Google Analytics has several reports you can use to check your page load times.
By following these tips, you will be able to make sure that your website is Google Ads ready.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. We’re always here to help!
