Its Your Biggest Audience – And You’re Probably Ignoring It

By Bill Braun

If you’re like most 12-volt shop owners, you probably have a website. If you’re brave and curious enough to take a peek under the hood of your .com (aka “Google Analytics”), you can open a universe of vital information. Hidden in Google’s bag of tricks, you’ll find information including what websites are actually driving the most traffic to your page.

What do your instincts tell you? Are the biggest drivers of your online success coming from Facebook? TikTok? Maybe Instagram?

Not even close.

On average, less than ten percent of your traffic comes from social media, called “referral traffic.” When they do arrive, a social visitor usually stays about one minute.

So who is the real star of the referral show?  It’s Google. By a lot. Typically, Google search makes up about half of your total traffic, eclipsing your social media referrals by ten times or more.  If you think about it, that answer makes perfect sense when you consider what we use Google and social media for.

Visitors referred through Google will stay on your site three times longer than people who click through from a social media page. Visitors who stem from a search engine also consume over 80 percent more content while on the site, digging deeper for the answers they need. Finding those answers makes them more than twice as likely to convert. This is why the bulk of your sales, email lists, and contacts so often come from search engine traffic.

So, if search engines are the best way to earn business, how do you rank higher than the other guy?

Stop Selling. Start Informing.

How do you get in front of people searching for what you have to sell? The short answer—stop selling. Start informing. Focus on people more and products less. If you are installing a speaker, tell people about that process and what’s important about it, not the gear you are using for the process.

Back in the day, keywords were viewed the most important aspect of any web page. Web designers would go as far as hiding important terms on the page (imagine white words on a white background). Now, Google prioritizes the quality of your content above the number of keywords one might be able stuff onto a web page. Stats such as how many pages a visitor looks at, how long they stay, and how often they return all come into play. This goes beyond spouting specs and sale prices, and has everything to do with how well you answer questions in a way your reader understands. Your answers. Their language.

Your Website is Your Most Influential Salesman

SEO doesn’t stop there. In fact, it goes miles deeper than this, but these tips are a good starting point to get your website into better shape. Don’t forget that your site is by far your most influential and consistent point of contact for the majority of your potential customers, and likely the last step they take before they actually pick up the phone or get directions. It is the ultimate silent salesman. Treat it like that.

Over the coming months (it can take months to see results) pay close attention to your stats in Analytics to gauge what the public thinks of your updates.  Are you seeing your average time on page increase? How about the number of pages per session? Is your bounce rate getting lower?  These are all vital specs to watch.  Over time, you will learn what consumers really care about by monitoring these simple stats. If they don’t “get it”, the numbers will reflect that, be it up or down.

Lastly, I would encourage you to look everywhere before you start writing. You are a consumer like everyone else, so look at websites you think are “doing it right.” Ask your friends. Ask your colleagues.  Ask a stranger. Get opinions. Remember, this isn’t a contest to see who can write the most, or even the best. It’s about defining what you want to communicate and how to best communicate it.

Ask any audiophile, and they’ll tell you the same thing: they are never done tuning their car. Ultimately, your site is the same way. It should never be “done.” It should consistently be in a state of improvement. The most important takeaway is this: watch your RTA, look at Analytics and remember…you’re always tuning.

About the Author

Bill Braun is the owner of Tune Digital Marketing, providing 12-volt clients with online marketing intelligence. His services include analytics, copywriting, social media and advertising strategy. With over 30 years of experience in the audio industry, Bill previously managed four car audio shops and worked in the Field Marketing division for Harman Consumer Group (JBL, Infinity, and Harman Kardon). Bill also worked at Kicker Audio, where he served as the Copywriter and ran the company’s social media. He also provided the marketing department with analytics and paid advertising strategy. To learn more, visit www.tunedm.com

---

Get the news before your competitors do. CEoutlook is the daily brief read by over 6,500 dealers, reps and manufacturers across the mobile electronics industry. Subscribe free.