5 Tips To A Killer Business Website

Ryan Rudolph • January 18, 2016

Gain Trust By Displaying Personality

The days of cheesy, boring, generic stock photos are far behind us. Is your website essentially a portfolio of stock images surrounded by text? Don’t fall into the same mistake many of your competitors may. Customers want to know who they’re working with. By using real photos of your facility and staff, you remove a barrier of uncertainty and suspicion that most potential customers uphold before making a decision with their wallet.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s always a place for stock photos. Overusing them, however, can lead to your brand making a negative impression. Visitors will ponder questions such as:

  • Is their staff not shown because they outsource?
  • Is their facility not shown because they’re working out of their mom’s basement?

Don’t allow customers to come up with their own conclusions about your business.

Potential clients are actively searching for the story behind the faces and people that make up your business. GetPhound’s Meet The Team page was visited twice as much as any other page on their website! Leave a warm, welcoming impression and instill trust, you won’t regret it.

Find The Right Balance Of Creativity

The web is made up of thousands of identical sites that have little to no distinguishing features aside from some of the content. These are called templates, and although they are an easy way to get a site up and running, your brand will be lost in a sea of goldfish. Give your website a distinct look and customers will remember you from among the others.

But don’t go overboard; everyone wants their website to stand out, but tread the wrong path and it can spiral into disaster. When donning your creative-thinking cap, make sure you stay patient and take a strategic approach. Avoiding basic design principles never ends well. If you’re using Comic Sans, stop. If bright colors make up more than 10% of your website, stop. It’s important that creative aspects never compromise the accessibility and readability of your website.

Convey A High Level Of Professionalism

Follow the guidelines above to keep your website clean and professional. Giving site visitors too many choices will overwhelm them. By limiting options in different places such as the navigation, you can direct users to exactly where you want them to go.

Have you ever heard of the phrase “less is more”? Many web designers take a minimalistic approach when building websites. Some of the most successful websites on the internet are minimal, needsupply.com being a prime example. Having too many elements on a website is distracting and leaves no clear path for users.

Keep Visitors Engaged — Not Distracted

In a perfect world, your website visitors go straight to your contact form and inquire about your services. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in most scenarios. Users want to explore and make an informed decision before they make a commitment. Call-to-actions are a great way to draw attention and compel users to commit a specific action on your site. One of the most successful call-to-actions is the offering of a free piece of content in exchange for an email address. This is an efficient, cost-effective way to gain more leads. If the call-to-action is too overbearing or obtrusive, it can stand in the way of the customer’s original goal. Even the smallest amount of frustration can result in a lost opportunity. Keep things simple; you don’t want to stray from the creative, professional site you’re aiming for.

Tell A Story Through Relevant Content

Some business owners make the mistake of building the perfect website for themselves and neglecting their audience’s agenda. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Figure out what experience would make the most sense for them. What are they looking for? How do they expect to find it? Make sure your website addresses these questions.

Usability is the founding principle successful businesses like Amazon and Google invest thousands of hours researching. Caring about their customers keeps their website traffic and sales through the roof.

If you can predict how your audience thinks, you can steer them along a linear path. Place relevant content in practical locations where they expect it, leading up to the ultimate goal: capturing them as a lead.

Does Your Website Accomplish These Tasks?

Through the use of personality, creativity, professionalism, engagement, and relevance, you can craft a highly successful website that brings you business.

The post 5 Tips To A Killer Business Website appeared first on GetPhound.

By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
Conversion tracking in Google Ads is the backbone of profitable and transparent digital marketing campaigns. It empowers businesses to measure which of their ad clicks lead to meaningful outcomes such as purchases, sign-ups, and phone calls. Without conversion tracking, campaigns operate in the dark: marketers might spend thousands without understanding the impact, missing the vital data needed to continuously improve results. For service providers like GetPhound , harnessing conversion tracking can directly link SEO and PPC work to tangible growth, proving ROI to clients with confidence. 1. What Is Conversion Tracking in Google Ads? Conversion tracking is a Google Ads feature that monitors the actions users take after interacting with ads. A conversion might be a sale, form submission, phone call, app download, or another valuable event on a website. Every business defines conversions differently—what counts as success for an online retailer (e.g., purchase) may differ from a B2B consultant (e.g., contact form fill). Conversion tracking unlocks several benefits: ROI Measurement: Directly map ad spend to real outcomes, not just clicks or impressions. Optimization Power: Automated bidding can maximize conversions or value. Audience Insights: Understand where and how users convert, improving future targeting. Common conversion types include: Website actions (purchases, form submissions) Phone calls from ads or site App installs or in-app activity Offline conversions (e.g., in-store sales updated through imports) These insights allow for data-driven business decisions, ensuring that marketing dollars go further and strategies continuously improve. 2. Why Is Conversion Tracking Crucial for Your Campaigns? At its core, conversion tracking is about clarity and confidence. For a business aiming to prove the value of marketing spend, knowing which keywords, ads, and landing pages turn visitors into customers is invaluable. Consider these critical advantages: Pinpointing Profitable Keywords: Track which search queries actually drive sales or leads. Budget Efficiency: Stop wasting spend on non-performing campaigns. Better Reporting: Move past “vanity metrics” (like impressions or clicks) and focus on what drives business growth. Automated Bidding: Google’s AI excels when fed accurate conversion data—Smart Bidding uses real outcomes to spend budgets more efficiently. Incremental Growth: Identify untapped audiences and convert more customers by optimizing towards high-performing segments. Ultimately, conversion tracking separates guesswork from growth: it puts the facts behind every campaign decision. 3. Pre-Setup: Defining Your Conversion Goals Before logging into Google Ads, it’s critical to define what counts as a conversion. Not all actions are created equal. Only meaningful events—purchases, qualified leads , bookings—should be tracked as primary conversions. Lesser goals (such as newsletter signup, scroll depth) can be set up as secondary conversions to inform supporting optimization but should not be the main KPIs. Key questions for defining conversion goals: What user actions directly impact business growth? Which pages signal that a user has converted (e.g., “Thank You” page)? Should all conversions be valued equally (e.g., leads vs. sales)? Segment conversions into two categories: Macro-conversions: Final business goals (purchases, appointments). Micro-conversions: Steps along the funnel (newsletter signups, view important pages). Document these goals clearly. This foundation ensures your tracking measures what matters most and prevents noise or data distortions down the line. 4. Creating a Conversion Action in Google Ads The heart of tracking begins here: conversion actions are defined in your Google Ads dashboard. Each action tells Google what to track, how to value it, and how frequently count it: Steps to create a conversion action: Log in to Google Ads. Click the “Tools & Settings” (wrench icon) at the top right. Under “Measurement,” select “Conversions.” Click the blue “+ New conversion action.” Select your conversion source (Website, App, Phone Calls, Import). For most, choose Website and proceed to enter the site’s domain for a quick scan. Give the conversion a recognizable name (e.g., “Lead Form Submission”). Choose category (e.g., Submit Lead Form, Purchase, Book Appointment). Set up: Value (fixed, dynamic, or leave blank) Count (All or One: “Every” for ecommerce, “One” for lead gen) Attribution model (e.g., data-driven, last click) Save and continue. Each configuration choice has an impact on how your data will appear and how Google’s automation will learn. Clarity in naming and categorization is vital, especially when tracking multiple goals. 5. Installing the Google Ads Conversion Tag After creating a conversion action, Google provides a unique snippet of code: the conversion tag. This snippet must be placed on your website’s conversion confirmation page(s). Correct installation ensures successful data capture. Manual Tag Installation: Copy the code provided by Google. Paste this into the section of the page where conversions occur (usually a “Thank You” or order confirmation page). For dynamic transaction values (e.g., ecommerce), ensure the value variable is passed to the tag. Publish and save changes. Using a CMS (such as WordPress): Use your theme editor or popular plugins (e.g., Insert Headers and Footers) to insert the tag. A misstep here can break reporting or cause duplicate counting. Always test the tag using Google’s “Tag Assistant” Chrome extension or Google’s own Tag Verification tools after publishing. 6. Leveraging Google Tag Manager for Easy Tracking Google Tag Manager (GTM) simplifies conversion tracking—especially for those managing multiple tags or not comfortable editing website code directly. Advantages: Central management of all tags (Google Ads, Analytics, Facebook, etc.) Less risk when updating tracking (no direct code edits) Flexibility in setting advanced triggers (e.g., fire tags only on specific pages or user actions) Setting up with GTM: In Google Ads, choose “Use Google Tag Manager” when presented the option after creating a conversion action. Note the Conversion ID and Conversion Label provided by Google Ads. In GTM, go to Tags → New → Tag Configuration → Google Ads Conversion Tracking. Paste the Conversion ID and Label. Set up the Trigger: typically, this fires on a page view of your confirmation/thank-you URL. Save and publish changes. Always test with Preview Mode and the Tag Assistant to ensure correct firing. Migrating to GTM also enables more advanced tracking (like button clicks or dynamic values) without repeatedly requesting developer resources. 7. Testing and Troubleshooting Your Conversion Tracking Tracking isn’t “set and forget.” Frequent errors include code placed in the wrong location, tags firing on non-conversion pages, or double counting conversions. Testing Routine: Complete a conversion on your site as if you were a user. Check conversion status in Google Ads (conversion status typically appears within a few hours). Use the Google Tag Assistant or Browser Developer Tools to confirm the tag fires on the right page. For GTM users, leverage Preview Mode to simulate and debug firing conditions. If conversions aren’t recording: Confirm the correct tag ID and label are used. Recheck trigger conditions. Ensure that no ad-blockers or browser settings are interfering. For dynamic values (e.g., ecommerce), check that the correct variable or data layer value is passed to the tag. Thorough testing is crucial for reliable data and ongoing optimization. 8. Understanding Attribution Models in Google Ads Attribution models determine how Google credits conversions to different campaigns, keywords, or touchpoints. Main models include: Last Click: Credits the last ad click. First Click: Credits the first interaction. Linear: Equal credit to all clicks. Time Decay: More credit the closer the click was to conversion. Position-Based: 40% to first and last, 20% split among others. Data-Driven: Uses Google’s insights to assign credit based on observed behaviors. Choosing an attribution model affects reported performance and bidding decisions. For most advertisers, Data-Driven Attribution (if available) offers the most actionable insights. Switching models is possible—but always note that historical data may look different under a new model. 9. Using Offline Conversion Tracking Not all conversions happen online. Businesses with offline touchpoints (e.g., store visits, phone closes, in-person sales) can still credit Google Ads for conversions. How offline tracking works: Customers click your ad, submit info, and later purchase offline. Upload offline conversion events to Google Ads with identifiers (e.g., GCLID—Google Click Identifier). Google matches these events to the original ad interaction. Gain a fuller picture of ad impact—including leads and sales that happen in-person or by phone. This is vital for companies in sectors like real estate, high-value consulting, or automotive sales. Accurate offline tracking requires careful sales process documentation and reliable data export/import routines. 10. Common Mistakes and Pro Tips for Google Ads Conversion Tracking Frequent pitfalls include: Tracking low-value actions: Avoid marking trivial actions (like page views) as primary conversions. Double counting conversions: Watch out for importing the same event from different sources (e.g., GA4 + manual tag). Incorrect trigger setup: Tags firing too early, too late, or on the wrong URL. Failure to test: Launching campaigns with unverified tracking. No clear naming conventions: Making it hard to report or optimize against results. Pro tips: Document every conversion action and reason for tracking it. Regularly review conversion data for anomalies (sudden drops or spikes). Pair conversion tracking with detailed audience segments for deeper insights. Periodically revisit attribution models and conversion windows as customer journeys evolve. Setting up conversion tracking in Google Ads is essential for any business aiming to maximize digital marketing ROI. The process—defining meaningful goals, creating accurate conversion actions, installing and verifying tags, and leveraging advanced tools like Google Tag Manager—transforms Google Ads from a “black box” into a measurable, optimized engine for real growth. For agencies and clients alike, conversion tracking is more than a technical step. It is the foundation of transparent reporting, confident decision-making, and sustained performance improvement. By following these comprehensive best practices, businesses can ensure every digital dollar works harder—and every result is truly measurable. For businesses ready to take the next step, services like GetPhound can help implement and optimize conversion tracking to ensure every Google Ads campaign is built for measurable impact and lasting results.
By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 15, 2025
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By Ross Cohen September 9, 2025
Having an online presence isn’t just a luxury for small businesses; it’s a necessity..