WSI Web Science Blog

Think about everything you do from an advertising perspective. Think about what your competition is doing. Think about advertisements that you see for any business. Don’t the majority of them refer people to the company website?

It doesn’t matter if it is offline or online advertisement:

• TV commercials, radio spots, newspaper ads, direct mail, yellow page listings, billboards, business cards, and brochures
• Search engine optimization, paid search, Google maps, banner ads, blogs, email, social media, press releases, and videos

In most advertising campaigns they all have links or should have links to your company’s website.

A huge percentage of consumers go to company websites before making a buying decision. Your website needs to be easy to find and once found it needs to represent your business well. Placing your website URL in all of your advertising media is a best practice for driving qualified traffic to your website and improving the overall effectiveness of your entire marketing campaign. But does your website represent your business well or does it turn people away?

If your website is the hub of your advertising spend it needs to be worthy of being the center of attention.

• Is it designed to represent your business visually?
• Does it enhance your reputation? 
• Is it easy to navigate so your prospects and clients can easily find what they are looking for? 
• Is the content compelling enough to drive calls to action? 
• Is it designed to convert visitors into leads and customers?

Not having your website URL in all of your ads will certainly hurt the effectiveness of your overall marketing mix. However, if you can’t honestly answer yes to all of the questions above your website is not worthy of being the center of your advertising universe. In fact, it can negatively impact your return on investment for your entire marketing budget.