4 Hidden Dangers of Sending Traffic Off Your Website

Flooring businesses often have good intentions when showcasing their products online, but the results can sometimes be disastrous.

We’ve learned a lot building websites for 4,000+ flooring dealers, but the #1 thing we’ve learned is you MUST have a product catalog on your website.

Product catalogs provide:

• Increases engagement
• Increases leads
• Increases your customers’ experience, allowing you to command higher profits 

This page is one of the most important on your website and where most flooring business make costly errors.

Why?

Because it's where shoppers start their buying journey.

So, what's the issue?

Over the years, we've seen countless flooring websites create a "products" page and simply paste a manufacturer's logo and link off to the supplier's website.

This is the most dangerous mistake that could seriously harm your business.

By doing this, you're:

• Giving leads to your competitors, resulting in lower margins. 
• Losing business that you’ve already earned.
• Decreasing your leads.
• Decreasing your SEO and organic google rankings.

Let’s dive in.

🚨 Danger #1 - Give leads to your competitors, resulting in lower margins.

Let's be blunt. When you link directly to a manufacturer's website, you're literally directing shoppers away from your business.

All your hard work and advertising dollars to get them to your website go to waste. 

It's like catching a fish, releasing it, and trusting it will find its way back to you.

Even worse, you're tossing away your leads to the competition.

How?

• A shopper clicks on a manufacturer link and leaves your website
• They find great floors and go to the dealer locator on the manufacturer's website
• Now, they see all the other businesses who carry their products

Not good. You've sent a shopper off your website and introduced them to the competition.

But it gets worse...

• The shopper will likely forget they found the product through you
• Your business might be completely missing from the manufacturer's dealer locator
• A competitor could be more conveniently located for the shopper
• You've now opened the door to a price war with local competitors that could erode your profits.

Alternatively, you could feature a product catalog on your website and never think about these risks again.

🚨 Danger #2 - You Lose Business You’ve Already Earned

Sending a shopper away from your website risks losing them altogether. 

Shoppers today have extremely short attention spans and are easily distracted.

Here's a typical scenario:

• A potential customer discovers your business online through a targeted Google Search ad or engaging Facebook post.
• Eager to explore your flooring options, they navigate to your product catalog page.
• To their disappointment, they find no product catalog, only a list of manufacturer logos with links to their websites.
• This crucial misstep sends an interested shopper away, potentially into the arms of your competitors.

You've guided an engaged shopper off your website with no way to bring them back from the manufacturer's website.

🚨 Danger #3 - Decrease your leads

Not having a product catalog on your website makes the floor buying process unnecessarily difficult.

We live in a digital world and consumers expect to see a catalog of products on your website that you carry.

💡 Imagine shopping for products without seeing them 💡

• Would you buy shoes on Nike without seeing the styles or sizes?
• Would you shop for furniture on Ikea without seeing the specs and materials?
• Would you purchase paint on Sherwin Williams' website without seeing the colors?

I don't know about you but I don't know the differences between Dorain Gray, Repose Gray & Web Gray paint colors?

Consumers expect the same level of convenience and information when purchasing flooring.

They want to see the brands, collections, and colors with an easy way to filter/search thorough them so they can easily find the the perfect floor.

Bonus points: your product catalog has a visualizer that lets shoppers see your floors in their room (our product catalog has this). 

🚨 Danger #4 - Decrease your SEO and organic google rankings

Linking to manufacturer websites signals to Google that your website lacks essential consumer information and can harm your flooring business.

This increases your bounce rate, harms your SEO rankings, and means less free leads from Google.

Great SEO and a high organic google ranking are extremely difficult to achieve and very easy to destroy.

While listing manufacturers and suppliers on your website sounds like a smart decision, the impact can be catastrophic for your business.

If you don't know what to do or you aren't working with a professional, you should speak with an knowledgable expert who understands websites specific to the flooring industry.

Where To Go From Here

A website without a product catalog that links to a manufacturers website can be disastrous for your flooring business.

In fact, I would argue it's better to not have a product catalog vs. having a page that links to those websites.

A product catalog with a visualizer and online sample ordering will make a big impact on your flooring business.

At minimum, a product catalog will boost your leads and reduce the non-stop stream of time-consuming calls from shoppers asking about your available brands, products, and colors.

We have 4,000 retailers who use Broadlume to build beautiful websites that include product catalogs with built-in visualizers, online sample ordering, filters, and product description pages.

We would love to show you how we can help you take your flooring business to the next level. 

Take the next step:

• Website Checklist: Explore our detailed breakdown for how to increase leads and sales with a product catalog - Read Checklist Here
• Get started: Sign up for a free personalized consultation with our experts to see how a product catalog can boost your profits - Sign Up Here