Generation Y-ers, or millennials, grew up alongside the internet. It was a novelty in their youth...
Websites. They’re the new storefronts and the first page of search engines like Google is the modern high street. Slowing traffic, a high number of sessions but not many conversions and your site not being optimised for mobile are all sign your website is dying. You can’t afford to have a bad website that lets you down.
Give your website the best chance to grow your business by tackling these key pitfalls.
- Improve your SEO
- Get on Google
- Start a blog
- Use video
- Helping hand: increase site speed
- Outsource: a new website
Improve your SEO
If you know what SEO entails, then this first suggestion probably scares you a little bit. We get it.
SEO has a reputation for being difficult or highly technical, but improving your SEO can be as easy as following some simple steps and strategies.
The truth is, without good SEO, all of our other tips and tricks won’t mean very much as people won’t be able to even find your website. Optimising your website for search engines allows it to show up on the first page of search engine results, driving traffic.
75% of search engine users never scroll past the first page of results and 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Ignoring SEO is a surefire way to set your website up for failure.
You don’t have to be a Google whisperer, metadata Jedi or have a black belt in backlinking to up your SEO game. All you need to do is:
- Make sure your web pages all have good quality content, including your sector’s keywords
- Back up your copy with relevant links to good quality pages on your website and other websites
- Give your page a meta title and description (this one isn’t as scary as it sounds)
Get on Google
Have you ever searched for a business to find out their opening times or address and became frustrated when Google doesn’t pull through relevant information?
The mechanism that allows businesses to upload and update that type of information is called Google My Business and it’s something a lot of businesses surprisingly overlook.
Google My Business is vital for companies like yours for lots of reasons. It allows people to find your contact details, opening times, see reviews of your business, plan their route to you via Google Maps and most importantly, find your website.
Not only does Google My Business help people find out about your business when they search for it but it also means you’re more likely to be suggested when they search for terms related to your business.
For example, a pizza shop in Clitheroe, England, that doesn’t have a Google My Business account is less likely to appear in Google’s top three recommendations when a user in Clitheroe searches for ‘pizza shops near me’. However, other local pizza shops or takeaways with a Google My Business will likely make it into this top three list.
Google curates its top three lists by vetting businesses based on relevance, distance and prominence. The more you keep your Google My Business information up to date and your website sharp, the better your chances of featuring in the list.
Start a blog
Blogs are great for attracting visitors to your page, helping you rank on Google’s front page, boosting SEO and providing value to your visitors.
Creating a blog on your website can be easily done through your hosting platform in most cases.
We use HubSpot. It's a great platform for hosting your site and creating your own blog. The most difficult part of starting a blog is knowing what to talk about. Finding ideas is as easy as seeing what your competitors are doing and doing it better.
You can also use Google Trends or question websites like Quora to see what’s most commonly asked using your keywords and services.
Adding a blog takes no time at all and if you’re DIYing your blog in-house and have some concerns then, don’t worry. Your first few pieces of content don’t have to be Oscar Wilde-level literary triumphs.
Most beginner bloggers think the key thing about creating blogs is to create good quality, relevant content that includes lots of good backlinks and keywords. While these are good starting points, creating a successful blog takes more research, knowledge and finesse than many first-timers might think.
Your best bet at achieving blogging success is to get the help of professional content marketers who'll work with strategists to form your own personal inbound specialists team.
Your inbound blogging team will find the best topics to write about and craft the highest quality content to attract visitors to your site and give them a reason to stay.
Use video
Video has been a hot topic in the marketing and web development world for a good few years now. The truth is videos aren’t the magic fix for everything that some industry experts say they are: but they’re very close to being.
Adding videos to your website has many benefits. From boosting your SEO to helping you secure a snippet ranking, videos are great for trying to reach the top of the page of search engines.
Videos also allow you to communicate with and relay information to your visitors in a different way. Written content is important, but video is more effective in helping viewers retain your messaging. This format is also the most popular type of media on social platforms, showing how much internet users prefer video.
Helping hand: increase site speed
If you want to increase the speed your site runs at, it’s more than likely you’ll need a helping hand from an SEO and website specialist. Increasing your site speed is vital in improving your website’s user experience (UX) and traffic.
- 47% of users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less
- 40% of users won’t wait more than three seconds for a web page to load before leaving the site
- 52% of online shoppers report that quick page loading is key to their site loyalty
- 79% of online shoppers are less likely to buy from a site again after a dissatisfying visit
The best quick fixes include compressing images, getting rid of unnecessary plugins and enabling caching and lazy loading to increase your site speed. To the inexperienced or not-quite tech-savvy, this task can feel like a big undertaking.
There are plenty of places you can go to get help in enacting this fix, including digital agencies. These changes won’t take long for someone with more experience and confidence to enact and can help your site rank better and see more visitors.
The SEO experts who help you will be able to audit your site and determine exactly what needs to change to improve your site speed. This will save you the time and effort of figuring out how to do it yourself and ensure it’s done right.
Outsource: a new website
So, your website isn’t helping you generate the leads you want, it’s not giving your customers the experience they need and you’ve decided to start again with a fresh, slick new site.
While this isn’t a ‘quick win’ like our suggestions before, it's one of the best ways to improve your website marketing strategy and start to see real web-driven business results.
If you have a short window, a launchpad site may be the best option for you. Launchpad sites can be built quickly and create a foundation to continuously improve and build the rest of your website on, as part of a Growth-Driven Design strategy.
This solution provides a quick-win that's also supported by a proven strategy. It all revolves around auditing what your website visitors are doing on your website and then launching the most impactful web pages first.
You can then continue to improve your website meaning it's never finished and it only gets better.
The advantages of starting over and building a new website are endless. With a new site, you can build in all of the key functions and details you’ll need to improve your UX, SEO, mobile optimisation and more, leading to more conversions.
There's a lot to consider when creating a new website and a lot you need to pack into the site. Your best option is to leave your site in the hands of web design and development experts with the knowledge and experience to help you reach your website goals.
A specialist team can help you create a site that perfectly conveys your brand’s look, feel and tone while crafting a great user experience that shows visitors why you’re the superior choice over your competitors.
It also means you get a lot of valuable time back. Win-win.
Wanting a new website shows you’re ready to take your business to the next level. So long as you execute your new website project correctly, this website marketing strategy will pay off for you and help you smash your goals.
Your website is one of your most important marketing tools and it's essential to keep it updated - your competition probably is.
Staying ahead of the competition is a big marketing goal for most businesses. Whatever your marketing goals for this year, make sure you reach them with the help of our simple guide.
The web won’t know what’s hit it
If you're worried about not seeing the results of all the effort you put in for your new website, then our brand-new website playbook is for you. It's packed with 20 valuable plays all designed to help you get the most out of your new website.
The playbook features quick and easy-to-swipe plays to help take your website up a level. Don't miss out - check out the playbook below to gain the insights today.