There are many marketing activities we unfortunately can’t do right now, so why not focus on one of the most important ways you can reach your target audience: your website. Now is a smart time to invest in freshening up your site. Start by sweeping through your site and auditing all the items that need to be enhanced or updated. Below are eight pro tips to help fresh your site using best practices you can immediately implement to gain ground in the search engine race:
1. Update your copy: It’s not all about you. You need to help others and see things from their perspective. Role reverse and re-read all of your website’s copy. Then ask yourself: “Why are people looking for my product / service, and how can I easily solve their problem?” Write to that need and speak about solving that issue.
2. Listen + respond: Ask your past and present customers what works for them and what makes them come back to you. Gain this intel and put it directly to use in every step of the customer journey. What’s a customer journey? Learn more here.
3. Testing 1, 2, 3: Tara Robertson of Sprout Social said, “Don’t just make the change, test the variation.” You have to look at previous data on a regular basis to make the most efficient change to your website that benefits your consumer.
4. Think mobile: Mobile has surpassed desktop in web usage. You should be thinking about how your website functions and looks on both mobile and desktop. It’s not just enough to be responsive; you must consider the design and user experience (UX) for both.
5. Video. You need it: George Thomas of The Sales Lion stated: “To stay relevant to your audience, you’re going to have to create video content, create it soon and create a lot of it.” We couldn’t have said it better.
6. Don’t neglect your blog: More often than not, your blog is people’s first impression of your business. It brings organic traffic to your website and helps keep it there. Don’t place anything other than your blog post on a page to avoid distracting your audience.
7. Say it, don’t just show it: Crawlers can’t read images so pay attention to your image “alt text”, which should contain keywords that relate to the content surrounding it. Another tip is to always name your image files with text related to the content before uploading them.
8. Don’t take UX for granted: The user experience (UX) must be made as easy as possible to navigate and locate information on your site. Ask someone who has never used your website to take the buyer’s journey; you’ll begin to understand just why UX is critical to your site’s success. To better understand UX, I recommend Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. It’s a classic and a great introduction to the user’s mode of thinking.
These eight tips are a fantastic start, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. If you are looking to get your website up-to-speed or wish to discuss any of the above tips in further detail, give us call at 203-776-1323. We’re here to help!
— Amy
