So, You Have a Website- Now What?
You’ve gotten a website for your business. Amazing! You’ve checked the box, it’s done! But is it? Having a website for your business is an important first step, but you’re not done yet. Having a website is great, but there are some important steps you need to take to ensure your website stays at the top of search results online. What can you do to stay at the top? Keep reading to find out!
Update Your Website
Web content is like breathing, you have to keep doing it to stay alive. It’s important to update your website on a frequent basis. Google tends to rank sites higher if they’re being updated or expanded on a regular basis. Blogging or consistently developing new articles related to your products or services is how you signal that you’re alive and responsive to customer needs. How do you do this? There are several ways! One is blogging- but only if you plan to do so consistently. A dead blog is well past its expiration date sends a very strong signal that you’re disengaged from your business or customers. Another way to update you site is by adding pictures, videos, or connecting your social media to the homepage of your website. Again, do this only if you’re going to post consistently.
Set Up Google Analytics For your Site
Google Analytics tracks customer behavior online, allowing you to see what pages are getting the most views, what keywords are being used-allowing you to target customers, visitor “bounce rates” (the percentage of site views that were only one page), and more. Just as a good business owner uses customer data to figure out what products are most popular, how advertising dollars can best be used, building a successful site requires making decisions based upon visitor data.
Optimize Your Content For Search Engines
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is essential to your site’s success, especially if you don’t want to pay for digital advertising. A great start is to begin incorporating keywords into your page titles, headers, URLs, image alt text, and meta descriptions. You may also want to make sure your web host isn’t slowing you down. Find a reliable web host to improve your page load speeds and get more organic search traffic.
If You Haven’t Already, Start Using Social Media
Social Media is a free tool you should be using to promote your services, and in turn will help your web presence. Once you figure out which social media is most popular with your target audience, you can start using that particular site to promote to them. For instance gardeners might prefer Pinterest, while Party Planners mat prefer Instagram. It’s important to know where your customers spend their time online.
Monitor Your Site’s Progress
It’s Important to monitor your sites performance regularly, we’d suggest daily. Google Analytics will tell you whether or people are still finding your site. Watch out for sudden dips or spikes in web traffic because it could mean something on your site isn’t tracking properly.
On a weekly or monthly basis, compare your website’s performance to the previous week or month. Look at how are people getting to your site, which pages are they landing on and through which pages are they exiting. You can use this information to improve your site. If they’re coming to your site through Twitter, start a Twitter Account to bring in more twitter traffic. If they are entering through you Home Page and then exiting, take a look at your home page. Is it difficult to navigate? Has it been a long time since it was updated?Keeping tabs on your progress will help you improve your site and keep it relevant to your audience.
