If you want to create a website that is strategically smart AND helps you get better search engine (Google) rankings, we have come up with 10 things you should do to make your website a success.
This list is a blend of overriding principles for site creation and best practices for SEO. Use it for a site refresh, or site creation.
Many B2B companies don’t do much ongoing marketing, beyond the start-up package, making individual pieces often done separately. We often have clients approach us initially for a branding package or website, then a year later they decide to participate in a tradeshow and call us for a booth and something to hand out.
For some items done separately means time and different suppliers. The risk may very well be marketing tools that are inconsistent and/or function in isolation from each other. What’s the danger of this? Ineffective marketing that isn’t worth the money invested in it, that may also devalue all other existing pieces.
The first challenge: seeing each as part of a wholeUnderstanding that all your marketing tools (every point of contact) work together to pull your prospects deeper into your sales funnel and ultimately lead them to a sale, is half the battle. It takes multiple points of contact to make a sale. They include human contact, business cards, referrals, advertising, email campaigns, your LinkedIn profile, etc., etc. Many people rely on the website to make the sale, to entice that call to book an appointment, but how do they get there in the first place? What other pieces of your marketing have they come in contact with on the way? When B2Bs examine their Google Analytics, they’ll see the most traffic is direct or searches for their name, as opposed to a random Google search for your services. This means they must have heard about you another way.
As a prospect works their way through all your points of contact, think of it as a path. All main points are connected, any major changes need to be sign-posted and it should lead to a destination.
Think of their experience when going from one point to the next on this path. The first thing they saw or heard will establish an expectation, a relation to your brand. When they move on to the next thing, is it consistent? Does it carry on the same colours and design elements, the same message? Breaks in consistency can range from merely less effective results to confusing enough to halt prospects in their tracks.
Are they compelled to move forward on to the next thing? Do they have more than one option? For example, they go to your website but aren’t ready to buy, can they sign up for a newsletter?
Are you wasting money on marketing?There are two sides to this – you could literally waste money on an ineffective campaign, or just not get as good an ROI as you would like. If you consider each item as part of a whole when doing all at once, but especially if there have been time lapses, you can make small adjustments or enhancements that make not only that piece work better and increase it’s ROI, but also the thing it connects to, and what that connects to as well. Swag (like pens and mugs with your logo) are much more useful with a URL on it. If you do some sort of promotion to drive people to your website, do they see something related to that promotion when they get there?
Someone asked us how a company should go about developing their website strategy – from participating in social media or does the updated/new website lead to the social media participation? How do we integrate the two successfully?
My answer is first: offline marketing questions are still important when developing a website strategy:
• What do we want to accomplish with this site?
• What is our position in the marketplace?
• Who are my ideal clients?
• What do they want from a website, what is imp
ortant to them?
• What can I build in to make it useful and engaging?
• Where else are they spending time (coffee shops or on Facebook)?
How are your ideal clients using social media? We have a client who was gung-ho to start a Facebook fan page but when we researched this by literally asking her clients (specific demographic), we discovered they are not using Facebook.
Website strategy shouldn’t develop solely from social media participation, but the core of it has had a very positive influence on “Web 3.0″ sites in the way it fosters building communities based on common interests, generously sharing information and creating two-way dialogue with custom
ers.
Gone are the days of closely guarding your secrets and being all about ME. Now are the days of being open and giving away information to create communities of enthusiastic supporters. No more broadcasting, but creating discussions and having two way conversations with the public.
All companies can integrate this idea through creating interesting and meaningful elements in their website – whether built right in like a blog or polls, or making use of Twitter and Facebook.
In fact, Google recently changed the way they rank websites to be heavily swayed by social relevancy. They want to see a blog, a conversion form, a Twitter account related to the company, etc.
Add useful and interactive devices to your website. Include activities people can participate in, use blogs, forums, polls. Use dynamic content to keep it fresh, pulling in information that’s useful to ideal visitors. Become the site to go to for info in your industry. Add multi-media like recorded teleseminars, webinars and videos.
Use outside platforms and communities. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel within your own site when tools like MailChimp and dynamic Google maps works fantastically. Actively participate in existing communities like LinkedIn and the like, where the eyeballs already are, instead of trying to build your own version. Include links to follow you on these on your website. Use YouTube and FlickR to host your videos and photos. Add ‘social share’ buttons where appropriate to make it easy for people to share your brilliance.
Developing your website strategy and then managing your participation in social media should be part of your overall marketing plan and budget. Many think of social media as free or low cost, but it’s often time-consuming. Think of how often you blog, how much time you spend on LinkedIn, etc. If you incorporate elements right into your website, you should commit to keeping it up-to-date or there’s no point. Create a plan around it, like regular blog posts, checking all the dynamic links are still working properly, etc.
Remember, above all that websites and social media participation should be a carefully considered part of your brand.
