Spring is the time when we think of new life and planting gardens. During Easter and Passover, people are reminded of forgiveness and freedom. All of these emotions help us to forge into the future with greater confidence. As you celebrate the fresh feeling of spring, consider these seven ways to breathe new life into your website. By summertime, you could be enjoying the fruits of your labor.
1. Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
This line is more than a rap song from years ago. It is a reminder to stop for a minute and think about what you’re doing. Often we continue to work on our website and add content without rhyme or reason. Our behavior becomes habitual rather than focused. Take an objective look at your website. Read the content, surf through each page and consider what you like and what you don’t like. Create a list of items you want to improve then make it happen within the next few weeks.
2. What Are Words For?
There have been many Google updates and search engine changes. As a result, people have attacked their website content with fervor. Keywords have been added and removed. Content has been expanded to meet certain minimum word counts. Over time, it can make your content sound forced and convoluted. Make sure your words have meaning. Get rid of excessive keywords and repetitive statements. Clear, streamlined language with an understandable message is your goal.
3. Say Cheese
Does your website have a photo of you or your business venue? Can visitors easily locate your contact information? People want to put a face to the company. Having an updated image of your business sign, venue or simply your face makes a big difference. Include contact information that includes an address, phone number and email address. This makes visitors feel more confident about your legitimacy and can help transform them into paying customers.
4. Get to Know SEO
Search engine optimization has changed radically over the past decade. Using a lot of keywords and trending topics just doesn’t work anymore. In fact, certain black hat SEO tactics can get your site eliminated from certain search engine results. Take time to learn about modern SEO strategies and how to put them to work for your website. There are no quick fixes when it comes to effective SEO. It takes weeks or even months to start to see real results. Patience is essential as well as compelling content that stands the test of time.
5. Call Me
Your web content needs to be more than interesting, informational and interesting to read. While all those qualities are essential, your web content must also direct visitors to do something. The key is to inspire emotion, provide answers or be the solution to a particular problem. Include a distinct call to action to convert visitors into leads. For example, at the end of a blog entry you can ask visitors to share their email addresses to get a free white paper with more info about a certain subject.
6. It’s the Simple Things in Life
For the past couple of years, people have been adding an array of bells and whistles to their websites. From popup ads to complex images to lengthy videos, everyone wanted to have the most detailed website. Unfortunately, these website often drive visitors away. They might take longer to load and people lose patience waiting then surf to the competition. These websites are often difficult to navigate. Keep it simple and make sure your site is navigable to keep visitors coming back for more.
7. Know When To Hold Them and Know When To Fold Them
Small businesses tend to do most of the work in-house. It makes sense for small business owners to save money until they earn more money. However, sometimes it takes spending some money to earn it. If your website is not attracting visitors despite your best efforts, it’s time to do something about it. An SEO professional can help revamp your website design, update your SEO strategies and give your site the exposure you want. Every month your site remains unknown, you are losing potential profits. Know when to pass the torch to someone else to get the job done right.
[box type=”shadow”]Main Takeaway: Spring is a time of new life and hope. This makes it an ideal time to reassess your website and develop updated strategies to make it more lucrative. Evaluate your SEO tactics, current web design and call to action to make sure they are strong. Eliminate excessive add-ons to make your site more navigable and user-friendly.[/box]