It All Starts With Your Website

Nothing can replace your website. It’s the foundation of your business online and the source of the consumable information you want to provide. It’s where you post your blogs, updates, share information such as reviews and news. All of this information needs to live on your website and be updated frequently. We’ll discuss all of the other elements below, but it all starts with having a well designed and comprehensive website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO). It’s been around long enough for all of us to hear about it and get confused about what it is, mainly because it’s always changing. SEO is the process of getting people to visit your website from organic search results, probably from a little thing called Google or Bing. 

SEO involves several elements to have your website and business discoverable online. The top elements are making sure your website is optimized for mobile devices, it uses the right keywords, integrating your social media, and providing verifiable content relevant to your business. 

The biggest mistake people make is not investing enough time (and sometimes money) in SEO, especially if your business is dependent on local searches. Remember how I mentioned above to make sure your website is optimized for mobile? When local searches are performed, there’s a good chance the search is completed from a mobile device.

While we’re on local SEO, have you created or updated your Google My Business profile? This is the main information point where Google may grab all of your relevant information and help tie in your business with your website. The same goes for any other industry directories you can submit or update your information. And when you do update the information all of your name, address, phone number, and website address need to be consistent. 

Email Marketing

Email marketing has definitely evolved over the years. Depending on your industry and audience, the intent and measurement of success will vary. For most businesses, email marketing has shifted to retain brand awareness or to assist with funnel progress. If you’re going to use email marketing as a tactic, make sure you take the time to outline the contents to keep it concise, with a clear call to action, and easy to absorb the information. 

Social Media 

You’re probably aware of the social media options available and chances are you’re on social media each day. But are you leveraging your social media network and working to reach its potential? For social media success, if the platform allows having your profile be a business profile and provide the same business information, including the same naming convention. 

Be sure to engage and initiate conversations on social media, exhibiting your experience, knowledge, and thought leadership in the space. Use social media to post a link to your latest blog to drive traffic and send the SEO signals to search engines. Keep current, while providing verifiable content. If your main audience target is on a certain platform, consider investing in paid social media campaigns to boost your exposure by providing opportunities for more reach. 

The Content

The cornerstone of making your website consistently viable digitally is with the content on your website. The first important piece is the information on the top of your home page. In this area make sure your business name and what you provide are clearly outlined. For more information on how this should be laid out, here is a good reference to help guide you. 

If you have the opportunity, create a page outlining the stop services you provide and the communities you serve. Not only does this allow you to communicate your expertise, but it also allows search engines to “crawl” the information so they know which searches to list your website as a search result. 

Blogging 

Blogging frequently is critical to building a content library on your website, it also creates the signal that your business and your website are still active. Search engines have shown to hesitate to display websites that haven’t been providing consistent and frequent content or frequent and recent traffic visiting the content. 

Bonus points if you vlog! If you do, make sure the title of your video clearly defines what the video is about or what question it may answer, along with the description of the video. Take the vlog embed code and place it into a new blog page on your website and make sure the header describes the vlog and there is also a description of it on the page. 

Paid Digital Advertising and Pay-per-Click (PPC) 

Pay-per-click ads are shown at the top and sometimes the bottom of the search results page. To have your ad appear in this section you’ll need to use Google Ads or Bing Ads to set up your campaign. PPC campaigns are strategically set up along with an ad group within them and keywords you want to target to display your ads. 

There are some DIY tools out there, but for maximum effectiveness and efficiency (so you’re not paying for irrelevant clicks on your ads) it’s best to engage with a paid digital marketing agency or specialist. Do your research and as for referrals, not all are created equally and it’s important to make sure your campaigns are consistently monitored. 

Reviews

Reviews matter, especially when they’re on credible platforms. For example, a review platform may provide you with a single-point review collection strategy while integrating it with your other profiles like Google My Business.

Reviews also provide people researching your business a trust and validation source to help begin the process of a transaction. Integrate these reviews with your website and social media platforms to connect the sources and help provide you with some extra SEO juice. 

Just Do It

This may see like an exhaustive list, but it’s really not. It takes dedication and consistency if you really want to be successful digitally and have your business be competitive or survive in any market. There’s no excuse not to chip away and get of these elements set up because once you do, it will be be easy to maintain you will see the growth.