Did you miss this week's #MagnetMarketers session on what your website needs to have to become great? No worries, we got you covered. Here’s what we discussed, featuring Jessika Phillips and Mike Gingerich.
No matter how big or how small your website is there are a couple of things you must have in order to have it grow.
In today’s world, one of the best ways to have a great website that draws people in is some sort of news blog or resource center. We’ve talked before about content really does matter on your website, and for good reason. Search engines are now specifically looking at what kind of content you have. This means your website can’t be like a brochure, it has to answer questions and be a great resource for your potential leads. Content is the first thing you should think of when beginning your website.
This naturally leads us to search engine optimization or SEO. Because you want people to be able to find your website and it’s content, your website has to be optimized to be found when people are searching. What Google, Bing, and people are looking for is valuable content and the way they are trying to find information has changed. Instead of searching for single keywords, people are using long-tailed descriptive searches. Your content should be helpful for questions potential leads may be asking.
Think of it as giving your leads the solution to their problems, quickly and easily. They want to be able to trust you and giving them answers will help build that relationship.
The next thing you want to have is some sort of opportunity to follow-up. So, they’ve found your webpage, or the solution they were looking for, now you need to have some way for them to continue to receive information. Your blog gets them to your site, but you want to continue that connection. Start with a simple sign-up for an RSS feed, then move to lead nurturing with emails. Use something like iContact or MailChimp.
You want to build them from a visitor to a lead, all the way to a marketing qualified lead and, eventually, a sales qualified lead!
Next, you have to make sure you are mobile responsive! Last April Google started to weigh against sites who weren’t responsive, and in the summer Bing followed suit. Now, in terms of traffic, websites are showing 50 percent mobile traffic. That’s a huge number! If you are having mobile users visit your site, the last thing you want to do is to give them a bad experience. Mobile is the future and is quickly overtaking desktop.
You also have to have some sort of reporting tools, so you can know what people are clicking on. If you don’t you’re missing out on so much information! That is, what people are looking for and gravitating towards, and where they are coming from. Especially important is the bounce rate, which tells you how long they are spending on your site, what they are looking at, and if they are actually reading your content. That’s why it’s so important to incorporate tools like Google analytics.
Another important element to add is social sharing tools and links to keep everyone connected to you. This is another way to continue building that relationship with your leads. Add icons and let them know what social media platforms you have a presence on.
Also, consider your design. A common mistake is to add in too much clutter with too many elements. Think of what are your most important items. How can your design get them to key areas of information on your webpage?
Make sure you don’t overwhelm with too much content. Guide your visitors through it, consider leading them through pages, enticing them with new information.
Remember, nearly 80 percent of the sales cycle is over before a potential buyer has even talked to a sales representative. What information do you want people to have before they talk to a sales representative?
Join us on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. EST for #MagnetMarketers
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