Moving Your Online Business Forward
Now that you’ve gotten your website started, here are a few ideas to move your business forward, improve your Search Engine Rankings, and in general get more customers and leads through your website.
1. Spread the Word:
“If you build it they will come.” only works in the movies. You have to promote your website both online and offline. You’ve invested a lot into building an amazing website. Now, the most important thing you can do is get as many people going to your new website as possible.
- Utilize your existing marketing channels! Do you send out a monthly newsletter or an email newsletter? Be sure to be promoting your new website. Have new business cards printed with your website on them. Update your brochures. You’re already doing a lot of marketing so be sure to use what you’ve got.
- Socialize on Social Media! Post a screenshot of your beautiful website on your Facebook page. Invite comments on Twitter. Ask people to share your website. And if you have the budget, consider investing in a targeted Facebook Ad.
- Word of Mouth! Word of Mouth Marketing is still the best form of advertising. So build your employee’s pride in their company by showing them the website and encouraging them to tell their friends.
2. Pick a Platform:
- If you’re starting off, don’t try to conquer 5 different social networks. Start by choosing one to solidify and build a solid foundation and following with that one platform. In Hawaii, 3 of the best places to get started depending on your business are: Yelp!, Facebook, and Google.
- Ask for reviews! If you’ve ever done a search for a product or service online, you know the power of reviews. So leverage that power by asking your most loyal clients and customers to give you reviews.
- Pull out testimonials! From those reviews, you can hand pick some gems of testimonials to further promote of your website. This is one form of “social proof” that you want to leverage for your business.
3. Keep it fresh!
After your website has been online for awhile it can begin to feel stale and outdated. We recommend doing some things to keep it fresh. Here are some suggestions:
- Blog! Add articles and content to the website. One of the best things for your Search Engine ranking is always adding new targeted content to your website. This tells Google and Bing that your site is a priority to you and it should be to them as well.
- Update Images. It’s amazing how just adding a new photo to the homepage can really bring a new feel and look to your website. And images can be updated anywhere on your website. If you’re tracking detailed statistics (aka analytics), you will know which of your pages is the most popular. Those are the pages you want to keep up to date.
- Update Content Too. Besides images, content changes too. Statistics can be updated. Perhaps industry standards have changed. You don’t always have to add completely new information to the website, but updating popular content will keep people coming back.
- Keep your NAP up to date! NAP is an affectionate term we use to talk about your Name, Address and Phone number. Basically your business information. Nothing is worse than trying to reach a business that has changed their phone number but neglected to update their website. So, keep your info up to date.
4. Protect Your Website
Over 50% of all web traffic is currently spammers, bots, malware and hackers. If you haven’t already joined with us in protecting your website, we highly, highly recommend it. The fact is that websites are getting hacked left and right these days. And most of the time, for no reason more than a hacker is using an automatic program to find websites with outdated versions of WordPress and plugins that once they hack your site, they can show your visitors their ads for pharmaceutical products and other undesirable items. If your site isn’t protected and secured, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a breach. Our security plan lets you (and us) sleep better at night knowing that your site is protected.