INBOUND ACCELERATOR

When it is time to build, or rebuild, your company’s website, the options can seem difficult to weigh, from completely outsourcing all stages of development and maintenance, to creating it yourself with a free do-it-yourself website builder, and everything in between.

When was the last time you visited your business website and really paid attention to what you find there? Have you looked at it, not with the eyes of a seasoned team member who breezes through it every day for a few essential links, but with the eyes of a first-time visitor seeking information about either your products and services, your employment opportunities, or just advice on a topic you’ve covered in your business blog and website content?

If you had to give it a grade, how would it score?

No matter how large or how small your business is, your online reputation matters. It isn’t enough to simply create a website or a couple of social media accounts and post periodically (though you should be doing those things). You need to actively analyze and manage what is said about your business on multiple platforms.

Nearly all consumers and B2B purchase decision makers turn to the web to research products and services before making a buying decision. That means your social media accounts and your website are essential in establishing a connection.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to turn visitors and potential customers into leads because you haven’t presented them with offers where they can easily find them.

Whether you are writing a business blog post, an email, or the content for your standard website pages (the home page, “About Us,” product pages, FAQs, and more), first impressions matter, and the quality of your content is one of the four elements that make an instant impact.

Your blog posts and website content must be on-message, educational, valuable and well-written.

Creating a successful business website requires blending together elements that touch on all aspects of marketing, design and public relations. It requires a multi-faceted approach that takes in the big picture while also focusing on the little details.

I’ve talked recently about using conversion rates to pinpoint your most effective inbound marketing elements — which offers, landing pages and blog posts most consistently generate new online leads — so let’s continue geeking out about metrics and numbers for just a bit. While I love the creative process of developing marketing strategies and campaign materials, I also love seeing the results in cold, hard data.

When was the last time you took a close look at your business website? Last week? Last month? Or maybe when you first had it created, what was it now? 6 years ago?

Most small businesses will never be competitive with the giants when it comes to generic searches. Brands like Brooks and Nike, or major online retailers like Zappos and Running Warehouse, are going to come out on nearly any search for “running shoes,” with the local sporting goods store down the street struggling to hit the first page.

But when potential customers include a local geographic reference in their search, the small business has a chance to rise to the top, if they have paid attention to their on-page SEO.

With Google’s search algorithms increasingly weighting page rankings toward factors like user signals, such as time on site or pages visited, and authority from backlinks, rather than simply keyword placement, it is important to consider how to earn backlinks to your website and its content.