INBOUND ACCELERATOR

The importance of high-quality website content is hard to underestimate.

As was noted in the latest survey report on website strategy released by JONES and our partner HubSpot:

“In the end, (a website’s) goal must be to provide users with the information they want, when and where they need it.”

Well before the world moved even more online than it had ever been before as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, marketing decision-makers globally acknowledged the need for their websites to keep up with changes and consumer needs.

Content is everywhere, and your own marketing strategy is filled with content, from the top of the funnel to the bottom. If you track the performance of your own content, even just through occasional observation of the metrics, you will likely see that some content languishes, virtually unseen.

Are you planning a new website for a new brand, or among the more than half of marketers surveyed recently by HubSpot who said they were planning to upgrade their website in the coming year?

When it comes to the distribution channels marketers use, social media, email, events and all others take a back seat to websites. More marketers use websites than any other channel.

We’ve all run into it at some point: a broken link. Maybe you were following a trail of backlinks to try to get the origin of some statistic (I’ve traced many back trying to find out just how outdated a social media or digital marketing stat might be — you’d be amazed at how long some things continue to circulate!). Or maybe you discovered an error on your own website that explained why some pages weren’t getting the traffic you thought they should.

Either way, a 404 error is more than just irritating. For your website, it could mean serious damage to your reputation and performance, as Spiralytics oulines in this infographic.

Is 2020 the year your company refreshes its online look with an updated website? Or launches a new brand or branding that means building a new site from scratch?

Here are the design trends you’ll want to keep in mind to build an effective website that not only looks great, but performs from the first click.

Between the growth of hands-free use of mobile devices and the explosion home “digital assistants” like the Amazon Echo, voice searches are rapidly becoming the norm rather than the exception.

But these types of searches require web pros and marketers to take a new approach to optimizing their pages, though some of the tips included in this infographic from Headway Capital apply equally to all types of search, including search engines’ preference for pages with fast loading time and searchers’ preference for results that provide easy-to-read information.

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?