In the digital world a website is like a shop window, it is there to entice and build relationships with new and recurring customers.
If websites are static, difficult to navigate, don’t give the viewer the right information or unpleasing to the eye it will drive potential customers away. If the website is informative, engaging, easy to navigate and visually pleasing there is a higher chance that viewer will become a potential customer and drive sales. Having a well optimised website will ensure that you continue to draw in customers, increase website SEO and improve online presence. But what steps need to be taken? How can a website become the driving force for a business? Whether you are an apprentice looking to build your skills, or an employer wanting to understand more about website development; read on to find out more.
Market Research
Competitors
Market research is one of the best tools you can have in your arsenal, especially when it comes to website development. One of the first steps to take when developing a website is to research competitors’; what are they doing right to be successful? Are there any elements they use that will also benefit you? But be careful! It can be very easy to just copy their ideas, so see if there is a way to make it more unique and tailored to your company’s brand.
Target Audience
If you don’t have a target audience then you won’t be able to take customers on a unique experience. Understanding your audience is vital to ensuring that your website will entice the right people and increase revenue. For example, if your website is selling make-up and skincare yet keeps attracting football fans, then you’re not targeting the right audience. Age is also an important aspect as this will ensure that the information, tone and overall look of your website continues to attract your target audience.
Keywords and Phrases
To ensure that you are attracting the right customers you need to be using the right keywords and phrases. These will be different depending on the area of expertise your website is showing. Keywords for a business who sell furniture is going to be vastly different for a business selling package holidays. To see what keywords and phrases will be right for you, here are tools which will help you to collect this information:
Once the right keywords have been collected, you can then see which will help to increase your website SEO ranking.
Industry Research
The goal for your website is to be the one that everyone will turn too; whether it is in regard to advice and guidance or building clientele. Researching into new practices within your area of business will show the reader that you are always in the know. People are always looking for the next best thing, so if you can showcase new and leading information your customer reach will continue to expand.
Website Development
Create a sitemap
Navigation and structure work hand in hand when developing a website. If pages on the site are hard to find or confuse the viewer then you will lose potential customers. A great way to see how your website can be user friendly is to create a sitemap. A sitemap is a plan that helps you visualise where each page should be found. From here you will be able to see the customers journey, what fits in where and how it will improve navigation. So when it comes time to developing or creating your website, you will know where to start.
Page Builders
Whether it is yourself who builds and updates, in-house digital marketing team or marketing agency, using the best page builders will ensure that your website is always professional and clean. Some of the best page builders for website development include:
You do need to pay to use pages builders, so do your research to see which one will be the most beneficial for you.
Produce engaging content
The content that you produce and promote on your website will either help you rank high on search engines or sit at the bottom of the pile. Here is where all of your research comes into play and help to increase your rank on search engines. A fantastic way to keep your website updated and ranking high is to upload regular blogs. They need to be informative and give the reader what they searched for, otherwise you won’t attract the right audience. The more active and engaging content you produce, the more people you can drive to your website.
Meta Descriptions
Before clicking on a link through a search engine, there is a snippet of information giving an insight into what the page or website is about; this is known as a meta description. You need to make sure that the snippet is correct for that page, otherwise it will either deter visitors or increase the exit rate. Creating meta descriptions is another chance to add keywords and phrases to boost your websites SEO. You will be able to write and add meta descriptions for your pages via page builders.
Continue to update your website
You’ve built your website, written informative and engaging content, placed everything you need to grab the audience’s attention and made it live. It’s easy to think that you are done and leave it there, but website maintenance is an ongoing task. If you don’t update on a regular basis it will become stagnant and no longer be a go to website; Google will decrease your rankings and you will no longer be an industry leader. You don’t need to make drastic changes every time, it can just be minor changes such as improving grammar, adding pages or uploading new blogs.
Promotion
Social Media
The next important aspect to ensuring customers find your website is to promote. There are a number of ways to do this and one of the most effective ways is via social media. Free to use and easily accessible by billions, social media is one of the leading ways to attract attention. You can use multiple platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and many more. For ease you can use applications such as Hootsuite, HubSpot or Buffer to plan and upload posts simultaneously.
PPC – Pay Per Click
Pay per click (or PPC for short) is the act of promoting your website on search engines, social media, display advertising and more. When you complete a search on Google and see Ad next to the link, they have participated in PPC. PPC is the act of paying a fee every time someone clicks on the link. Which is a way of buying visits instead of waiting for potential customers to find it organically.
Email Marketing
You may already have a number of clients signed up to an emailing list, so why not inform them on your new website? Once they have had a look there is a possibility that they will pass this onto one of their contacts and help to organically grow your client list. Word of mouth can be one the most powerful way to promote any business, so cease every moment you can get.
Online Directories
It may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but online directories are a great way to get the word out about your website. There are so many to choose from and it’s a great way to target more local or specific areas.
Analytics
To know if all of your practices are working you need to look at analytics. This is where you will truly see if all your hard work pays off. There are so many tools and software’s out there to use, that it can be hard to know where to start. Some of the most trusted and used are:
Here you can collate and evaluate all of the data including how visitors came to the website, demographics, most visited pages etc. If you are looking to see what works and what needs improving, it is good to give yourself a time frame (e.g. 6 weeks). Here you will get an understanding of how to improve your website, SEO, email marketing and so much more.
Conclusion
Increasing website SEO is a job all in itself, with a many number of steps needed to ensure that it is as strong as possible. In the end, it will all be worth it as this will become a way for new customers to find your business. There is continuous room for growth and expansion in the digital age and having an industry leading website is the best way to do so. To find out more about digital marketing practices you can read more blogs here.
How 360 Apprenticeships can help
Whether you are looking to an an apprentice or start your apprenticeship journey, 360 Apprenticeships can help. We provide a free service from first point of contact to the successful placement of each apprentice. Every apprentice who is successful will only be placed with the best training providers (Graded 1 and/or 2 by Ofsted) so you know that everyone is in safe hands.
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