Essential business tips from Quartz Marketing
These days especially I will sit down with a new potential client and they will ask the question:
“How much does it cost to make a website that will be #1 on Google?”
If it was as simple as pressing a few buttons, wouldn’t everyone do it? Then of course you couldn’t be #1 if everyone was pressing the same buttons! Website ranking is not a simple thing, it is a combination of content, website structure, how often you update your site, how many people link to your site, and how popular it is (among other things). The good news is that if you follow the following steps you will be well on your way to improving your search engine ranking and seeing results quickly. And we are of course here to help if you get stuck.
The following guidelines will help improve your search engine rankings, your overall website usability, and eventually be your winning website strategy:
- Provide USEFUL information on your website that ENGAGES your website visitors! Think about the things that you know or provide that are most helpful and describe them. Think about what you do that is better than your competition and write about it. If there is some great new technology that you offer, highlight it! Create a “Newsflash” or “Breaking News” article to promote these kinds of things.
- Make an offer that is hard to refuse! Most likely you can offer a discounted rate for a product or service you provide in order to show a new client how great and easy you are to work with. From there of course they are going to rely on you in the future. Think of a coupon they can print even or if they mention your website when they call in give them 10% off. We all love a good deal right? So why not make a call to action on your website? You can probably think of a few things to offer right off the top of your head.
- Tell your website visitors what to do! You are the expert in your field so if someone comes to your website to learn about your business they are counting on your expertise to guide them. In a professional and helpful way explain and guide your visitors to the areas of your website that you want them to go. This might be directing them to your current promotions, news & events, sale products, your contact information, or whatever you feel is most important based on the nature of your business.
- Convey a sense of trust. This is a big one and something we feel is most important if you are trying to sell anything on your website. Would you input your credit card information into a website that did not look professionally made? Probably not. With fears of identity theft and other scams, website shoppers need to know that your website is SECURE and that if they order a product that they will receive it on time and will be what they expect. This is your opportunity to let people know through content and images that they can trust you and that you will deliver. Testimonials are great, as with having FAQs, return policies, and shipping information visible.
- Be consistent with your wording and design style. People like to visit websites that are easy to read and navigate with colours that are easy on the eyes. Stay away from big fonts and bright colours in your text. Only use a few fonts at most. Look at other websites that are successful for an example of how you might want to write content and structure things. Think about what your website visitors might be thinking when they visit your website, and then of course, don’t do anything that might annoy them. That is a usability no-no.
- Ask your website visitors for their feedback! This is an interactive way to get free input on your website, how it IS working and how it can be improved. It’s like a “Suggestion Box” that is quick and easy for people to fill out and have it go to you directly. We suggest a web form with just a couple of fields. You’d be surprised what people really think about your website (“it was too hard to find the contact page or your phone number”) or what they like about your website the most (“it is so easy to use”).
- Have a strategy to keep your website content up to date! This could be as basic as taking 30 minutes from each week to write a news update, a blog entry, or just making sure your website is up-to-date with its content. Content is KING as far as we see it. Good content will be found on Google, and the best content to write about is what you do that is unique. If you offer the very best beef from the best cattle ranches of Southern Africa then you need to talk about that and why it is the best and how to buy it. If your website is a free online classified portal then you probably want to highlight news, events, and top listings that people search for and buy the most frequently. Our clients often get stuck and think that what they do is boring and no one would want to read about their business. This is never the case, we assure you! Talk about the coolest new technologies you might be using, how you can save people money, time, resources, or make their lives easier. How you can improve the lives of your customers! You can even talk about what new projects and clients you are working with (and don’t forget to link to their sites and ask them to link back to yours if relevant).
In truth a large number of our clients have the very best intentions to do each of these things but they end up getting too busy WORKING (which is good right?) so they let us handle the website updates for them. This works out well for all parties involved because we can just give them a routine call, interview them on some things they might want updated with the website, and our team is running with the changes and the site is updated quickly and the search engines take notice. Quartz Marketing offers quality content creation services and more, give us a call or fill out our online request form for more information.
