How much time (and money) do you spend on SEO for your website?<\/p>\n
It might surprise you to hear me say this, but chances are it\u2019s too much. Sure, SEO still matters, but if you aren\u2019t paying attention to other aspects of running a great website you are losing visitors (aka, potential customers) every day. And even the best optimization in the world won\u2019t fix that.<\/p>\n
So what should you be paying attention to other than SEO?<\/p>\n
Relevant, engaging, interesting content on your site is critical. Every person that logs onto a search engine is seeking an answer to a question. They want to land on a page that answers the question\u2013not the page that\u2019s stuffed with keywords but the one that has\u00a0actual<\/i>\u00a0information. Search engines will always prioritize sites with good content that answer the question asked.<\/p>\n
In addition to useful information, there\u2019s fresh content, which often takes the form of a blog. If you\u2019re struggling to find topics to blog about, try thinking like your customers. What questions do you get asked the most? What conversations do you frequently have with customers? Where in the decision-making process do you think your customer is when they\u2019re arriving at your website? Answer questions like these and you\u2019ll start to have a nice pile of content to develop.<\/p>\n
Say a potential customer is searching for something relevant to your business. Thanks to the great content on your site, you turn up in the results. But say they were searching from their phone\u2014and your site \u201cdoesn\u2019t do mobile.\u201d Menus look funky, images stretch for hundreds of pixels on end, and weird background stuff shows. Your site, in reality, isn\u2019t usable\u2014and there goes the customer. With regard to this example, you\u2019ll want to make sure your site is usable on a variety of devices (study up on responsive design), but usability goes beyond that.<\/p>\n
Think of your website as a digital representation of your store. Someone sees your signage and walks in to find a front desk (your homepage!). Then they browse the inventory (a products and services page!). Then they ask you a question (a contact page!). Think about how your customer \u201cflows\u201d through your business and apply that research to your web presence. That\u2019s usability.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re generating solid content and have addressed usability, what\u2019s next? Distribution, specifically, social distribution. The world is now sharing things on social media \u2014 and folks are not just sharing cat photos. No, they\u2019re sharing information that is useful to their communities, such as that great blog post they saw on your site.<\/p>\n