We all know that having a web presence can be immensely useful for the vast majority of businesses, but it is exactly this diversity of roles and functions that a quality website can have that makes it hard to assess its current level utility. There is just too much to handle, especially if you are still trying to tie together the bits and pieces of different aspects of online marketing.
Companies that have no experience with working in the online environment are going to have a hard time prioritizing things, and this will make the effectiveness of their online presence fade in comparison of what their website could be on the same budget. Let’s see what you need to focus on when creating your website in order to make it work for you, not just be a static investment that is all show but no gain.
Customer centric design
Ok, let’s get something straight, a website is not a work of art. Sure, it can be, but first and foremost, it is a tool for both your company and your customers. There is a purpose behind the website, and you need to respect that when designing its layout, looks, functionalities and navigation. I have landed on plenty of beautiful websites that I bounced away from because I couldn’t be bothered to learn how to use them. The intuitiveness of the design achieved through customer focused design process is something that is crucial for any business website.
Website speed
Another big issues when it comes to its functionality is the speed at which it responds. These days, everyone has a decent broadband, but if your website is “too heavy” to handle or has some design or hosting issues that make it run as fast as an average snail, you are going to lose most of your fans, customers, users, whatever you choose to call your traffic.
SEO
Search engine optimization has both been dead and the most important thing in the online marketing. Still, the truth about its importance is somewhere in between these two absolutes. You can’t survive without it, but you definitely don’t need to invest everything you got into SEO. Keeping to the general guidelines proposed by the top SEO specialists and the search engines themselves can help with your blogging efforts and ranking efforts quite a bit. White hat all the way is the only sensible option for any respectable website.
Blog & guest posting
A blog is no longer just a plus, it is a necessity. Almost all the aspects of online marketing depend directly on having quality content. Social media thrives on content, and so does native marketing, and the best way to engage your fan base is through content. Having an active blog gives you the conversational material which can help you market yourself naturally. This is the web, and here you can actually have a conversation with thousands of people all at once, which makes blogging the best way to engage them. You can do this through other blogs or through guest posting, and create an image of a niche expert through these efforts. These are all tremendously important things which need to be done just right. You can’t be overly aggressive by linking direct landing page anchor texts that are mechanical calls-to-action and reek of bot-like behaviour. Don’t turn yourself into a spam machine, but attempt to promote yourself through content, and clarify the concept of anchor text to each person responsible for it. You need to start up a conversation normally instead of going “Hey you! Go do this! Now!”.
Social Media
Once you get the previous things down, you can focus on bringing people to your website and promoting yourself. You need content to make your every social network profile into a living place where things happen, not a desolated thing where nobody ever bothers to go. The social media in both PPC and natural form are important pieces of the puzzle for your website’s life.
This isn’t something you do all at once from the first time you appear. You do it slowly, with constant smaller investments. The web is a scalable marketing environment, and you need to build it up gradually and patiently. Being informed is crucial, and you need to be aware how things change. Even if you invest large sums of money into online marketing, you are still not going to get any results if you do it badly.