Having a website for your business is extremely important – especially in today’s digital age. For many potential customers, your website is the first impression of your business. So, you want to make sure it represents your brand proudly. How likely are you to trust the credibility of a business if it didn’t have a website? Your answer is probably not likely. Without a website, people may view your business as unprofessional and even untrustworthy. Your website is an important marketing tool for your business, which is why you should never just ‘set it and forget it.
Whether you’re creating a website for your business or making a few updates to your current website, your web developer wants you to know…
1. Your content needs to be longer and more informative.
Despite common belief, the text is a critical component of your website and affects how you rank on search engines when we look at your SEO. You may think ‘oh, no one is going to read this,’ but even if your audience doesn’t, search engines will. If you want a website to rank well in search engines, it’s recommended that you have at least 250-300 words per page. For blogs or articles on your website, it’s best if they hit at least 1000-1500 words. Anything less than that, Google will register the page as not being as helpful as it could be, and therefore it will rank lower. Don’t think of adding extra copy to your website as a hassle. Think of it as a great opportunity for you to build a stronger connection with your audience. It’s more space for you to convince people why they should choose your business, product, or services over your competitors. The more information you provide your customer, the fewer questions they will have. This will help customers build more confidence around your expertise as well. If you need assistance writing informative and engaging content for your website, we can help you out with that.
2. You need to invest in creating original images or providing original images for your website.
You are probably aware that visuals are vital for websites. Why? Because people are visual beings. However, stock images can only take you so far. Using too many stock photos can hurt your rankings just a little. It’s good to invest in your own, original images so people can feel more of a connection with your business, and so you have more original content on your site for search engines to rank. Not to say stock images are useless, but they don’t truly ‘show’ what your business is or what your brand represents. The more transparent and original your website is, the more trust you can build with your audience. If you need help with graphic design for your website or creating a logo for your business, we can help you there too.
3. Just because someone can build a website, doesn’t mean they know a stitch about SEO.
It’s true that almost anyone can build a website. Especially with GoDaddy website builders and one-click setup type templates. With programs such as WordPress or WIX, creating a website can be done in a few simple steps. However, just because someone can create a website, doesn’t mean they understand how SEO works, what Google’s best practices are for building a website that performs well or how to convert website visitors into customers. Building a website is one thing, but SEO is a whole other ballgame. Even the most beautifully designed websites can rank lower. Why? you may ask… Well, there are a number of reasons.
Designing a website can be fun, but if you don’t understand the technical side of SEO, you could be doing more harm to your website than good. Take images for example. Let’s say you’ve got some great, big, beautiful images on your homepage – but did you resize them before putting them on your website? Large image files can slow down the loading time of your website for users. Maybe a few seconds doesn’t seem like a lot, but if your page takes over 3 seconds to load, 53% of mobile users will abandon your website. Anything over 5-7 seconds, you’ve lost your customer. So, while those original images look great, you’re taking away from your user’s experience. If the loading time takes too long and people are likely to abandon your website, it will start to impact your SEO ranking. The less useful and accessible your website is, the lower you will rank.
It doesn’t just end with load times though. Everything on your site from alt text for your images (this is the code that tells Google bots who don’t have eyes what the image is of) to the word count on a specific page of your website can impact your ranking. Google wants to provide its users with the most relevant and accessible information as quickly as possible. To learn more about what you’re missing from your SEO strategy or on your website and to perform an SEO audit, check this out for more information.
4. You need to invest time in updating your website frequently.
When budgeting for your marketing, you should invest some budget or time into reviewing your SEO at least quarterly, if not on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. Like we said earlier, don’t just ‘set it and forget it’. Your website needs to be updated more than just once every few years. Why? Because search engines are updating at a much more frequent rate than that. Google is constantly changing. It’s updating algorithms every day to provide users the most relevant information to their search query. This means you need to keep your site relevant by updating it at least a few times a year looking at the overall content. Adding helpful information like a weekly blog post can help you climb and maintain your standing on search engines if you’re taking the time to optimize your site with each post you make. By doing this, it will save you the hassle of needing to overhaul your website every few years because it’s so out of date. Whether you’re a start-up business looking to have a website developed, or your current website needs a few updates or a total overhaul, work with someone who understands what it takes to truly make your website great. At 3SIXTY Marketing Solutions, we have the right team for the job. We’ve got everything you need for your website under one roof. From talented graphic designers to engaging and informative content writers, and expert web developers. We’ll craft and code your website so that it’s well-optimized with an SEO strategy from the get-go to bring it all together. If this sounds like the website development package you’ve been hunting for, give us a call at 705-252-4180, and let’s get started.
