Don"t Procrastinate, Update: Keys to Updating Your Website With an SEO Point of View
Have an old website that desperately needs a revamp? Is your content older than your office furniture? If you think that the best time to hire an SEO company is after your website is updated, then stop thinking that now.
Here's some keys to updating a website geared for SEO, the only way a website should be designed.
The Agenda Think about your website from a customer's point of view for a second.
Think about what the customer would want to do when they visit your site.
Now think about the goals of your site, what do you want your site to accomplish.
Convert! The best way to define your website as a success or irrelevant is by measuring its conversions.
But first think about what conversions you want your website to perform.
These will vary from site to site.
Write your conversions down and let them be the driving force for the purpose of your website.
A Conversion can be a sale, a contact us form submission, a quote form submission, a phone call, a store locater, etc.
Break The Procrastination Habit Assign yourself and your team deadlines to complete pages on your site.
This is of course a very basic rule, but not always utilized.
If you give yourself a deadline, and hold yourself to it, things will get done when expected.
Without a deadline there would be no real expectations for completion.
Don't Be General This is generally a bad idea.
If your business has many different service, then your website should have a dedicated page for each of your services.
This is an incredibly important step in revamping your website, but it's very often overlooked.
Remember we are directing this update with SEO in mind, so we want all of our services to individually rank at the top of all major search engines.
You can still have a services page, but link out each of your services to its own dedicated page.
I Can't Write! I don't know how many times I've spoke with business owners that say they aren't the writing type.
Most business owners love to talk about their company, but put a pen in their hands and they have no idea what to put on paper.
Many business owners are too busy running their company and that they don't have the time to write content for their own website.
Work with a writer and spend some time with him/her.
Having a close and positive relationship with the person writing your content is very important and it reflects onto the site.
When I write content for a client, I meet them in person if I can, if not, I place plenty of phone calls in which I ask questions not only about the products or services, but also about the history of the company.
I interview the owner and I try to learn as much about the industry as they do.
Of course all the content must be read, reviewed and approved by the owner.
Say it Fast Stop thinking that people have the time or desire to flip through your entire website to find what their looking for.
You have to hand it right to them.
Before you start think about a something to grab a users attention, think about how fast your load time is.
Studies have shown that 32% of users will abandon slow sites between one and five seconds.
Bounce rates can be improved up to 30%, by reducing the page size, thus speeding up your load time.
A single second delay in page load time can result in 11% fewer page views and a 7% in lost conversions.
Now, are you paying closer attention to your load time? User Testing If your not open to criticism, then your in big trouble.
If your the only one that loves your website, then your in even bigger trouble.
The best way to improve the user's experience of your website is to get feedback from them.
Start by asking friends and colleagues.
Don't be afraid to ask people that don't know much about your business, (even young children) sometime they can provide the best objective review.
Then move to a more advanced approach of user feed back and that's A/B Testing.
A/B testing is a method of putting up two versions of a page and getting information about how each one performs.
By doing this you will see which version of your new pages gets more desired actions.
Follow these keys when updating your website and don't get roped into a website heavy on design.
Remember that a tropical island is only appreciated by the people visiting it.
Here's some keys to updating a website geared for SEO, the only way a website should be designed.
The Agenda Think about your website from a customer's point of view for a second.
Think about what the customer would want to do when they visit your site.
Now think about the goals of your site, what do you want your site to accomplish.
Convert! The best way to define your website as a success or irrelevant is by measuring its conversions.
But first think about what conversions you want your website to perform.
These will vary from site to site.
Write your conversions down and let them be the driving force for the purpose of your website.
A Conversion can be a sale, a contact us form submission, a quote form submission, a phone call, a store locater, etc.
Break The Procrastination Habit Assign yourself and your team deadlines to complete pages on your site.
This is of course a very basic rule, but not always utilized.
If you give yourself a deadline, and hold yourself to it, things will get done when expected.
Without a deadline there would be no real expectations for completion.
Don't Be General This is generally a bad idea.
If your business has many different service, then your website should have a dedicated page for each of your services.
This is an incredibly important step in revamping your website, but it's very often overlooked.
Remember we are directing this update with SEO in mind, so we want all of our services to individually rank at the top of all major search engines.
You can still have a services page, but link out each of your services to its own dedicated page.
I Can't Write! I don't know how many times I've spoke with business owners that say they aren't the writing type.
Most business owners love to talk about their company, but put a pen in their hands and they have no idea what to put on paper.
Many business owners are too busy running their company and that they don't have the time to write content for their own website.
Work with a writer and spend some time with him/her.
Having a close and positive relationship with the person writing your content is very important and it reflects onto the site.
When I write content for a client, I meet them in person if I can, if not, I place plenty of phone calls in which I ask questions not only about the products or services, but also about the history of the company.
I interview the owner and I try to learn as much about the industry as they do.
Of course all the content must be read, reviewed and approved by the owner.
Say it Fast Stop thinking that people have the time or desire to flip through your entire website to find what their looking for.
You have to hand it right to them.
Before you start think about a something to grab a users attention, think about how fast your load time is.
Studies have shown that 32% of users will abandon slow sites between one and five seconds.
Bounce rates can be improved up to 30%, by reducing the page size, thus speeding up your load time.
A single second delay in page load time can result in 11% fewer page views and a 7% in lost conversions.
Now, are you paying closer attention to your load time? User Testing If your not open to criticism, then your in big trouble.
If your the only one that loves your website, then your in even bigger trouble.
The best way to improve the user's experience of your website is to get feedback from them.
Start by asking friends and colleagues.
Don't be afraid to ask people that don't know much about your business, (even young children) sometime they can provide the best objective review.
Then move to a more advanced approach of user feed back and that's A/B Testing.
A/B testing is a method of putting up two versions of a page and getting information about how each one performs.
By doing this you will see which version of your new pages gets more desired actions.
Follow these keys when updating your website and don't get roped into a website heavy on design.
Remember that a tropical island is only appreciated by the people visiting it.
