"Outdated website" is the top‑listed pain point for people who contact Yodelpop for marketing and branding help.
Here's what we've heard:
If you're worried about whether your website is set up to attract the right customers for you, this blog will help you.
Below, we outline how to optimize your online presence even if you don't have a budget for a totally new site.
What is the purpose of your website? Which specific goals do you want your website to meet? Think beyond making a good impression, raising brand awareness, or helping people find your office phone number or physical location.
We often talk about making SMART marketing goals:
SMART website goals give you clarity about the results you want to achieve from optimizing your website.
Here are some questions to get your goal‑setting session started:
Be as concrete as possible when you set goals for your newly optimized website.
When you're optimizing your website, it can help to look at other websites for inspiration. Take time to study the web performance of other businesses or organizations that are successfully reaching your ideal clients.
Here's how to do a quick competitor analysis using Yodelpop's free website grader.
The idea is not to copy your peers and competitors. It's to uncover what you can do better. Once you run the analyses, create a list of possible improvements and things your website can do differently (or better) than theirs.
Seventy‑five percent of internet users are in research mode. They probably aren't going to fill out a contact form or pick up the phone to get in touch—yet.
Take a moment to put yourself in your website visitors' shoes.
Of course, not every website visitor is the same. Think about your ideal prospect's decision‑making process, and create content that speaks to them at every stage. The best way to do this is through buyer personas. Creating buyer personas gives you the intel to craft relevant campaigns for engaging and nurturing website visitors.
A sure sign of an outdated website is pages that pack in too much information—often in three columns across the page. Optimized websites have content that is organized to align with your overall marketing strategy.
A few places to start:
A blog is one of the most effective ways to breathe life into your website. It's also a great way to build credibility and retain visitors' interest. Businesses that blog increase web traffic by about 55%.
A blog page can be added without having to make significant changes to the website. Use blogging best practices to write about relevant topics that users will want to read and share.
Long, authoritative pages that solve a specific problem play a key role in attracting traffic to your site. These are called pillar pages, and they're at the center of an effective SEO strategy.
"Pillar pages are comprehensive guides to a particular topic you're trying to rank for in search," writes Sophia Bernazzani in her HubSpot blog. These pages are content‑rich. They contain text, photos, diagrams, infographics, and video embeds.
While a pillar page covers all aspects of the topic on a single page, in‑depth reporting is done in blog posts that hyperlink back to the pillar page. For example, you might write a pillar page about child development during the toddler years—a broad topic—and a blog about healthy sleep habits for two‑year‑olds—a more specific keyword within the topic.
It's great to invest time and resources in optimizing your website. But to get a return on that investment, you need to continually assess what's working and what's not. You also need to be willing to continue changing and optimizing your web pages as you gain more insight.
The only way to tell if your website changes have helped you achieve your goals is to see if and how users behave differently.
There are systems to track
Google Analytics is one easy way to get information on website traffic. To see conversion results, you need all‑in‑one marketing automation software such as HubSpot.
Finally, a successful website must be mobile‑friendly. Websites optimized for mobile allow users to read and scroll through content without any zooming or side‑to‑side movement. The website is built to respond to whether your visitor is using a desktop or mobile device.
Not sure whether your website is mobile‑friendly? It's easy to find out by taking the Google test. Simply type your full website address into the search bar.
Don't let your website gather dust. It's essential to refresh and re‑optimize your website—the digital front door to your business—on a regular basis. True optimization goes beyond aesthetics. By creating a plan that ties closely to your goals and thinking most about who to connect with and how to best engage and nurture them, you can have a website that gets results.