Las Vegas has been called Sin City, the city of lights, and the city that everyone seems to have an opinion about. One of the most common perceptions about Las Vegas is that it’s a city full of opportunity for those willing to invest time and money in order to beat the odds. Similarly, business owners, artists, non-profit organizations, and anyone with a dream of owning a website, tend to flock to the internet with the idea of overnight success and dreams of becoming the next AMAZON or Zappos.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to Las Vegas or owned a website, the inevitable truth is they’re accessible 24/7, and if approached with a strategic plan, the payoff could be tremendous. Unlike Vegas though, why would you gamble with your online presence? 92 percent of all transactions happen with an online search. When consumers look for products or services in their area, the question you should be asking yourself is, “How can we make people find our site?” With over a billion websites online currently, and millions of new website being born online each minute, you can’t afford to take the “if you build it they will come” mentality. Here are a couple of key factors you need to focus on to get the most out of your website.
1. Visibility
Commonly known as “web traffic”, visibility is the most important component of your website. In order to implement a strategic plan of any kind, people must be able to find your site when searching using keywords. But Keyon, what are keywords? Keywords are anything entered into a search engine in order to find a product or service. For example, keywords for Willow Marketing might be “Indianapolis Full Service Marketing” or “Indianapolis Marketing”. Optimizing keywords on your website is known as search engine optimization, or “SEO” for short. With a little research, you can easily figure out which keywords apply to your product or service. But, before you start flooding your site with a tsunami of keywords, aka keyword stuffing, understand that search engine algorithms are designed to sniff that out, which could result in your site appearing even further down in results. Rule of thumb, don’t overuse keywords in an effort to drive traffic, use keywords in a strategic, useful fashion that won’t mislead people.
2. Get Social
As you probably already know, social media is everywhere and isn’t going away—so utilize it. Social media is a great way to generate traffic to your site. Again, take some time and formulate a strategic social media strategy for your business. It will take your online visibility efforts a long way. Make sure that you are participating and starting conversations that contribute to your social community. People can sense inauthentic efforts to be engage them. Being authentic in your social engagement and using a more strategic approach can result in huge dividends. The three main social media platforms we recommend are Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
3. Create a Memorable User Experience
The average “bounce rate”, the percentage of single page views on a website, is around 49 percent. Creating a great and interactive user experience will lead users to stay on your site longer, resulting in a lower bounce rate. To do this, ensure that everything important to the user is above the fold and easy to find. Set clear calls-to-action and make navigation easy. Nothing is more frustrating than getting lost on a site and not having a clear way of navigating it. No matter the size of your website, sitemaps are best practice. It will give the user a constant way to navigate through the site effectively.
4. Ensure Your Website is Responsive
Having a responsive site gives users the luxury of viewing your site from an optimized viewpoint. 80 percent of all users surfing the web are doing so from some kind of mobile device. If your site isn’t mobile friendly, it’s likely you’ll lose them to a competitor who provides a better user experience.
5. Provide Relevant, Informative Content to Your Audience
Search engines reward websites for serving useful, information-rich content to its constituents, which in turn draws more organic traffic to your site.
So remember, like Vegas, your website, and its assets, are accessible to the entire world 24 hours a day. Take advantage of the one asset that you can utilize at all times to tell your story. If your primary function is B2B sales and your sales process is complex, take the time to interact and educate your potential buyers on the value of your product or service. A thoughtful and strategic look at your website’s messaging, keywords, social media, and functionality will increase the odds of you hitting the jackpot! Remember, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but happens online follows you for a lifetime.
Don’t gamble with your online presence—contact Dawn Sparks, Director of Business Development, to double down on your web investment, because like Vegas, our lights are always on.
