Each new year brings new possibilities for a company’s online presence. In order to remain competitive online, you have to be willing to find new ways to get more people to your website. This means that you might have to step outside of your comfort zone when it comes to the SEO strategy that you’ve employed in the past.
As you move into 2018, your SEO focus needs to shift slightly from keyword concerns and more toward providing a positive user experience. Here are some tips to help you get started with improvements that can significantly boost your online brand in the new year:
Provide Useful Information
Each page of your website needs to have information that your readers want. You can’t count on just throwing up a few basic facts. You need statistics, guides and deep information. Ideally, each page of your website will have at least 2,000 words of quality content, according to Entrepreneur.
The goal of having this content on your website is to showcase that you are knowledgeable in your field. You have to take the time to figure out how to get visitors to come back to your website. The more visitors return, the more likely they are to turn to you when they need to make a purchase or use the services you provide.
One important note here is that grammar, presentation and citations matter. A page that is riddled with errors isn’t going to show that you are a trustworthy source. A page that doesn’t have links to high-level sources isn’t going to be viewed as credible.
Keep the User Experience Easy and Engaging
A slow website is one thing that can turn people away from your website. You can’t think about only the computer users who will access the pages. You need to think about the people who are on mobile devices. There are many ways that you can improve the user experience and keep people engaged. Here are a few to consider:
- Don’t use a lot of pop-ups.
- Choose high-quality graphics that aren’t cumbersome.
- Provide a search for the website.
- Offer easy navigation tools like tabs or menu options.
It is a good idea to include videos or other rich media, but these should be provided in a way that is meaningful to the viewer. People don’t want to have to wait on several videos to load on a page when they are trying to find information. You might even consider offering pages specifically for the rich media. Even using strategic linking for YouTube videos or video pages on your website can keep visitors engaged.
Include Influencers in Your Strategy
If possible, use influencers to boost your brand. This might provide enough of a conversion rate boost that you don’t need to include any ads on your website any longer. You can also consider using social media posts with affiliate links as a replacement for having ads on your website. The influencer can handle this and you can add some from your own social media pages. Influencers can also review your products or services on their own websites and blogs, which can also generate traffic.
As a bonus, the social media presence pointing to your company’s website can help to boost your brand. It increases the inbound link score, which further increases the reputability, authority, and placement of your website’s deeper pages. All of this can come together to help improve your website’s performance and search engine placement.
Because SEO and online brand reputation are such fickle aspects of marketing, it is always best to work with an expert in the field. This can help you to maximize the return on investment for your online presence and marketing budget.
