It’s nearly Spring, the days are getting longer and warmer weather is on its way. This time of year we often think about a refresh and renew – so why not think about spring cleaning your website?
There are many good reasons for reviewing your website, mainly to ensure it is working properly for you. When working with my clients there are certain things that come up again and again on a website, that are relatively easy to fix, but can make the world of difference.
1. Ensure you are being found for the right key phrases. You may think you know what your potential customers are typing into search engines to find you, but the chances are they could be typing something entirely different! For example, you sell xyz widgets and your industry knows it as xyz widget, so you have optimised your website pages for that. However, what if your customer is non technical and calls it zyx widget? Google’s Keyword Planner (Adwords account required) is an excellent tool to help you find out what your potential customers are actually searching for, how many searches there are for a given keyword a month, and how competitive that keyword is. Use it often and use it well!
2. Put your keywords in the right places within your website. Once you have researched the keywords you would like to rank for, if they are not in the right places on your website, Google will never know about it. The three most important places to put your keyword or phrase (choose one or two per page), are in the Meta Title, Page URL and H1 Headings. Most website content management systems will allow you to do this yourself – WordPress is very good with the Yoast Plugin. However, if you are not sure, ask your web designer to do it for you.
3. Do you have a clear call to action? Now potential customers are finding your website, and you have convinced them you are the right company to help – are you sure they know what do to next? Don’t lose all your hard work if you don’t have a clear enough call to action. This can be as simple as ensuring your phone number, email address link etc is at the top of the website so it can be seen easily, or a quick enquiry form. It is a good idea to put these ‘above the fold’ which means in a place where the website visitor can see it, without having to scroll or click around to have to find it. This is essential if you are then using your website for Adwords campaigns, and will help increase your quality score.
4. Include your blog posts and social media updates on the home page. These are arguably the most important elements of a website these days and is the easiest way to keep your website up to date. This gives you a big Google tick, helping your rankings in the search engine results pages. It also helps keep your website current and inform your customers easily of what’s happening. Wordpress has some easy to use widgets / plugins that allow you to set this up easily, or ask your web designer to help.
This post is written by Rachel Toy, a freelance content writing specialist based near Aylesbury, Bucks, UK. If you would like to learn more about how effective Content Writing can help your business email me on rachel@racheltoywrites.co.uk