Three New Year Resolutions

2012 is here and it’s time to decide which marketing activities you should be focusing on this year – a task that can often feel overwhelming!

Your website should form a major part of your marketing plan so to help narrow things down I have three New Year resolutions for you.  Focus on these and you’ll help your website to actively bring you new business opportunities over the next 12 months.  You’ll notice your site will attract more visitors and convert more of your browsers to buyers.

A good website has the potential to act as a full time sales person for your business and the best thing is it doesn’t take tea breaks or holidays!

But the only way you’ll help it reach its full potential is by investing some time and energy.  So here are three areas of your website for you to focus on during 2012.

Resolution 1

Commit to keeping your site updated with fresh, new content regularly.

If you don’t have an easy to use Content Management System consider investing in one this year.  The thought of editing your own site fills some with panic but a good CMS is not overly complicated to use.  In fact the e-Vis CMS is designed to allow you to  edit the text and images on a page in much the same way as you would a word document.

If you really can’t face the thought of doing it yourself then agree a fee or retainer with your web developer and ask them to make the updates for you whenever you send them a new article or offer.

Another option would be to start a blog using www.wordpress.com.  This isn’t as effective as having a blog integrated into your main website but for that design and development fees will apply.  If you fancy just getting started then follow wordpress.com’s simple instructions and you can build a blog which can be easily updated with new articles and tips.  Link to it from your main site and add a link from your blog to your main site too and you can make sure that they interact with and support each other.

Google loves sites which are regularly updated with fresh content and sends its spiders more frequently when it knows it will find something new each time.  Interesting updates keep your prospects and customers engaged too.

Resolution 2

Regularly build links to your site from other sites.

This means finding other related websites, directories, blogs and social media hubs and adding your website address to their pages.  Sometimes you’ll have to pay for the listing in a directory or add a reciprocal link to your own site in exchange for a link from theirs.

You can also get inbound links by writing helpful comments on other people’s blog posts, by speaking with clients, colleagues and friends about giving each other reciprocal links on your sites or by writing articles and posting them on social media bookmarking sites such as Digg and Squidoo and article directories.

Without lots of links to your site from others you will find it very difficult to get your site a free listing on the first page of a search engine’s results so include link building in your monthly marketing plan.

Resolution 3

Use your Most Wanted Keywords and phrases in your site.

Hopefully as a result of reading this blog you will have already done your keyword research using the Google Keyword Selection Tool so you know what your Most Wanted Keywords are 🙂

If not, please spend some time in January finding out exactly which words and phrases potential customers are using in search engines to find businesses like yours.

Without knowing your Most Wanted Keywords or phrases – ie those with the most searches and the least competition – it will be very hard to make sure your site is relevant enough for Google to give you a free listing on page 1.

A good quality website can represent a hefty investment for a small business so make sure that you put that investment to good use and make it work really hard for you next year.

With a little bit of consistent marketing we can make 2012 our most profitable year yet!  I look forward to helping you get the most out of your website and marketing budget.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous 2012!

Best wishes, Anneve x

Anneve runs e-Vis Web Design Surrey a Marketing & Web Consultancy dedicated to helping small businesses promote themselves online.