Every small business needs a strong website marketing strategy.

The Internet has drastically changed the way that most businesses build and promote their brands as more and more consumers are engaging with brands online before making a purchase. According to Business Insider, 40% of consumers are heading to the search engines to get more information as they make their purchasing decisions. This should come as no surprise given that Google gets over 100 billion searches each month.

What does this mean for your business? If you don’t already have an integrated website marketing strategy in place that includes an effective website and SEO strategy, then you may be missing out on valuable opportunities to reach and engage your leads online.

Or maybe your website isn’t fit to handle the strategy you do have in place. Check out your website’s performance with our free website analysis now. It only takes a few seconds that could save you a lot of money.

Below, we’ve created a step-by-step guide to creating an effective website marketing strategy for your business. By following the process below, you’ll be on your way to developing an integrated digital marketing strategy for attracting, engaging, and converting more leads over time.

Step 1: Conduct a website analysis.

The first step to creating an effective website marketing strategy is to audit your current website. By conducting a website analysis of your current site design and content, you can better understand what you’re doing well and where there may be opportunities for improvement.

When it comes to site design, you will want to consider the user experience. Your website should be easy to read and navigate. Review your navigation bar and site map to ensure that visitors can easily find and access the pages they are looking for. Make sure that font sizes and colors are easy to read and all images can be viewed, especially from smaller device screens. And before you go live with your new website design, test it out first on all devices. Also, check your website’s pages using different browsers. You can’t expect everyone to use Chrome browser just because you do. Try it out and see if it delivers the same functionalities across all browsers. You see, aside from the content, user experience is one of the key factors for ranking on search engines.

When analyzing your site, you should also look at load times. Slow load times will not only impact the user experience but can also hurt you when it comes to SEO. To reduce load times, make sure that any images or video that you use on your site is condensed so it does not impact the time it takes for each page to load.

Another thing to look for during your website analysis is whether your site is mobile responsive. Mobile-friendly websites are no longer optional for businesses that want to remain competitive in the digital marketplace. In fact, Business Insider reports that mobile continues to drive the most sales growth for businesses. Yet only 60% of the top 100 global retailers have a site that is mobile responsive. Not only does a mobile responsive design help improve the mobile device user’s experience on your site, but it can also have an impact on your SEO.

In addition to analyzing your website design, it’s also imperative that you look at your site content. What pages do you currently have on the site? Do you give the user enough information to move forward in the purchasing process? Review your written content to ensure that it provides enough information for visitors to understand your business, products or solutions, and the value that you can provide.

Also, make sure that the content is written with your audience in mind. Headlines should be attention-grabbing and content should focus on your target buyers’ biggest challenges. Use a tone that resonates with your audience and tailor your topics to their preferences.

Step 2: Optimize your website for SEO.

The second step in developing a website marketing strategy is to optimize your website for SEO. After you have analyzed your current website and identified areas of opportunity, it’s time to make sure that your site is optimized for the search engines. Search engine optimization is the process of making changes to your website design and content to make it more attractive for the search engines. In turn, you are helping ensure that your site will appear on the search engine results page (SERP) for relevant keywords and phrases.

Best practices for search engine optimization are often changing or being added to as Google updates its search algorithm. However, there are a few principles that you’ll want to keep in mind as you make sure your website is optimized for search:

Keyword Research – One of the most important parts of your SEO efforts is your keyword research strategy. There are a variety of tools that you can use for keyword research, but the Google Keyword Tool is a great place to start. This helps you find search terms that are relevant to your business and better understand how many people are searching for these terms online.
Content – Once you’ve developed a list of potential keywords, you will need to plan and write content around these keywords and phrases. The goal here is not to stuff your content full of keywords, but rather to write informational and entertaining content that will add value for your audience once they find it on the search engines.
On-Site Optimization – In addition to using the keywords in the body of content, you’ll also want to pay attention to other on-page elements of your website such as titles, meta descriptions, images, and image tags. Use the keywords strategically when creating these different page elements to boost SEO.
Link Building – Link building is another important (and very complex) aspect of search engine optimization. Search engines look at how many pieces of content link back to your site as a way of understanding whether your site content is valuable. There are many different ways to build quality links, such as submitting your site to different directories or simply creating content that people will want to link to.
Overall, by improving your SEO, you can work to rank higher in the search engines for relevant terms. This allows you to drive more relevant traffic back to your site for measurable results. If you do not have anyone on your team that is experienced in SEO, you may want to consider hiring an SEO company for help with this part of your website marketing strategy.

Step 3: Start content marketing.

The third phase of your website marketing strategy is developing your content marketing. Content marketing is the process of creating and publishing valuable and relevant content that helps you attract and engage your target audience. By providing your target buyers with engaging content, you can work to build and foster stronger relationships with your leads.

Before you start creating content, you’ll want to develop a content strategy. This is the process of determining the different aspects of your content plan, such as:

What types of content you will create
What topics your content will focus on
Who on your team will create content
How often you will publish new content
What channels you will use to promote your content
Once you’ve created a content strategy, you can then work to develop a content calendar. This will help ensure that you are regularly publishing quality content on a consistent basis.

When it comes to your content marketing, it’s important that you choose topics that will be relevant and valuable to your target audience. You should also create a range of different types of content such as blog posts, e-books, infographics, videos, and other content assets that can help you build a stronger connection with your audience.

Step 4: Build a social media presence.

The next step in building your website marketing strategy is to work to build a social media presence. With social media marketing, your company can expand your reach online and work on driving more quality traffic back to your website. The first step in building a social media strategy is determining which social media channels you will use to attract and engage your audience. It’s important to remember that you do not need to be present on every social media platform. Instead, opt to spend your time and resources on the social media channels that your target audience frequents.

Once you know which social media platforms you will focus on, you’ll need to sign up for an account and start creating your business social media profiles, if you haven’t already. It’s important to keep branding consistent when it comes to images and descriptions. Be complete as much of your profile as possible to improve your chances of ranking in searches.

Now, it’s time to start building your social media presence. First, you’ll want to make sure that you are connected with your current customers on social media. Be sure to put links to your social media profiles on your website and in your shipping confirmation emails so that current customers and site visitors can check out your social media profiles and connect with you.

You can then work to grow your social media following by posting engaging content. In addition to posting updates and promotions from your business, you can share your content, such as links to blogs or gated content. You can also post links to third-party content that you think your audience will find valuable. The more quality content you post, the more likely your target audience is to follow along with your posts and engage with your brand on social media.

Step 5: Amplify with email marketing.

After you’ve started working to create more content assets and build your social media following, you can continue to amplify your website marketing strategy with email marketing. Email marketing enables you to get the word out about your new products and promotions while also driving traffic back to your website.

Before you start sending marketing emails, you’ll need to work on building your email list. There are a few different ways you can do this. You can start with the email addresses of your current customers. Then, work to build on your list by capturing new contact information from lead forms.

One way that you can work to collect email addresses from new leads is by creating a valuable incentive. An incentive that you might provide is a compelling content offer such as an e-book, checklist, or special guide that will help your leads better understand their challenges. You can create a landing page with a lead form that collects visitor email addresses in exchange for a free download of the content offer.

You can also add an email opt-in form to your website. Whether you use a header bar, a pop-up, or a side bar, you can ask your site visitors to sign up for your email list to stay up-to-date with the latest updates and content from your business. You can also place CTAs in some of your blogs or other content, encouraging your readers to sign up for your email list for more great content.

Step 6: Use paid advertising to speed up your sales cycle.

Though the goal may be to bring in as much organic search volume as possible, SEO takes time to work its magic. If you want to speed up your sales cycle a bit, you can introduce paid advertising into your digital marketing strategy. Paid advertising can help you bring more of your target buyers to your site where your content marketing and other elements of your digital marketing strategy can work to convert them.

There are two main options of paid advertising that you can introduce into your digital marketing strategy – Google PPC advertising and social media advertising. Let’s start with Google ads…

Google offers advertising on its search engine through Google AdWords or ads that display on relevant websites through the Google Display Network.

Both types of Google ads can help boost your visibility online and bring more visitors to your site. The Google AdWords content appears directly on the search engine results page, just above the organic results for the search term. This means that when users type in relevant search terms for which you have created ads, they will see your ad content at the top of the SERP. While Google Display ads will appear on the pages of relevant websites as a banner on the top, bottom, or side of the page.

Social media ads can also be used to help you boost visibility and drive more traffic back to your website. Social platforms like Facebook offer sophisticated ad targeting features that allow you to take advantage of user data in order to target those who are most likely to be interested in your brand. You can then deliver tailored ad content to these ideal buyers that encourage them to visit your site.

Next Step: Implementation!

Now that you know each step of the process, it’s time to consider whether your company has the time, resources, and knowledge to effectively implement your website marketing strategy. For most small businesses, every team member is already working at full capacity to keep business operations running smoothly. That’s why many business owners look for outside help when implementing their website strategy.

A website marketing strategy agency can help take care of all your website needs while your team continues to focus on your core business. The website experts at LYFE Marketing know just what it takes to help you create a stunning and effective website that will attract and convert more leads to help you grow your business. In addition to website design services, our team is also skilled at search engine optimization tactics that will help your business rank on the search engines, increase referral traffic, and build a strong online presence.

If you’re ready to get started, we are only a phone call away! Contact us today.

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