Making the most of your Website

One of the common pitfalls in B2B Marketing is thinking of your website as a one-time activity. A company’s website should be a critical component of their marketing plan whereby new content, new functionality and new offerings are continuously being added. Too often, we see many firms who invest a lot of time and effort into a launching a new website without having an ongoing maintenance plan in place. We encourage our clients to use their website to its fullest; regularly scheduled updates keep it dynamic, engaging and relevant to visitors. Here are a few of the common tactics we employ with our clients:

1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – A website is only useful if your target market can find it. SEO is very complex and very laborious when trying to manage it internally. There are many great SEO companies that will work with you to understand your market and develop an appropriate strategy for getting your website ranked to the top of the list. We strongly suggest that every company set aside a monthly budget for SEO services; these firms monitor changes in your keywords, help to improve your ranking and increase the number of inbound links to your site.

2) Tracking Statistics – It’s important to continuously monitor website statistics. We recommend doing it on a monthly basis and using a tool like Google Analytics (it’s free). Tracking statistics is important for understanding who is going to your site, what information are they most interested in and how long they are staying. Understanding how your site is being used is critical to determining what changes need to made and what the opportunities are to better serve your visitors when they arrive at your site.

3) Home page Refresh – The most important page of any website is the home page. It is often the first page any new visitor sees – is it making a good impression? Your audience should be able to quickly understand what you do and what information is available to them. Well-organized navigation and engaging content are essential. It’s also important to regularly update your home page – swap images, add links to latest press releases and upcoming events – it keeps it current and dynamic.

4) Thought Leadership Content – Being seen as the “authority” in your industry is important for building credibility and trust within your target markets. Posting industry articles, white papers and case studies help to draw traffic to your site and increase its relevance to visitors.

Implementing these tactics will help keep your website current, dynamic and most important, relevant. When a new visitor arrives at your site, you have mere seconds to capture their attention, make them count.