In a world of constant changes, it’s hard to know what strategies to employ when trying to maximize the performance of your business. With so many different tools and methods available, how do you know which ones will work best for your company?
A solid digital operating plan for your business involves multiple steps, but the most important component is your website. Having several blogs, offers, and more planned for 2023 that will help your business grow and thrive online.
In today’s post, we’ll discuss how to develop a website strategy that will help your business run smoothly digitally and physically.
Adapt to your audience’s needs
It’s important to always have your user in mind while designing your website.
A website’s look and functionality are heavily influenced by its audience. Consider the demographics of your desired users: their age, gender, profession, and more. Your site should be tailored to their specific preferences and needs.
The world of web design and digital marketing seems to change quickly, but this stands the test of time. The content you put online needs to be vetted through the lens of your ideal customer (or what we like to call the customer journey).
Consider, for example, a website that promotes children’s games. These sites usually have brighter colors, more animation, cute images, a more “fun” font (as opposed to Times New Roman), and fewer dropdown menus. Children can easily find information with these appealing elements and simpler navigation.
That kids’ website wouldn’t have a black-and-white palette, would it? Similarly, if your audience is predominantly young males, then a pink color scheme and cursive font are probably not appropriate. If you are marketing to older generations who may not be familiar with computers, you may not want to make navigation overly complicated. Understanding demographics is crucial for creating the perfect site, and it determines many aspects of its design.
It is highly likely that you already care about your visitors’ experience when visiting your store, but this is especially important as your focus shifts to your digital presence. You can create a website strategy that makes this information accessible when you know your ideal customer inside and out. In addition, you can answer common questions for first-time visitors or prospective customers right away – allowing them to spend more time elsewhere.
This results in a site that is helpful, intuitive, easy to use, and engaging.
Develop a keyword strategy
Prioritize your user, followed by the keywords and phrases your ideal customer uses when searching for your company. By using tools like SEMRush or Google Keyword Planner, you can identify the best keywords and phrases to use throughout your website, as well as where to place them.
Build an adaptable website
Your website design needs to be adaptable once you’ve determined what you need to do to make it user-friendly and well positioned to rank highly on search engines.
It means being able to adjust and change your website quickly, easily, and effectively. Make sure your website pages and copy are up to date, including your hours of operation and how you’re dealing with a specific situation. Make it clear and simple for visitors to see how they can still buy from you if your store closes for an extended period: Is inventory available online during this period? Would it be possible for users to text someone on your team, place an order, and then pick it up curbside? Are you able to deliver to people out of state who have used your store before and want to support it again? An evolution and change plan should be included in your website strategy.
Make sure your site navigation is clear
Your first impression of a site will be its design. The features on your site are quite important, but poor navigation will make them worthless. In order for the navigation of your website to be great, it must be easy to use, look great, and grab the attention of visitors who want to find what they are looking for.
Navigation can be improved in many ways, such as making new animations that let visitors view slideshows or allowing them to change pages by swiping on the screen. Using these and other techniques will make page surfing easier for first-time visitors.
Personalize
When you focus on your digital presence, you don’t forget that you’re still interacting with people. From the past two years, it has been clear that being kind and genuine with your audience will never be regrettable. Put a welcome video on your homepage to let visitors know what to expect from your site and your company. Provide real photos of you and your team so prospects and customers can put a face to a name. Explain what you do, how you do it, and why it matters. It’s important to be professional, but you should also be warm and conversational.
Make everything digital
Whether it’s a signup form for your soup kitchen, a free class you offer to subscribers, or shopping options for your hiking store, make sure you have a digital solution for every aspect of your work. This ensures that even if you can’t greet customers face to face, you can still conduct business with them at any time.
There are many things that should be digitally accessible, including signup sheets, payment forms, classes or gatherings, event calendars, reservations, demos, shopping and curbside pickup, and any sales documents.
Invest in your business and in your website
In terms of creating an online option for many aspects of your business, we understand it can seem overwhelming. It is in this situation that a method such as growth-driven design (GDD) can be extremely effective for you and your business. Your website should be a work in progress at all times, according to GDD. The pages that our customers want to update each month are identified by our team members, who work with them to determine what needs to be updated: new pages, tweaks to existing pages, or the addition of a video or landing page. As a result, your website is always ready to meet the needs of your customers and your business, and you and your team never feel overwhelmed with updates.
Optimizing for mobile devices
Everyone should have mobile website capabilities, but not everyone is optimized for them. The mobile revolution should have been ready five years ago, but few predicted its impact. Google searches are conducted half the time on smartphones and other mobile devices, and many people use Alexa and Siri for information and directions.
A mobile-friendly website is essential for online success. By not reaching everyone, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable to competitors who are more in-the-know.
Don’t forget to call for action
Without calls to action, you’re missing out on that final little conversion piece. A call to action entices customers to decide. For them to be effective, they need to be attractive, ubiquitous, and really encourage people to convert.
We recommend that if your site doesn’t have email capture, you add it, or even just give visitors a link to contact you. Since they offer real value in exchange for each email address, it’s more efficient than typing in countless emails.
Conclusion
With all of this, you can stay in line with the standards of Google and other sites that use page optimization. It is important that you combine the elements listed here with important SEO practices.
If you’re stuck on what to do, you should always consult someone if you’re not sure what to do. Adding a design expert who also knows SEO can make a big difference in the success of your business.
By working with a professional SEO agency, and following these design tips, you will increase your success and keep up with the times. You should work on improving your site now if you want to create a better, more rewarding experience.
As social media experts, ClinkIT Solutions knows what it takes to reach your target audience online.
With our custom social media plans, you can establish a presence on top social media platforms, engage users, and provide them with valuable information.
An optimized digital marketing strategy will encompass all relevant marketing channels and online platforms to ensure your content reaches the right audience, at the right place, at the right time. ClinkIT Digital Marketing Services will help systematically optimize your digital marketing strategies and drive more revenue for your business.
