One of the common reasons I get called to fix a website is that it isn’t generating any traffic or leads for the client. It seems the hope is that a complete redesign or redevelopment will get potential clients to find them. Usually, I’m also asked to help them get “ranked on Google”. However, hiring any agency to redesign your website and improve it’s SEO can often be an endeavor that companies aren’t quite ready to fit into their budget. So, before you contact us to have your site rebuilt, try these three tips while you ready your budget.
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Ask People to Visit Your Site
One of the simplest things you can do to improve your site traffic is to simply ask your existing clients and active prospects to visit your site. It might be contrary to logic at face value in terms of generating new leads, but the mechanics of the internet and search algorithms are doing more than you may realize. Lots of site traffic that spends time on the site will improve your search rankings, allowing more new users to find you via search engines. As your traffic increases, so will your leads.
Blog Often
Search engines are looking for new, relevant content on a continual basis. They want to know that the sites they present in their search results are “living” websites that are offering the latest information available on a particular subject. If your site hasn’t had any changes registered with the search engines for an extensive period, they will drop you out of the rankings to make room for fresher content. Offering a regular blog consisting of at least 500 new words of content per week will not only keep your site fresh for the search engines, but it will also get people spending time on your site (see #1). 500 words should be easy for you, considering this article exceeds that.
Start Sending a Periodic Newsletter
Search engines have begun tracking email content as well. Since most people are using an email client that’s attached to one of the major search companies (GMail, Outlook.com, or Yahoo! Mail), what they get in their inbox has an effect on the search results that they get, as well as the search results that people with similar interests get. If they actually open and read the email, it’s even better. Send out a quality newsletter weekly, monthly, or quarterly on a consistent basis so your website gets further ingrained into their search results. The newsletter should contain links back to your site, preferably to your blog, so they engage with your site and spend time on multiple pages.
When all else fails…
Now it’s time to hire an agency. You need to continue doing the above well after you’ve had an agency redevelop your site, but there may be some other issues stopping visitors from becoming leads. Hire a quality agency to redevelop your site with a focus on your brand. Make sure that when you meet with them, they listen to what you’re looking for the site to do, and that they can provide feedback on the best ways to accomplish that. Find out exactly what’s affordable, then plan on at least double that for unexpected expenses. Generally, a good agency will charge between $1500 and $5000 to build your site, depending on how complex it is. Don’t expect it to be done fast, either (although we can usually get it done in less time than we project). Quality takes time.
That’s it for this week. We hope that this was both educational and helpful for you. If it was, please make sure you share it with your friends. Also, let us know what you think in the comments section below. We want to know what kind of value we’re able to provide you. Thanks for joining us. Have an awesome weekend, and we’ll see you next week!
