If you are like most small businesses you made a fairly sizable investment in your web site.It should have a look and feel that connects with your target market, guides users through an engaging user experience and works to convert visitors into customers. Let's say you had all that build and it's sitting there on the web. Now what?
The Valuable Advice: Web sites are computer programs, which means everything is measurable. Familiarize yourself with the metrics tools that tell you how the web site is performing so all your decisions about the web site are based on facts, not subjective feels.
There are three basics you should expect from your web site, all of which are measurable.
• Traffic – Who is coming to your web site
• User Experience – How long are they staying and what are they doing?
• Conversion – Visitors calling from the web site or filling out forms
To maintain these basic factors, you must keep the site up to date, both with accurate content and technically to avoid site malfunctions. So, at a minimum, you must be engaged two ways: analyzing site metrics and keeping the site maintenance up. This is the "change the oil and keep your tires inflated" of web site ownership. It's hard to believe, but most dental and medical practice owners we see do not engage in these key activities. Many hire us to do it for them.And, in our Boutique Services, this never leaves the conversation with clients.Ever.
But, let's assume you are doing that and you are fully aware of how well your site is performing in User Experience and Conversion. And let's assume your site is fully functional because it hasn't sat dormant since you bought it. If this is the case, your site should be the destination in all your marketing endeavors.
There are many strategies to market a small business. Whether it is direct advertising, social media advertising, content marketing, search engine optimization, search engine ads, mass media advertising or good, old direct marketing, it is now most common for someone to check out your web site as a first step. So, when you invest in any marketing strategy, you have to ask, "How is this strategy going to drive web site traffic?" and "How do we adapt the web site to take advantage of the attention the strategy will get me?"
This can go many ways, but if you are paying attention to the three basics of Traffic, User Experience and Conversion, the rest is just a matter of adjusting your site to dove tail with your marketing strategy. Don't fall into the trap that you hang your web site and leave it until it's time to make a change based on a whim or subjective reason. If you make your web site updates based on what you see in Traffic, User Experience and Conversion, it will influence your marketing outreach strategies and pull your marketing efforts together rather neatly.
And don't forget to keep your tires inflated and oil changed, so it's working when users need it.
If you have questions about your web sites and your strategies, please contact us here.