As we get into the 2014 New Year, here are five website resolutions for non-profits and businesses. But why do we need a list of website resolutions for 2014?
Because coming out of the great recession, people check out your website before and after they visit your physical organization. If you see some great products at a local store and mention it on your Facebook page at 11 at night, some of your friends might want to know more about the store (currently closed) but visit the website- that is always open. Suddenly, time along with money has become a valuable resource, because you can save enormous time by doing stuff online as the last minute Holiday shoppers will confirm.
Here are the five website resolutions for 2014:
- Add, but do not delete content in the knowledge economy: We explained in an earlier post about not deleting content. Business owners see their own websites a lot and get tired of it's look and feel and as they re-design, they tend to delete old content, which really is their knowledge that they are deleting.Let us say you had a product, that is bought once in a few years, that had only moderate success and you decided to discontinue the product. Say so on the product's page and you may be pleasantly surprised to hear back from a loyalist who will give you new ideas. Resolve to add 300-500 words a week that relate to your products and services and demonstrate your knowledge. You could add content to existing programs, if you are a non-profit, like add a write-up about a success story where your beneficiary was helped, a video or a picture with some text explaining the picture. Add a blog if you have the resources to update it, preferably once a week or more. Strive to show your domain expertise in the content, more you share your expertise on your website, the more reason the search engines have to guide searchers to your website. This is at the core of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the improving algorithms of search engines. Remember search engines like Google are loyal first to their searchers. If your website is the most useful for the searcher's query, you will be top ranked in search results.
- Synch Social Media content with website: Social Media like Facebook, LinkedIn,Pinterest,Instagram and Twitter can help only if you are committed to updating content on a regular basis. Once a day or more is great, but once a week is essential if you want to stay relevant to your searchers. Try to tie in your social media updates to your website updates so that you have everything available at one central place for your web visitor, i.e. your website.
- Install Google Analytics: Even if you are not able to do the above due to resource constraints, install Google Analytics on your website. It is free and gives you a ton of insight about what visitors do on your website, what they find attractive and what turns them off – so that you can improve the relevant content.
- Become Mobile friendly: A mobile friendly site is absolutely necessary because people take to their mobile phones at every opportunity and this will only increase worldwide because it is far easier to install wireless towers than cable in most of the world. If you do have analytics installed and your site is not mobile friendly, you'll see that your desktop and laptop visitors spend much more time than mobile visitors on your website. Mobile visitors cannot read your content because the screen is too small !
- Advertise and look at ROI: As the economy improves, keep up with your advertising both online and offline. For example,advertising on Google AdWords can be done at $5 a day or less, and you should be able to get at least three qualified leads to visit your website every day. These are folks that actively searched for your product or service and if you have relevant content they will engage with your organization. Tracking Return on Investment (ROI) is far easier today and you can get big data to tell you what returns your advertising dollars are getting you.
We wish our readers a very Happy Holiday season and a wonderful 2014. Contact StratoServe.