Are you paying attention to your online marketing

Don't sit back... now is the time to add content!

In the last 6 months, businesses that have moved online, increased their online marketing or updated their websites and adapted their offerings have achieved better results.

Just looking at the stock markets gives a great insight into this trend. Various sectors including oil, tourism and hospitality have struggled while companies such as Zoom (that offer video calling software that will hopefully get more secure in time) have grown. Even dating apps have needed to adapt so that potential partners can meet up initially via video rather than face to face! So, what does this mean for you?

Potential customers are checking you out as well!

We aren’t suggesting you offer a similar service to eHarmony’s video dating so that customers can find their perfect ‘partner’, but you do need to make sure that customers can find out as much about you as possible.

Now, more than ever, customers will check out your business, how credible you are and what you offer BEFORE they get in touch. This means that if your website isn’t up to date or isn’t ‘wooing’ them to want to buy/order/enquire from you then you are missing out on potential sales.

Imagine the scenario, you are an electrician offering re-wiring for extensions but you don’t mention the service on your website. A potential customer looking to have an extension built on their house visits your website but then visits your competitors’ site which does talk about re-wiring and how they have lots of happy customers who they have helped with their extensions. Who is the website visitor more likely to go with? You or, most likely, your competitor?

It’s worse than that!...

In the previous example, we mentioned that a potential customer visits your website, but it’s increasingly likely that they might not even get that far. If your website doesn’t talk about the services that your target audience want, then your website might not even be found by them! Google ranks websites and pages and then returns them in searches based (among other things) on relevance to what someone is searching for. The search results are shown in SERPs. If a customer searches for ‘rewiring’ or ‘electrical work for extensions’, why would your website appear in that search when your website doesn’t talk about these services? You get the idea… it won’t.

As an aside, you may be asking "What does SERPs stand for in websites?"  Well, as we just mentioned, when a user types what they want - or need - into Google search (other search engines are available) this is what we call the ‘users search criteria’. The users search criteria is analysed by Google who then throws up results that it thinks matches that search criteria best and these search results are shown in SERPs. SERP stands for Search Engine Results Pages and this is what a user sees when the search engine gives the results of their query.

But there is an answer...

The situation might sound bad, but the good news is there is a quick and relatively easy solution to the problem. By having the content updated on your website to include the services and solutions that you offer, customers are more likely to buy from you, and Google is more likely to feature you in SERPs. In many cases, you don’t need to re-create the entire website. It could be as simple as adding a few pages and updating some existing pages.

As well as updating the pages on your website, another way to improve credibility with your customers and search engines such as Google is to create blog posts that give advice and tips to issues that your customers have. Blog posts are a great way to show off your expertise in areas that your potential customer needs help and, since it’s fresh content, Google loves it!

Getting content written for your website by a copywriter on a regular basis indicates to search engines that your website i.e. your company, is alive and open for business! Check out the website care packages we offer.

The importance of talking in the language of your target audience

When it comes to updating web pages, it’s important to talk in the language of your customers and provide detail on the services you offer that are specific to them. This can include using the word ‘patients’ instead of ‘customers’ if you are targeting healthcare businesses or using words such as ‘profit’ and ‘productivity’ if you provide services to accountants.

If you are a plumber or window cleaner then it’s important to talk about the benefits of what you offer to your potential customers in a way that resonates with them. The more your content resonates with them, the more likely they are going to decide to use your services.

Another example of expert online marketing is to illustrate to your potential customers the lifestyle they should expect if they use your services – for instance this is easy for interior designers and smart home electricians and ALL types of cleaners but the list is endless .

Still sitting back, or do we have your attention?

We hope you are now convinced of how important it is to add fresh content to your website.

If you would like to understand more, and how we can help, then give our copywriters a call on 01249 448 139

We would love to review your site and provide you for FREE with suggestions for getting better results from your website. Get in touch with our website designers in Wiltshire today.