Baby Steps Website Resolutions
This article has been updated on 12/11/2019 with the article entitled "Don't Neglect these New Year's Resolutions for Every Website."
#1 – Measure
The most important baby step to take – the one that every other website goal depends on – is to measure your visitor traffic so you know where you are now and can see if you’re getting closer to where you want to be.
Check with your webmaster to see if you already have a traffic analyzer. If you don’t, have your webmaster install Google Analytics for you or install it yourself. It’s a good tool and costs you nothing.
#2 – Pick a few search terms
What words do your visitors use to find someone like you? Make a list. Peek at your competition’s source code to see what search terms they use and add them to the list. Use Google’s Keyword tool to brainstorm some more. Then pick the five to ten best words for your home page. Include your location if it’s an important search term like "Naperville Pizza."
After successfully completing this baby step, you could one day go back and do the same for other pages on your website.
#3 – Use your search terms in your content
You or your webmaster can use those five to ten best words in your meta tag, but you should also use them in your page content. Put them in the first paragraph if possible, but use them in a conversational way to appeal to your human visitors.
For example, if your best words are “Pizza, Naperville, Delivery, Deep Dish, Chicago Style,” it’s a simple matter to write in your content: "Nobody in Naperville does deep dish pizza like Angelo's– bringing Chicago style yummy right to your door with our speedy delivery!"
#4 – Get listed in directories
Getting noticed by search engines relies a lot on incoming links. A great way to get those links to your website is to list your business – along with your website URL – with online directories. Think search engines local directories like Google Places, Bing Local, and Yahoo Local.
If you’re ready for the next step, claim your company profile at places like Yelp and Manta as well.
These small steps will cost you nothing but a little time if you’re doing them yourself. And if all you can manage to do in January is measure your web traffic that would be a huge change that might spur you on to do more!
Here’s wishing you the best and brightest of futures in 2012! We look forward to helping your business really shine in the new year.
Kate Gingold
I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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