1. Implement Monitoring. If you don’t already use monitoring tools, make this your number one goal for the year. Implementing tools that monitor your website will give you invaluable insight into overall performance. This will show you where you’re marketing efforts are succeeding and suffering, enabling you to create a new and improved strategy for the year.
2. Consistently Blog. A good blog strategy can greatly help improve the visibility of your website with search engines, but only if it includes regular updates. Effective blogs contain keywords that are relevant to your company as well as your specific product(s) and/or service(s). Create a monthly calendar with topics and resolve to stick to it.
3. Update SEO. Speaking of blogging and keywords, take a look at your current SEO efforts and find out what could be done to improve your organic search rankings. Examine your analytics and determine which traffic sources have attracted the most visitors. Next, take a look at which keywords have proven to be most effective and create a new strategy focusing on these words as well as potential new ones. Finally, make sure your website performance is top notch. Search engines place a large value on the page load speed of your site so your cloud hosting solution needs to provide the right resources for your site.
4. Load Test Each Quarter. Plan to conduct a load test of your site each quarter to assess how well it has handled traffic flow during different times of the year. You will also gain a much better idea of when you’re receiving the most traffic, and can then possibly adjust your hosting services accordingly. Learn about hybrid hosting and how it might be the perfect solution for your business.
5. Consistently Review for Content Updates. Successful online companies continually audit their site to ensure it reflects the most recent information about their business (e.g. current products/services, location, contact information). Your customers are always reading your content, so it’s imperative that your company is accurately represented.
6. Update Images. Don’t let your website become static – breathe new life into your website that your visitors can see with high-resolution images that are consistent with the latest design standards.
7. Test Functionality/User Experience. Plan to regularly test the functionality of your website to provide the best user experience possible. Shopping carts broken? Links broken? Checkout process confusing? Make navigating your site as pleasant and effortless as possible to maximize your chances of converting leads to customers.
This New Year, resolve to create a solid strategy for your online business in 2014 and you’ll be seven steps ahead of the competition. To learn more about Applied Innovations’ comprehensive range of hosting services, including Windows cloud hosting, contact us today at 1-866-706-8691 or email us at sales@appliedi.net.