SEO, PPC, CRO, and Social Media are all strong tools to utilise in the digital marketing industry – but they can be a bit daunting. Over the festive period, we were giving you advice on how you can get the most out of your online business with the Colewood Christmas Countdown.
Missed it? Read on for some free tips on how to grow your online business.
Optimise for People
When creating your website it can be very easy to focus on making your site attractive to search engines only. However, this is a mistake. Gone are the days when search engines couldn’t tell that you had stuffed keywords into every possible space on your page. These days Google will detect this black hat technique and you won’t benefit. That’s why it’s better to provide the people with what they want. If your website looks good to them, it’ll look good for Google too.
Research
It’s imperative to set aside the time to properly research relevant keywords in your industry. As mentioned before, it’s no longer enough to just shoehorn as many, vaguely relevant, keywords into your site to increase your ranking on Google. Today, search engines see through this technique and the result can actually be detrimental to your site position.
Create Unique Content
Apart from organically increasing your ranking on search engines, unique content that is of high quality also shows your expertise in your field and engages the audience. This creates a ripple effect; once people know you to be a strong source of information they will continue to return to your site, which in turn will help you climb up the results page on Google.
Integrate
Backlinks continue to be one of the best ways to improve your web presence. That being said, it is important to make sure that these links come from reputable sites and aren’t toxic links. Forums and blogs are good places to go to start finding good places to link back to your page.
Be Diverse
So you’ve decided on a method to increase the traffic on your site and it seems to be working quite well – but don’t limit yourself. Don’t rely on one really strong blog or forum to bring in all of your traffic. Never stop finding new, relevant sources and ways to promote your blog.
Quality External Links
This was touched on in the last point, but quality external links are essential when it comes to promoting your website. Unlike an internal link between pages on your website, external links pass on more link equity or ranking power. Some of the things to look out for when determining the usability of links is domain authority, duplicate content, and the anchor text used.
Mobile Optimisation
These days, more and more people are using their mobile to browse the internet. Studies show that smartphones have now taken over desktop as the primary way people access the internet. In fact, as of March 2018, Google rolled out their ‘Mobile First Indexing’ practice – meaning that they now crawl, index, and rank based on the mobile version of a site. Therefore it’s more important than ever to make sure your webpage is optimised for both.
USP’s
What makes your furniture company different to the thousands of others that can be found on the internet? Does your business produce handmade furniture? Or are the materials you use of superior quality? Find your USP and build your advertising around this.
Marketing Strategies
In the digital landscape, there are many different marketing strategies that can be used to promote your brand – such as PPC, SEO, and Email Marketing – and some may work better for you than others. Therefore, it’s important not to limit yourself to one method. Branch out, or if you’d like some help with finding the right approach for you, get in touch with Colewood and we’ll be happy to give you obligation-free advice.
Branding
Be secure in your business image and core message. A consistent tone of voice and strong branding will instil confidence in your audience, which will keep them returning to your site for your service. Statistics show that in the U.S.A. 65% of a company’s business comes from returning customers, and in the U.K. 52% of customers prefer to purchase from a trusted brand. Consistency is a great way to build trust in a brand, as consumers will learn to know what to expect from the business.
