Feeding Your Website a Healthy Diet

Tom Holzkopf - Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Years ago, the FDA established a pyramid of foods to remind Americans that they should be eating a mix of fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. And although much of that seems like plain old common sense today, there are times when it's good to be reminded that we all need a little bit of variety if we're going to keep performing at our best

In today's Internet marketing environment, the same could be said of your website. Your website needs a healthy diet if it's going to grow and become more profitable. Here are a few of the things you need to be feeding it on a regular basis:

Interesting, search engine friendly content to attract links and traffic. When it comes to web marketing, there just aren't any substitutes for fresh, interesting content. Why do you think it is that we offer so much free advice on this blog? Besides the fact that it lets us do a good deed and help out business owners in need now and again, it's also a great way to show the major search engines – not to mention our clients – that we've got lots of new ideas to share. Do that often enough, and you're bound to earn a better ranking on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Pay per click advertising to occupy sponsored listing slots. Numerous studies have shown that potential customers who are serious about buying tend to click on search engine advertisements much more frequently than other users do. In fact, they often look to those listings first, since they know they are likely to link directly to the products and information they're trying to find. For that reason, it's a good idea to feed your website a steady helping of paid traffic. Move some of that print ad budget over to online advertising for a few months and try it out. It's not always as cost-effective as organic search engine optimization is in the long-term, but it can keep serious buyers visiting your site every day, and it is much more cost effective than direct mail, newspaper and magazine ads, Yellow Pages, and other traditional advertising.

Social media posts to deepen customer relationships. Not everything on the Internet is about finding new customers; you can often do pretty well just by taking care of the ones you have now. Remember that as you establish and develop networks on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. While you may not be able to sell to them as aggressively as you would if you were to sell to one on your company's product pages, you can go a long way toward deepening the relationship you have with them, with the aim of turning them into even better customers over time.
Best Regards,