FirstTracks NH Marketing Agency

Going to the dentist is NOT one of my favorite things to do. Today was my scheduled 6 month check up and as I sat in the chair this got me thinking about many of the companies regularly see online that tend to handle their website content and optimization efforts the same way they treat 6 month check ups at the dentist. As I laid back in the chair with the hygenist doing a once over on my gums, I wondered why I’m always caught in this vicious cycle of realizing my appointments are coming up at the last minute and then making a mad dash to brush and floss regularly to make sure my appointment goes well. Well guess what, while it might help just a little bit, I still end up having my teeth scraped for longer than I like and then get the usual lecture about having to keep up with this stuff more regularly. And that’s when it hit me!

Your website is your company mouth

Your company website is your mouth not only from a literal standpoint because it’s how you communicate with your customers and prospects online but because it requires regular attention and care to keep it healthy. Just like the dentist always tells you that regular brushing and flossing habits can prevent many forms of decay, the same can be said for your website. There are many ways to do this but today I wanted to share my top 5 ways to keep your website healthy and free from visibility decay….

1. Keep feeding your site new content

Ask yourself when was the last time you posted anything new to your website? If the answer to that question is over a week ago, then you’re not publishing enough to support your business. In our experience building successful websites for our clients, we recommend that our clients, at a bare minimum, post at least one new piece of content every week.

2. Make it easy to feed your website content

If your not posting regular content to your website it’s probably because it’s too time consuming and expensive to have your website updated. Maybe it’s time to consider converting your website over to a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla or Kentico. These CMS platforms can be implemented for a wide range of budgets, from small business implementation that provide full content editing controls, to a complete custom database system implementation that will manage your organization’s contact and marketing communications programs.

3. Read and participate in relevant discussions

Ok…now create lots of content and make it easy. Oh, but where can you get good inspiration to keep the ideas flowing? Simple. The web is jam-packed with all sorts of fascinating blogs and professionals just like you. Your job is to go out and find them and start reading. Identify opportunities to put a unique spin on ideas that relate to your content focus area. Some great places to start doing these searches are Google Blog Search, Technorati, and Twitter.

4. Develop inbound link traffic

Once you find blogs and information that you like, the objective is to write your own content and and share your thoughts and links with as many relevant connection resources as possible. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that you spam people’s blogs with links to your content, but use those links as a way to play off your opinions and insights. If you have an interesting opinion about something relevant to your business that other people are already talking about, write about it on your site and then go out and participate in those discussions and invite people to come back to your site and contribute to your thoughts and ideas. The more you can get people to link back to your content the better your organic listing presence.

5. Analyze your traffic and make content decisions based on performance

The final tip I have for you today is to track and analyze your efforts. This doesn’t have to be super complex. Take stock of your writing and how much site traffic it’s creating. How many leads is it generating for you business? Doing this simple exercise twice a month will provide feedback and direction about the interests of your visitors and help you craft more successful content by focusing on those key topics that are generating the most engagement. A fun way you can track your progress is to use Hubspot’s Website Grader. This free online application will allow you to enter your URL and will provide your website with a numeric grade. It will then give you suggestions on how to improve your online real estate. Using this tool, you can track how your website grade improves while  creating more traffic and awareness for your services.

Time for your 6-month check up?

If you’re unsure or not comfortable diving in and making these changes and adjustments on your own please give FirstTracks Marketing Group a call today at 603-924-1978 or fill out our online request form. We have all the in-house technical and marketing know-how to transform your online real estate into a healthy lead producing machine. Keeping up with your online presence, optimization and conversation will ensure that your next 6 month site check up is glowing, positive, and filled with new traffic, prospects and leads!