At Juice Marketing and Design, we build a lot of websites. Sometimes we launch up to three websites in a week! So because we’re obsessed with our clients getting results from the marketing tools that we create for them, we thought we’d share some “next steps” for our clients for which we build websites.
I’m Eric Hicks, the Internet Marketing Director for Juice Marketing. I help business owners feel pride in their website. When our clients are happy to hand out their business card and tell people “Please go check out my website!” then my mission has been accomplished. I want to answer an often un-asked question that I think is on the mind of every new website owner … “I have a website … so now what?”
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share with you six strategic ways to leverage your new website to gain effective exposure and visibility for your business.
1. Blog
Keeping your website updated is important to managing the perception of the visitors to your website. Have you ever gone to a website where the copyright date is 2002? Have you ever clicked on a company’s blog page and the last blog was written 4 years ago?
What is your perception of that company after realizing they haven’t updated their website in years?
One of the easiest ways to keep your website up-to-date is to add a periodic blog post. A weekly blog post is awesome, but if you can’t keep up with a weekly post (we understand … it’s hard!), at least post monthly. The key is consistency in your posting and a consistent monthly post subconsciously communicates purpose and discipline (traits you want your customers to believe about you!)
What to blog about?
So the question that always follows my advice to blog is “What do I blog about?” The best advice I can give you is to simply answer questions that your customers and clients frequently ask you.
A great example of this is a chiropractor client of mine. He committed to blogging once a week and he simply answered questions he gets from clients or talks about conditions his clients have, such as “What Is Frozen Shoulder and Can It Be Treated Effectively?” or “Why You Need Magnesium In Your Diet.”
Blogging Benefits
The added benefit of blogging consistently is that it helps your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. Simply through blogging regularly and distributing his blog posts (to be covered in part 2 of this series), this chiropractor was able to get a brand new website to the first page of Google search results for the phrase “clearwater chiropractor” in just three months. That’s amazing!
Another benefit is the goodwill that you generate by providing solutions to your customers and clients. If you answer their questions in your blog, you gain credibility with your current and potential clients.
Conclusion
So to wrap this up, I always recommend that new website owners consider creating a consistent blogging schedule. Not only do you improve the perception of your website as being current and having activity, but you help your SEO efforts and create goodwill with your clients and customers.
Next time we’ll look at an effective strategy for distributing your blog posts across various social media channels to boost your company’s exposure and SEO value even more!