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Written by Eric Gockel
Did you make any resolutions for the new year? If you haven’t, here are some of our own that we’re constantly trying to improve.
Measure Your Metrics
The old quote “What gets measured gets managed” holds true with your website. If you’re not already measuring something, it’s easy to start.
Set up a Google Analytics account to see how much traffic you’re getting, where users are coming from, and what pages they’re looking at.
Next, set up some Goals! I’m often surprised when I see client accounts with no goals in their analytics. Again, these are relatively easy to set up. You can add goals to track:
- E-book downloads
- Whitepaper downloads
- Newsletter signups
- Account creations
- Trial signups
- Leads
Once these are set up, you can dig in deeper and see which sources are driving higher quality (read: converting) traffic to your website to see if you can optimize for traffic from that source, whether that be creating more original content, marketing on other websites, and so on.
Test Continuously
Don’t argue about what the text or the image should say on your homepage. Test it! Many resources are available online to start testing various aspects of your website, from home pages, lead generation forms, and registration/purchase funnels.
If you send out newsletters using Mailchimp, there’s no excuse to at least test something each time to learn more about your leads and prospects.
The images that show up on your Netflix start screen are no accident.
Constant Improvement
While measuring and testing, look for opportunities to improve workflows on your website and allow your users to complete tasks faster, like checking out, registering for a service, or trying to find content that might lead to a sale.
“Clearing rocks from a stream…”
Lou Friedmann
Check with your support staff and anyone who interfaces with customers to see if there are any patterns of complaints or suggestions that you can implement to make their lives easier. You can also employ the service of a user interface (UX) designer or information architect (IA) to review your website or web app with a fresh perspective.
Regular Content Updates
Content is being added to the web every second. If you haven’t added content to your website in months (or years?), you risk falling behind and losing relevance. To stand out in search, and get links from other websites you constantly need to “feed the machine”.
According to a study by HubSpot, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.
Another statistic was that B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0 – 1 times per month.
But more importantly, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.
Always Be Closing
This classic sales phrase is a little different when carried out online. You can’t pressure folks to buy your product or service when they visit your website. They’ll just leave. Your first job is to qualify the visitors to ensure they’re a proper fit and in the right place.
Did they search for rubber boots (shoes) and wound up on your car parts website? Check your stats and see what keywords drive traffic to your website and which ones users bounce on. If they are for words and phrases relevant to your site, see if the landing page can be optimized to reduce bounces.
Even if those visitors aren’t ready to buy today, try to make something available that they can take action on today, like sign up for a newsletter announcing upcoming specials, events, etc. Differentiate yourself with a blog filled with posts that make you stand out from your competition by educating and entertaining your visitors.
Next Steps
Obviously, you don’t have to do all these tomorrow, but try something new each week and see what works for you and your team. You may not see results immediately, but with testing and measuring, you’ll at least see your progress and hopefully learn a few things along the way.