Your company’s website is the ultimate marketing tool. It’s often the first point of contact for a potential customer, and it can significantly affect how they view your brand. An outdated or inaccurate site can quickly turn off users, while an engaging and informative one can increase consumer trust and interest—and help you make the sale.
As a business owner, you need to prioritize your Web presence and make sure it’s working for you as a marketing tool. Below, 14 members of Forbes Agency Council outline some best practices for managing your company’s website.
Members of Forbes Agency Council share their best practices for managing a website to make it the best marketing tool it can be.Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Think Mobile First
We live in a world where two-thirds of the population now have a mobile phone. Everybody uses their devices on a daily basis. This is why it is mandatory to have a website that is accessible on mobile screens, with an engaging user experience, up-to-date content and clear calls to action. – Daniela Pavan, The Ad Store New York
2. Review Quarterly And Improve As Needed
It is important to set up a time to follow up on the website and to review it on a quarterly basis. That means that it is important to ensure that there are many ways to review the success or the failure of the current structure. When you are able to do that, you will see that there are many ways to improve the overall reach out as well as the communication for the people. – Jon James, Ignited Results
3. Assign A ‘Brand Keeper’ To Audit The Site
The auditing process doesn’t have to be painful. Simply read through the website, ideally looking at it with the fresh eyes of a first-time visitor. To make it easier, assign someone to be the “keeper of the brand” and make it part of their job to do this at regular intervals. It’s also a good idea to ask brand-new employees for their opinions, as they’re best able to pinpoint anything confusing. – Sarah Mannone, Trekk
4. Build On A Platform That’s Easy To Update, And Automate Where Possible
Today’s landscape changes very quickly. If your website is doing its job, at a minimum, it’s able to keep up. That means your site should be “living and breathing” and built on a platform that’s easy to update, change or modify swiftly and effectively. After that, you should work it! Bonus points for site features that can automatically update as you populate content, such as a social feed. – Sara Helmy, Tribu
5. Publish Fresh New Content
If the site is up-to-date with the content management system (e.g., WordPress), content is the next most important aspect of any website. Whether it’s in the form of an informative blog post or additional content on the service pages, Google loves in-depth, helpful content. We start with a site audit and prioritize pages by traffic or conversions, then work our way down, finding content opportunities for each page. – Matt Bowman, Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
6. Don’t Forget To Refresh Core Content
The two tactics we’ve used to keep our website up to date are ongoing weekly blog articles and assigning website accountability. Ongoing blogging ensures there is always timely, relevant content being added to the site and shared to social channels. We’ve also found it useful to assign accountability for the site to one team member, ensuring all core content is refreshed and kept up to date. – Elissa Liu, Influential Executive
7. Always Consult The Analytics
Using Google Search Console and Google Analytics, you can gauge how well your website is performing organically across a number of key performance indicators, including traffic, click-through rate, bounce, etc. Using this data, we can update on-page elements, such as meta data, suggested links, body content, etc. to increase the usability of our website and on-site metrics that contribute to greater conversions. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
8. Ask Customers What Part Of Your Website Made Them Contact You
That’s one of my first questions for every prospect who says, “I found you on the internet.” Answers help update, reprioritize or emphasize areas that need message adjustment or tweaking. We advise all our clients to track how they were found and what helps convert a sale. – Patrick Nycz, NewPoint Marketing
9. Develop In Real Time
By the time you’ve updated your website, the next version will likely need to begin development. Develop on a platform that is easy to program so you can make quick changes and optimizations based on real-time data analytics while you are looking for the next iteration. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, HAWTHORNE LLC
10. Make Website Maintenance Part Of Your Daily Marketing Activities
It may seem obvious, but the most common reason websites fall behind is that updates and maintenance are not a core part of day-to-day marketing operations. Once a website overhaul or build is complete, the project is not over, and it should not fall to the wayside. Include your website as a key part of your annual marketing plan and build a calendar of regular updates. – Keri Witman, Cleriti
11. Get A Cross-Functional Team Involved
The website is not a standalone asset. It is a marketing tool. Integrate website updates into go-to-market plans so the site constantly reflects company evolution and growth. Include the cross-functional team in discussions on blog post themes, product page updates, etc. to keep content current and reflective of company values. – Preethy Vaidyanathan, Tapad
12. Follow Best Search Engine Optimization Practices
Your website is not a useful lead generation tool if no one can find it. Make it keyword-driven for the words you want to rank for, and continually release fresh content to be ranked by search engines. For example, be sure your Title tags and H1 tags are worded properly. This helps search engines determine what each page is about and enables them to rank it accordingly. – Bryan Citrin, Chiropractic Advertising
13. Introduce The World To Your Brand And Team
It’s essential for companies to make sure the website reflects the brand and culture. Our website is currently being revamped. We’ve ensured our site exemplifies our uniqueness by highlighting our team members and the work we’ve produced for our clients while capturing the nuances specific to our brand. Websites are often a client’s first introduction to who you are. Put your best foot forward. – Sarah Tourville, Media Frenzy Global
14. Ask For Help
It’s very easy for companies to put off working on their websites because, though the task is important, it doesn’t always feel urgent. Working with a marketing agency will put a healthy amount of pressure on your company, open up new ideas because of input from outsiders, and help you generate more traffic to your website instead of just making sure it’s accurate. – Joe Ardeeser, Jordan Crown LLC