You might just be starting on managing a website for your business, or have been doing so for a while now, but what you can’t deny is you’ve had one or two worries about how your website is performing.
There are times that you feel like the investment you’re putting in paying for a domain, your team of website developers, digital marketers, and organic SEO service professionals are adding more to your operating expenses.
What can be the solution?
The thing is, shutting your website down totally isn’t the answer. You should know by now that your business’ website is essential to garnering visibility, which means more people checking out what you have to offer.
The answer to your website not performing the way it should be is the lack of optimization. It could be optimizing your website’s functionality, compatibility, or search engine performance.
With consumers relying on search engines to find businesses who offer services or products they need, it’s essential to make sure that your website’s content shows up in relevant consumer search queries.
Here are four reasons why:
1. Your target audience can find you.
Sometimes, your marketing team might get the impression that Google is favoring other businesses over yours. That’s partially true, especially if you’re relying on unpaid search engine optimization methods.
You’re aware that Google puts paying businesses high up in search rankings, and the non-payors have to provide the best and most relevant content based on the user search query to rank high enough to be seen. That’s just how things work.
But what Google has in mind is similar to your business’ goals. Both want to provide the best, most relevant, and up-to-date content for your target audience, create a positive user experience and put significant content high up in the list of priorities.
As you work to optimize your website to rank well in search engine results, you’d want to put out content that you know people will read and obtain value from. Meta information helps your ranking potentials increase because having them helps Google understand your copy better.
2. Increase your organic traffic.
One percent of the average business’ revenue is spent on advertising. This means that a one million annual income means $10,000 will go to marketing efforts. You can go even higher, depending on your business’ needs.
It might seem like a small part of what your business rakes in, but everything adds up. You may be working in an industry that spends more money on ads compared to others. That’s why it’s crucial to set the right amount of funding for advertising.
A way to cut costs is to make use of organic traffic. Organic traffic is obtained through non-paid methods such as putting out the most relevant content based on location, type, and other factors.
Though you have to pay for content creation, you don’t have to pay for rankings. It comes naturally when your content is aligned with your target user search queries.
You might not be making use of organic traffic, so it’s better to assess the amount of traffic that comes from it compared to non-organic methods. They’re technically free, and you can spend the extra advertising money to beef up other aspects of your advertising efforts.
3. Make use of existing traffic.
When you know people are flocking to your website, the last thing you want is for them to just poke around and leave. You’d want your website to make a lasting impression that makes them want to return and browse longer.
Optimizing your website for converting visitors will require you to invest in improving the user experience. Assess how your visitors navigate your website — do they scroll? How often do they click on calls to action?
Gathering sufficient data on those will help your efforts to improve their experience and convert them into paying customers, which is one of your website’s primary goals. If your website has an email list feature, send subscribers updates, offers, promotions, and more engaging content.
4. Meet expectations.
As you build and optimize your business’ website, put yourself in consumers’ shoes. You’re looking for a business that sells crafting materials, and you’d look for them through a search engine.
You put out an excellent copy detailing quick and easy crafts, including recommendations on affordable and easy to find materials. The consumer then reads and finds your website that sells crafting materials. That can lead to a click, and they’ll expect to be brought to the website of a crafting materials company.
They wouldn’t expect to be brought elsewhere. If they have, they’d use a different search query. If your website isn’t relevant to the content you put out, you won’t be meeting their expectations. This increases your bounce rate, which means people aren’t finding what they’re looking for on your page.