Is “Content” still “King”? Does email marketing still matter? How often do I post and when? Do I need a Mobile Website?
Today, having a unique, useful and grammatically correct website is no longer good enough. Your online content needs to be both original and compelling, in addition the look and feel of your website has never been more important.
Ask yourself these questions:
Does website make everyone who sees it want to share it and say WOW. Is it interesting, funny, anecdotal, helpful?
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15. How can I optimize the user experience on my website? Cluttered – Busy layouts – they are distracting Navigation Problems – People need to find the content they want Boring web design – Is your site aesthetically pleasing Pop-up ads – Stay away from them Slow load times – People are impatient online Small fonts – Size 14 is the new size 12, after all Too much text – Think big blocks of text Poor search functions – If people can’t find your content, your site failed
16. Does email marketing still matter? After ensuring all content on the site is high quality, focus on engagement and awareness (through social media and email)
What is the Google Panda update?Google Panda is machine learning algorithm that changes how Google ranks pagesWhy? To punish content farms. Publishers that steal original content from websites and re-publish it with ads.Changed algorithm to take “site quality” into account using quality raters. Compared signals from bucket of quality sites with the bucket of low quality sites. Come up with algorithm to measure and then changed how site rates.SEO now is web strategy – user experience, branding, quality
How much time do people spend on the site?Are users bouncing or browsing compared to the average ?Click thru rate from search engines?Diversity and quantity of traffic coming to your site. Where are they from? How often do they go back to the same search once they clicked on your site?
Unique, useful and grammatically correct is no longer good enough. Example: A website full of boat parts (say 50,000), good photos of each part and descriptions of those parts. (Different than a store front – it was created just to grab people who type in the part number or model). BAD Ask yourself these questions:Does it make everyone who sees it want to share it and say WOW. Is it interesting, funny, anecdotal, helpful?If you didn’t care about boat parts, would you still find the page interesting and aesthetically pleasing?
Primary effect – is it beautiful? Content buffeted by advertising (bad). Lots of Next buttons (bad). Content blocks are boring?Graphics don’t look good?
If you buy into the notion that design is more important than content to grab new subscribers (again – I am not talking about what it takes to keep loyal fans), here is a list of gotchas to look out for when designing your site. For more details on this check-out Derek Halpern’s blog: Social Triggers.a. Cluttered – Busy layouts – they are distractingb. Navigation Problems – People need to find the content they wantc. Boring web design – Is your site aesthetically pleasingd. Pop-up ads – Stay away from them (Subscribe Now boxes are NOT ads)e. Slow load times – People are impatient onlinef. Small fonts – Size 14 is the new size 12, after allg. Too much text – Think big blocks of texth. Poor search functions – If people can’t find your content, your site failed
Add more places they can opt-in. For instance add an opt-in form at the end of each post. If someone reads one of your blog posts you can direct them to other posts, videos or more information, BUT why not ask for their email address right there? You’ve got them – they’ve read your stuff or watched your video and like it. Two other places are on your About Page and at the top of your site (e.g. Hello Bar)Create a free webinar call to action (more details on this in the DIYTheme post)
I don’t have a stock answer for this. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. How often do your fans want to hear from you? Ask them…call them and meet them at trade shows and ask. I’d refrain from emailing them with the question “how often should I email you”. You can get a sampling by picking up the phone and engaging in a handful of conversations. If you don’t have the phone contact of any of your fans, are they really fans? Do you see them at Meet-ups or trade shows?Two products that have been great for me are HootSuite and CrowdBooster. HootSuite is the best Twitter (and Facebook) client on the market. It’s got a great iPad app and the ability to schedule posts is super. I strongly encourage people to schedule posts. CrowdBooster also allows you to schedule posts, but in addition it tracks when your followers are online and gives you recommended time slots as to when you should post.