12 New Year Resolutions for Your Website
It is a New Year and you have made new resolutions for yourself. How about some for your website?
Yes! Your website needs resolutions too. Websites and the devices accessing them are evolving rapidly. Your website needs to keep up. These 12 New Year website resolutions will help you do just that.
Resolution 1. Update your Website Regularly
Show authority in your niche by sharing experiences and success stories on your website. Keep your target audience informed about the latest developments in your industry.
To Dos
- Update your Copyright Information on the Website
- Add the Latest News, Blog about your business and industry
- Update your Project Portfolio, Add new Case Studies and Customer Testimonials
Resolution 2. Invest in SEO
Search engines show websites to searchers by trying to understand their intent based on keywords they use. Some keywords are used by visitors searching for information or solutions your business offers. Your site needs to show up for these keywords on the first page.
To Dos
- Involve yourself proactively in SEO strategy and Process.
- Monitor SEO Goals with your SEO vendor regularly
- Align your SEO activities with your other marketing initiatives
Resolution 3. Go Local
Local Listings help target your services or products to users by specific location. It is perfect for location focused businesses. Local listings have the facility to give reviews and rate businesses. Positive customer reviews are great for your business.
To Dos
- List your Website in Local Listing of Google, Yahoo, Bing
- List your Website in major local websites like Yelp.com
- Include Business address and Phone number on your website using micro formats.
Resolution 4. Understand Visitors with Analytics
An analytics tool will provide you with key information like number of visitors, number of pages viewed, bounce rate, most visited pages, leading sources of traffic and much more. The data provided can be used for better marketing, improving your search engine optimization and improving your website.
To Dos
- Educate yourself on all the features of your Analytics Tool
- Regular Metrics Check: Source of Visitors, Bounce Rate, Most Visited Pages, Search Terms used
- Know your Web marketing ROI using Conversion Tracking Feature in your Analytics Tool
Resolution 5. Get Social with Facebook
Businesses have a great opportunity to use Facebook along with their website as an effective marketing tool. You can create a platform where your customers can come together, communicate with them, share news, receive feedback and provide customer service.
To Dos
- Join Facebook to harness the potential of Facebook Search
- Integrate your Website with Facebook via Likes and Facebook Share
- Enhance your Presence by using Facebook Pages for your business.
Resolution 6. Use Twitter Effectively
Twitter has over 190 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day. The best thing is that Twitter can be used online, through your mobile, through desktop applications anywhere, anytime.
To Dos
- Create custom Background for your Twitter Profile
- Broadcast your offers, success stories and news regularly
Resolution 7. Leverage the power of Social Media
Social media tools empower users and business owners with ways to propagate ideas. The tools provide innumerable opportunities for gaining word of mouth and going viral. Whether it is an interesting link, a presentation, photograph or a video clip use social media to share, promote, comment on, vote and do more.
To Dos
- Make it easy for visitors to share stuff with a network of people on your website
- Use a blend of audio, video, images and text elements in your website
Resolution 8. Stop using Flash on your website
Growing support for the new version of HTML called HTML5 with support from powerful players on the web including Google, Microsoft and Apple is one factor. The other is the rapid growth of smart devices including mobile phones, tablets and net books to access internet.
To Do
- Utilize upcoming web standards like HTML5 and phase out redundant ones like Flash
Resolution 9. Make your website Mobile Compatible
More than one third of web users use their mobile devices to access the internet. Usage of Smart Devices like the iPad, iPhone, Google Android, Blackberry is growing rapidly. Making sure your websites display well on all these devices is crucial.
To Do
- Having a mobile friendly version of your website
Resolution 10. Highlight your achievements better
Your website is a great resource to show all the special achievements of your business. You can have a project portfolio with case studies of individual projects. All the acquired experience is perfect to release informative documents like a whitepaper.
To Do
- Show examples of work done with case studies, whitepapers and a project portfolio
Resolution 11. Use Newsletters to stay in touch with customers
Email is still the most widely used communication tool even with the rise of social media. Moreover newsletters campaigns are easy to integrate with your website and provide measurable success rate.
To Dos
- Add a facility to enable visitors to subscribe for your newsletter on your website
- Be consistent and regular with your newsletter delivery schedule
Resolution 12. Watch your Website Domain
Domain names are the only true identities of your business online. It is important to keep a good domain name and one that includes your trademark. As domains get older, they gain trust in search engines and do better for rankings than a similar new domain, all other factors being equal.
To Do
- Be on the lookout to acquire the .net, .org and any other country specific versions.
This year make full use of all these resolutions to ensure you keep up with the competition and importantly achieve your business goals. 2011 promises to be a year full of changing technology and user trends. Gear up for the new challenges ahead by taking the right steps well in advance.