A BrightEdger

M Posted 10 years 7 months ago

t 9 min read

A website is a business representation online and in a site redesign SEO, it should be structured from the very beginning. The problem, according to website designers however, lies in the persistence with which many site owners view SEO as something ‘extra’, something to be taken care of after their site is already up and running. This train of thought can hinder a brand’s success. SEO and web design are actually intimately linked, and failing to address both at the same time results in loss of traffic, revenue to your competitors. When it comes to online prominence, those who truly succeed are those who place the experience of the customer first - and customers are not differentiating between site redesign SEO and regular SEO.

Joseph Putnam, a web designer, wanted to carefully investigate the importance of web design. He found that when it came to avoiding negative associations with a site, web design was crucial. An astounding 94 percent of responses to his survey mentioned site redesign SEO elements when discussing why they distrusted a particular website. At the same time, when it came to answering why they felt positively towards a particular website, 83 percent of the responses related to the content on the page. In other words, Putnam found that when it comes to building trust with customers, web design and content are two parts of the same coin. One helps to prevent negative associations while the other helps to build positive ones. Successfully launching a website requires taking into account both parts.

The importance of SEO and your site

Brands interested in building a successful website need to keep in mind their reasons for being online. Having a strong web presence is an excellent way to find new customers, improve brand reach and grow the business, but all of these goals require a website that is accessible for visitors and easy for people to navigate - which are also goals that are central to SEO. This means that site optimization is intrinsic to the website building process. SEO has the best lead-to-customer ratio or conversion for brands. This ranks higher than referrals, paid search, social media and traditional means of advertising, also referred to as ‘outbound’ advertising. A properly optimized site will be able to attract visitors who are interested in learning about the brand and the products and services they offer. Organic traffic is actively looking, so their intent to move forward is strongest.

Optimizing a site for search means far more than aligning keywords. It is a process of making the site user-friendly and easy for Google to understand. That means quality SEO will also be optimizing elementary aspects of the site such as URLs, image alt text and the meta descriptions. Google’s spiders examine these bits of information for keywords and insights into the topics the website covers and how well it addresses the needs of the page visitors. The content itself should also be written with the customer in mind.

Site owners should familiarize themselves with the material that their ideal personas want to read and write using the vocabulary that their customers are likely to employ. This will help Google line up the content that is on the site with visitor queries on search engines. Remember that this content is critical to establishing trust with the site, so without it, brands will be challenged to build their reputation. Also. included in the basics of site design SEO, such as being mobile-friendly - with responsive design often being the preferable option - and the navigation of the site. When navigation becomes too confusing for page visitors, they will often just click off the page. An estimated 50 percent of potential sales are lost because users cannot find the information they want. When a website has a high bounce rate because of unsatisfied customers, this will also negatively impact their rankings on SERPs.  

Mobile design is also crucial. According to Pew researchers, 64 percent of Americans now own a smartphone and that number continues to grow with each passing year. Mobile searches have now surpassed desktop ones, and sites that are not ready for mobile customers are being left behind. Google cemented the importance of mobile-friendly sites in April 2015 with their algorithm update that forced sites to become mobile-friendly or see penalties. When these features come together, they create a website that is desirable for customers. This website is one that can be viewed on any device, is easy for the customer to navigate and find the information they want and provides valuable content. These are the sites that have been both optimized and well-designed, thereby helping to bring people closer to conversion.

The value of site redesign SEO from the beginning of the project

SEO is fundamental to site design because organic search is the largest channel for generating traffic. It involves the navigation, URLs and basic layout of the website. When sites are designed without taking optimization into account, then there are often massive parts that need to be redone. Someone has to sit down and rename URLs, reorganize content, rewrite pages that do not include customer vocabulary and craft optimized meta descriptions.

One of the biggest costs that companies will feel is the time and money that will be involved in this endeavor. It is also important to note that just because a site is updated does not mean it will automatically receive a lift in the SERPs. Google spiders will have to reinterpret the website and determine where it should fit into the rankings. This lag can result in even more lost time when the site will not be maximizing its potential, thereby resulting in lost revenue. Enormous penalties will also be felt in the loss of interested traffic. When customers cannot easily navigate a site to find what they want, 60 percent will just leave. Forty percent of customers who leave websites because they did not have a good experience will never return. The time between the initial site launch and the initiation of SEO endeavors that correct any navigational and organizational efforts can result in numerous potential customers who arrive on the site and leave, never to be seen again, even once the site has been optimized. It is important to remember that SEO and optimized web design is not a one-time project that can then be shelved. It is continually growing, changing and adapting to new trends and needs. The results from SEO similarly grow overtime.

The Google algorithm takes into account numerous different factors, including how long the website has been around and its perceived authority. A website with strong optimization and excellent content that has been online for several years is going to rank higher than one just published. This means the longer it takes for a site to get around to their optimization efforts, the longer they will also have to wait for their reputation to be established. Postponing optimization efforts will only hurt websites, both in the now and in the long term. Rather than drawing out the process, ensuring that SEO and web design are managed together from the beginning can help the website see the results desired.

Ensuring that site redesign SEO is a main part of the web project

1. Begin designing a website that focuses primarily on the user. Customers want to use websites that are easy for them to navigate. When they cannot find the information they seek, they tend to quickly bounce off. This is bad for business and the high bounce rate will hit the brand’s ranking. To ensure that the site can cultivate leads and customers and that it is optimized for search, make sure the site navigation and organization was planned around the user.

2. Organize the site, such as URLs and the site map, to be Google-friendly. Google looks at URLs, meta descriptions and the sitemap in addition to standard website content when determining the topics that the website covers. Failing to address these aspects of the site during the initial building phase will mean that everything will have to be redone when the site is optimized in the future. It can be extraordinarily time consuming and end up costing extra financially.

3. As pictures are added, make sure to include keyword-centric alt text. Remember that Google cannot ‘see’ pictures so it is important to tell the spiders what the picture is showing. Incorporating keywords into this alt text can help make your page even more relevant to the topic in the eyes of the algorithm.

4. As you develop content, research common topics and longtail keywords to guide production. Content is what makes your site thrive. Having a site go live will do little good if it has nothing to offer visitors. Content, whether it is the homepage text or a blog, needs to appeal to customers and address concerns that had led them to search online. If the content is not optimized for what customers are searching for online, then it will not be able to attract the intended visitors and will not provide the business with ROI.

5. Measure site performance from the moment it goes live. Once the website goes live, measurement is critical. No site redesign SEO effort is perfect fro the start, it is a process of continually growing and developing. Customer needs change and algorithm updates might call for an adjustment in tactics. Maintaining consistent measurements can alert site owners to any changes in visitor flow and their conversions. To maintain a solid picture of how the site is performing, brands should measure a minimum of:

• leads gathered through the site
• visitor numbers - including new visitors and recurring visitors
• conversions
• bounce rates
• visitor movement throughout the site

Use the trends measured to guide further site developments. Rather than dismissing SEO as a process to be handled in the future, businesses must look at it as an important part of web design. They should build sites that take into account optimization from the start. This will shorten the process and empower businesses to start seeing the results they desire sooner. SEO is integral to selecting the best keywords and content around which to build the site to achieve business goals. Involving an SEO early will help educate and instill the designers and developers with an understanding of SEO that will help get SEO into the DNA of the development process. Organizations that do it ‘the other way around’ lose valuable traffic and revenue to competitors in their space. Moving your site?  - Read more here on SEO best practices and key SEO contributions. If you have colleagues who need to start with the basics, try our What is SEO post.  

A BrightEdger

M Posted 10 years 7 months ago

t 9 min read

Content is the driver behind all online marketing efforts. It is what search engines use to understand the purpose of your site, what entices people to click and what engages potential customers. Brands increasingly understand the value of content - according to the Content Marketing Institute, an estimated 86 percent of B2B organizations use it in their marketing. Unfortunately, many brands struggle to optimally employ it for their companies, as only an estimated 21 percent say that they are successful at tracking the ROI of their efforts.

For the content marketing track at Share15, we built an itinerary geared towards addressing this discrepancy and helping attendees see how to maximize content for their brands. Our speakers included representatives from The Home Depot, 97th Floor, Wpromote and several more major brands. These presentations did an outstanding job of exploring the topics at hand and helping all attendees understand how to succeed in marketing your content.

The demand for content: What is content marketing?

Understanding the types of content that are most meaningful for customers can make marketing ventures more efficient and profitable. According to our own research at BrightEdge, over 93 percent of search marketers say that they would increase their budgets for content by at least ten percent if they knew which types of content would be the most engaging for their audience.

At Share, we brought in some industry-leading experts that helped the attendees see how making this identification can become reality. During this session, key topics such as building content for different audiences, understanding demand and determining user intent took center stage. This wide array of speakers addressed what content marketing really is. We had the pleasure of listening to Erin Everhart of The Home Depot, Jesse Farley of Cabela’s and Michael Mothner of Wpromote. Their talks included some great points such as:

• Content has similarities to real estate - it must have a target, good ‘location’ and ‘curb appeal’ - so plan what you are going to do with your content and use it purposefully
• Content marketing is based on what customers want to know, not what you want to tell them
• Personas are necessary, but do not let your buyer personas get out-of-control and overwhelming
• Map customer personas to your buyer’s journey to identify important content
• Keep an eye on trends and use data to guide actions
• Use visuals, like infographics, to encourage sharing and to communicate relevant information
• Cultivate high-quality links when possible, but focus on links that are helpful from the perspective of the user

Content marketing models: What is content marketing?

 

Content marketing should not be a siloed activity that is an objective unto itself. Successful marketing your content requires understanding how content fits into the greater business goals. The content model will have to be customized for the company, which means determining the KPIs that have the most value for your brand.

Customer Geoff Angell also used BrightEdge to create and optimize content to advance the customers throughout the customer journey. His blog post on best practices for waste oil management is an example of top-of-funnel content that successfully brings new visitors to more mid-funnel content like the fleet transportation page and from there to a lead form. At Share, we welcomed Whitney Parker of Kroll, Natasha Persad of Prophix and Kent Yunk of Roaring Pajamas - leaders who are experienced in developing a strong content marketing model. Here are a few of the points that they made in their talks that were particularly memorable:

• identify a strategy by looking at questions you want to answer, the methodology and the data
• identify High ROI Digital Assets - online resources that are the most valuable to people when they are preparing to buy
• determine the KPIs most applicable to the project, such as the number of consultations, form submissions or conversions
• use data, such as keyword trends, to maximize the impact of the content
• set goals and monitor progress with concrete data, then make adjustments when needed

Content metrics: What is content marketing?

It is not enough to just produce enormous amounts of content. You will be wasting resources if you do not take the time to measure your progress and gauge how well it engages your readers and helps your brand reach its goals. You also want to make sure you measure the right metrics. Too many businesses waste time with so-called vanity metrics. These metrics are great for making people feel good - everyone likes to see that a few hundred or even a few thousand people read your articles.

The value from the content, however, comes from being able to translate those views into customers. You will need to determine metrics that measure the goals that you want to accomplish with your content. To explore this exciting topic we heard from industry-leading marketers Chris Bennett of 97th Floor, Kirill Kronrod of Adobe and Cade Burk of The Container Store. This presentation sparked many wonderful discussions that were enjoyed by all. Here were some of the central ideas from their talks:

• Data should be guiding campaigns from the beginning- find keywords and trends to create content
• Use keywords to create helpful, engaging content for the users and track success
• Note that keywords with ‘how-to’ tend to be very popular and strong choices for optimization
• To maximize content exposure, create user-focused content

Content marketing is a valuable aspect of any online marketing endeavor. It is the vehicle through which you communicate your expertise, engage your customer and build your case for why they should choose to do business with you. Using it successfully, however requires understanding the nuances of the customer, your business needs and content metrics. Our speakers brought these topics to life and we enjoyed listening to each talk. You might also like our recent piece on SEO marketing strategy.

Feel free to test your knowledge with BrightEdge Digital Marketing Quiz or SEO Quiz.