Having a website is one thing; having an effective, relevant website is another. If you want your website to bring in leads and support your customers, it needs to remain relevant.
How can you tell whether your company’s site is up to par? No one metric or attribute can tell the whole story. Look at these factors together to gauge your website’s relevance:
Taking a look at your website’s analytics is the best way to determine if it’s still relevant. Use tools like Google Analytics to dig into your traffic numbers.
Which ones are the best measure of relevance? Check out:
Use these metrics to give your site a quick-and-dirty checkup. If you don’t like what you see, increase your relevance. The rest of this guide will help you do just that.
If the last time your website was updated was the day it went live, it’s probably no longer relevant. Users expect websites to be updated regularly.
Take a moment to review the information on your website. What needs updating? Even a simple rewording can add some clarity and keep your site fresh and accurate.
Think, too, about your blog. You should be posting at least once a week. Any less, and users will get their content fix elsewhere.
The type of information you provide matters. Many visitors are looking for contact information. Others will want quick access to product listings and sales. Make sure that information is up to date and easy to locate.
Especially around the holidays, many consumers go online to shop. If you don’t offer an online shopping experience, your relevance will take a hit.
What if you don’t offer a physical product? Make sure your service offerings are described accurately and compellingly. Make it easy for users to reach out via a lead capture form.
The good news is, online shopping can be incorporated into your site with minimal logistic issues. Letting customers schedule a time to pick up what they buy can eliminate delivery hurdles. This still provides some convenience to customers without stretching your resources thin.
Your website should have content that’s applicable to your expected visitors. This will be apparent on your blog and any connected pages, such as social media, via user comments.
If not, ask whether your content aligns with your audience’s interests and needs. Say your company sells beauty products. Blog and social media posts about gardening might be nice, but they aren't relevant to the people you’re trying to reach.
Audiences aren’t always great at telling you what they want, but they’re happy to point out what they don’t. Use their comments to steer you toward relevant website and social content.
Unless someone is already familiar with your brand, chances are they’ll reach you through search. By typing in keywords relevant to you, they should be able to find your site.
Ranking for a keyword means that you will show up high in results for that word or phrase. For example, if your website ranks for “quality pet food,” your website will be seen by pet owners searching online.
This process of ranking your website for certain keywords is called search engine optimization, and it’s a bear to tackle. Consider talking to an SEO specialist about the different things you can do to optimize your site.
If SEO services are beyond your budget, start teaching yourself. In the digital age, it’s only going to get more important.
How well does your site anticipate the questions visitors have? This is especially important if customers go to your website specifically to address customer service issues. To truly make your website relevant to these visitors, build out your FAQs.
Touch base with your customer service team. Are they receiving the same questions over and over? If so, then your site isn’t as relevant as it could be. Even small businesses can automate some of their customer service in this manner.
A relevant website will strengthen your business, no matter what its industry position or future plans. Just beware that relevance is an ongoing need. Keep updating your site and checking in with your customers, and they’ll extend the same treatment to your brand.
