Web Marketing: Are You Watching Your Website Or Letting it Rust?
Drivers love their cars. Whether they’re weekend garage dwellers who can’t wait to get their hands on a wrench or road warriors who actually enjoy their commute, car owners know that without proper, ongoing maintenance, their vehicle will either fall apart or cost more than they want to spend.
The same can be said for web marketing. Your website, is like your car: if you simply purchase a domain, slap some content on there and let it sit without any regular check-ups or updates, not only are your online leads going to suffer, but you’ll probably be looking at a pretty hefty repair bill when the time comes that you have no choice but to fix it up.
What kind of issues are we talking about here? Like a car, a website is made up of several small parts (and a few big ones) that, when working well, play a role in moving your business forward. Also like a car, if a few of these parts break or wear, it may not necessarily take the whole thing down, but create problems that lead to a poor experience for the potential customers. Result? Lost leads.
For your website to have a positive impact on your business, it needs close attention from the get-go. You need to ensure your designers, developers, search and marketing teams are on the same page from the very start. Search engine strategy plays a huge role from day one, and before the site goes live your team needs to make sure that every single element of search – page titles, META descriptions, header tags, images and links—are all optimized with the keywords you’ve chosen for your business. There should be no non-functioning images, broken links, typos or errors, or out-dated information. In short, like a car, your website needs to be in absolute 100% tip-top shape before its launch.
Those “elements of search” are the “small parts” that can build up and be a major headache for you and your team. You don’t want to find yourself six months down the road with no search optimization on your website, because that’s six months of lost leads you won’t get back. So it’s crucial you have a search engine strategy in place before you launch a single page.
Once your website is live and your online marketing efforts are well under way, ongoing maintenance is key. At least once a week you and your team should be giving your website a careful once-over, making sure that everything is still fully functional, that things are loading as they should, at the proper speed, and that there are no weird layout, navigation or design errors lurking. Offer feedback forms for customers to report any technical errors they experience. Sometimes we need that little red light on the dash to tell us when something’s wrong.
They may be two totally different industries, but web marketing and car maintenance actually have a lot in common. Both are extremely important for keeping a major investment up and running at full capacity. If neglected, they both can cost more than years of smart regular investment and maintenance. Make sure you’ve got a good, trustworthy team looking after your website on a regular basis and your business should be in for a smooth ride.
What do you think? Do you make sure to look after your website on a regular basis? Do you think you plan on starting now? We’d love to hear your thoughts!