RISMEDIA, June 7, 2011—It’s difficult to keep certain areas of our lives neat and uncluttered, and what might look fine to us can be confusing and appear busy to others. Over time, your website can collect too much unorganized and old information, along with indirect paths to the things that matter—why they should engage you!
Your prospects will not waste time with a site that is challenging to use or unappealing. Two of the most difficult functions of maintaining a great website or blog are keeping it fresh looking and adding new content to it consistently. A website today is anything but a set-it-and-forget-it property. It is the door to your business and its success.
Fortunately, there are some easy ways to keep your site fresh and interesting. Start by asking your friends, good clients, and colleagues to pay a visit to your site. Have them give you their unbiased opinion about their experience.
Don’t take it personally and use their insights as a punch list you can work with to identify the necessary improvements. You will likely be surprised at your users’ insights. What seems simple for you to find or navigate may not be for them. You should go through your homepage and other key areas of your site, too. You will see areas to declutter, update and change for the better. Google Analytics can be a great help in this effort.
While you’re managing this spring cleaning and getting more traffic and stickiness on your site, think about creating a schedule to consistently add unique, keyword-rich content to it. This is one of the primary ways to enjoy good SEO (search engine optimization) results long-term. Take into consideration the keywords your prospects will search under to find you and the properties in your area.
You will also want to use long-tail keywords in your content development. Long-tail keywords are those three or four keyword phrases very specific to whatever you are selling. In real estate, they often include a geographic term or neighborhood name. While there are fewer of these types of searches, they are more valuable because they are highly targeted. Start spring cleaning your website today!
Chris Kaucnik is chief marketing officer for Home Warranty of America. For more information, please visit www.hwahomewarranty.com.
