While last year certainly had some challenges, it’s important to clear your mind and refocus on the year ahead. Some businesses will indeed seek to pull back and stay self-contained, however, when doing so, the opportunity for growth is lost. Given that digital marketing and the online world have considerable low-cost, fast-growth potential, it shouldn’t be ignored out of fear.
Stride positively this year with these 4 steps for digital marketing in your business.
1. Truly Embrace Social Media
You may have a love/hate relationship with social media. But few people can deny its growing influence in business and how it relates to branding.
It’s difficult to handle it in-house, especially when your business attention is necessarily elsewhere. If this is the case, then it’s best to seek out a social media marketing specialist like Jen Boyles Digital. An expert knows what it takes to stand tall in social and to create a brand message that resonates with your potential audience.
Don’t get left behind.
2. Overhaul the Existing Content
An effective content strategy is only as good as the previous content. Google and other search engines do not overlook what has been previously been published and how dated the content now looks. If it also contains ideas or statements that don’t gel with the current reality, then it does poor service to visitors too.
Here are some steps to follow:
- Do a content review.
- Highlight articles that are too dated, lack visitors or backlinks and can be deleted.
- Assign a writer to articles that can be updated to refresh them.
- Change the year for review content that still refers to “2020.”
3. Pay Attention to Website Speed Metrics
An upcoming Google algorithm update expected in May 2021 will center around the visitor experience. One of the aspects of this is Web Core Vitals. This measures various speed-related and design-related metrics for every site on the web.
Use a speed tool like GTMetrix.com to test your website for performance. It indicates how fast the site is loading and what may be slowing it down. Check both the home page, and popular inner pages separately.
Optimize the site to improve its speed. Reduce its complexity, cut down the file size of images, and think about changing web hosting plans to something faster.
4. Aim for Fewer Higher Quality Backlinks This Year
While the web and search engines still run on backlinks, it’s become far more refined since years past.
Fewer backlinks of higher quality move the needle far more than chasing hundreds of potential sources of low-rated links from unrelated sites.
Not only do fewer high domain authority links make a huge difference to a site’s rank-ability for targeted terms, but it requires less effort to achieve it too. It certainly helps when you have best-in-class content that makes it very linkable for other websites. Without this, it’s an uphill battle to be sure.
Sharpen the focus this year to make strides in the right direction with your digital marketing.
