Finish the Year Strong with these Q3 Website Changes

Now is the time to take intentional steps that will set up your business website for a strong finish to the year. “Huh? It’s still summertime” you say? We know. But the work you do in the 3rd quarter will pay dividends down the road. 

Your website is, without question, an absolutely imperative part of your business. It is where people go to check your legitimacy, get a feel for you, your brand, and what you offer, and yes, by golly, it is where you get leads that convert to customers. It is not a stretch to say it is THE most powerful tool in your business toolbox. 

Chamber member Spring Insight, a digital marketing firm here in Bethesda, has a set of tips and techniques to share that will set your business website up for success this year and beyond. 

In this article, the experts at Spring Insight will share:

• How to get more people to visit your website
  
• Creating calls to action that really convert
  
• Migrating your business website to Google Analytics 4
  
  
  

How to Get More People to Visit Your Website
No matter how beautifully your website is designed and how well thought out the functional aspects of the site work, your site will not be able to do its all-important job of creating customers if you don’t have many people visiting it. 

Increasing traffic to your website is directly correlated with business growth. Best of all, there are loads of ways to accomplish this! You get to pick and choose what works best for you, your brand, your image, and your business.
Online Options to Drive Traffic to Your WebsiteOne Google search for “increasing traffic to your website” yields a staggering number of results. (647 million, to be precise!) It can be overwhelming, to say the least. We are going to pare that way, way down, opting to share three online strategies that are perennially effective.

1. Social Media: SImply showing up with a profile is not nearly enough. Posts need to be thoughtfully designed with a clear call to action directing the audience to go to your website. These are excellent opportunities to attract potential customers with a lead magnet that they hear about on your social channels but can only access on your website after providing their email address, of course!
   
2. Content Creation: Videos, social media posts, articles, blogs, webinars, case studies, emails, newsletters, and more are ALL considered content. Create engaging, valuable content and amplify the results by sharing it in a strategic way on your social media platforms of choice.
   
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Do thorough keyword research to find what your audience is searching for online and create high-quality content that answers their questions. Optimize images and URLs, write compelling title tags and meta descriptions, and use internal links.
   

To learn more specifics about these online strategies and a set of in-person recommendations (including being a member of your local Chamber!) check out the full article on the topic here. 

Calls to Action that Really Convert 

No matter how beautiful your website is and how hard you work at channeling people towards it, what happens when visitors land on your site matters, too. This second set of tips centers around increasing the conversion rate on your website, turning more visitors into paying customers. 

A clear call to action should be incorporated into every piece of content on your site as well as just about every single page. Common calls to action include:

• Join an email list or newsletter list
  
• Get access to a free resource or value-add
  
• Schedule a consultation or call for more information
  
• Downloads that are pertinent to your business’s service offering
  

Whatever call to action (CTA) you choose to include, it should be prominently displayed and be super easy to use. You do not want people to have to click through seven pages and provide their mother’s zodiac sign and their kid’s blood type in order to get the freebie you offered. A good rule of thumb is to shoot for one click with one space for an email address. That’s really ALL you need to move forward. 

Want to know how to create calls to action that really sizzle? We have a list of research-based best practices and more detailed recommendations about converting clients right here. 

Migrating Your Business Website to Google Analytics 4

Google has announced that they will be sunsetting Universal Analytics.  Even the most savvy of you might now be asking yourself, “what is Universal Analytics?” Basically, the tool that you think of now as Google Analytics is actually called Universal Analytics and it is going away. As I might say to my teenager the 50th time she leaves her bookbag strewn around the living room, it is kind of a big deal. 

Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 will operate in very different ways. Making the switch may not be as simple as you think, especially if you have heavy reliance on particular reports and performance indicators. To make the switch as seamless as possible, we recommend taking five steps (and starting the transition as soon as possible). 

Step 1: Take stock of what you are currently doing in Universal Analytics 
Step 2: Download All Reports and Data in UA
Step 3: Set Up a New GA4 Profile
Step 4: Spend Time Comparing GA4 Reports to UA Reports
Step 5: Set Up Your New GA4 Dashboard

***for details on each step, please see our article here*** 

Making the switch to GA4 may feel like an inconvenience at best and a mind bending migraine at worst. If all of this makes you want to close your laptop and head to the nearest watering hole, we totally get it. In such cases, we recommend passing the GA4 migration reigns to someone else so that you can get back to doing what you do best in your business. 

Spring Insight is ready to help. We get this whole GA4 thing and can work behind the scenes to get your business website’s analytics ready for the switch. Contact us today and let us know you need help with GA4 migration. 

How are things going with your business website lately? Not sure if you are set up for success? Spring Insight is a digital marketing agency right here in Bethesda and a proud member of our local Chamber. We have an offer you won’t want to miss. We will conduct a comprehensive audit of your site to determine what is doing well and what areas for improvement exist. All for FREE. Yep, you read that right. Snag your FREE audit today and let us help you get set up for a strong finish this year and beyond.