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In this day and age, if someone is looking for your business, you practically don’t exist unless you have a website. Websites have become an important marketing asset for all types of businesses.

In order to make the most of this unique, cost-effective tool, businesses must develop a well-thought-out strategy and take numerous factors into consideration. A well-made website is able to meet the immediate needs of its visitors and encourage them to take action.

If your business website does not generate traffic and leads, you need a new approach. In this article, we’ll discuss some effective ways to make your website your best marketing tool.

Marketing is all about getting your name out there to generate sale leads. Your website should help you convert visitors to customers and build a loyal following. It serves as a basis around which other marketing takes place (social media, TV ads, direct mail, etc.). Unfortunately, getting traffic and leads is one of the greatest marketing challenges. 

To overcome this challenge, here are some of the key concepts to consider:

Your site should be mobile-first

Most site visitors will look you up on their mobile devices and Google knows that very well. Therefore, making your website mobile-friendly is critical for SEO. With a responsive design, you don’t need a separate mobile app. Make sure your website is working when users access it from mobile devices. Your mobile and desktop menus should match exactly. If they don’t, you should optimize your site for mobile users as soon as possible. 

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Use visuals to grab your audience’s attention

• Visual content and textual content are equally important. To make your site a great marketing tool, include plenty of visual content. Include images, videos, and infographics to attract visitors and maintain their interest. 
• If your budget allows, hire a professional photographer instead of using stock photos. 
• To incorporate more visuals, use a consistent banner image for all your pages/posts or choose different images according to the topic.
• Another option is to integrate visuals into your page layout as part of a grid of content. 

Make your site SEO-friendly

To appear more frequently in website searches, use keyword/concept-based research. Think about how a website searcher might use a keyword related to your industry and what they might use in their queries. Perform keyword research with your marketing goals in mind. Opt for low-competition keywords with a high monthly search volume.

301 redirects can be helpful, too. If you decide to redesign your site, redirect those old URLs to your new website so as to restore traffic from your old website. 

Optimize your images by adding a name and alt tag to each of them. Don’t forget to include keywords. Here’s an example for the keywords ’’writing a blog in WordPress’’:

To make your website your best marketing tool, link to both internal and external sources. Link to other pages on your site to improve user experience, make visitors stay on your site longer, and provide site authority.

Also, link to other credible sources. If you link to other sites, they are more likely to link back to yours. The more backlinks your page/post contains, the higher it will rank. Once you build a network of high-quality backlinks, your site will get the traffic you’ve always wanted.

Content is becoming even more important than traditional keyword-based SEO. Although keywords and keyword research are still vital, quality content is even more essential. Your content should be the right length, the right reading level for your audience, the right type, and contain the right terms. 

Create clear navigation

Clear navigation is key to an effective marketing plan, as it has a huge impact on overall user experience. Incorporating all the necessary information isn’t very helpful unless visitors can locate it quickly. If it takes them too long to find something specific like a price or a product because the layout is complicated, most visitors will give up and leave your site. 

The main menu should be visible and organized in a way that is simple to navigate. To help users navigate back to the beginning, enable breadcrumbs.

Additionally, break your content down into categories and subcategories, and add tags to get more specific. With clear navigation structures and calls-to-action (CTAs), site visitors will easily navigate through your site’s pages.  

Update your site on a regular basis

To design your site as a functional marketing tool, you should provide information that meets the immediate needs of its visitors. Essential information, such as your business address, phone number, other contact information, and pricing information must be up-to-date at all times. 

Furthermore, regularly updating your website content with testimonials, videos, company news, important events, and team updates is a must. Things like webinars, courses, sales, special promotions, and similar events should stand out on your website. 

Create a blog section and post consistently. Review your old articles on a regular basis. Ask yourself what’s changed since the original article was written. You may find outdated info, overlapping content that you can combine, content that has no user or SEO value, etc. Re-optimize content that isn’t performing well. 

Finally, follow your competition’s activities. Monitor their content to see how long it is, what visuals they are using, what subjects they are and aren’t addressing, etc. 

Consistent branding will make your website your best marketing tool

There are several ways to build familiarity and consistency with your brand. It is a good idea to create a memorable logo design and place your logo in your website’s header. This way, it will be visible on every page, not only the homepage. In addition, choose a unifying color scheme and a theme you can apply to your emails and social media accounts. 

Final thoughts

If your company’s marketing efforts are failing and you’re wondering what the problem is, maybe it’s time to take a good look at your website. Content and design are the most important elements of a successful website. A good site is a site that is responsive, simple, attractive, engaging, informative, fresh, and consistent.

Therefore, if you want to make your website your best marketing tool that helps you sell your products/services, your website goals should be compatible with your visitors’ needs and preferences.