The start of a new year is always exciting. It is usually a time of resolutions and new starts. This is the perfect time to review and analyze your website and social media strategy, so you can kick off the new year with a bang! Today we are going over a few tips to help you do just that!
Review Analytics
If you don’t already do this regularly – now is the time to take a deep look into your website and social media analytics. Website: What pages do people visit most on your website? What are your top 10 blog posts within the last 30 days, 6 months and past year? Which pages are not generating much traffic? Social: What types of social media posts do best for you? What days and times are your followers most engaged? Which types of posts get you the most link clicks?
Make a list of your top 10 blog posts, top 10 social media posts, best days and times to post (social media analytics does average this out for you), which platform, links, posts, and pages that get you the most traffic/clicks etc.
Content creation
Now that you have reviewed your analytics on both your website and social – and you have made your lists – it is time to take a good look at what is working best for you and think of content you can create (for both your website and social) based off of this information, that will continue to boost your traffic.
If you have not yet started a blog for your business, now is the time to include one and write down a list of 5-10 blog posts you will create. Remember – blog posts are great for SEO! They signal to Google that you have new content regularly, which will boost your rankings on search!
It is also time to look at what is not working and consider removing them completely or posting this type of content sparingly.
Content Calendar
Create a calendar for your social media and your website’s blog posts. Include what you will post per day, titles for blog posts, hashtags, etc. Aim to post in social media at least once a day (2 to 3 times would be best, if it’s possible). In regards to blog posts, you don’t have to stress yourself out by posting a new blog daily – however, schedule an awesome, informative and valuable article at least once a week.
What else should you include in your content calendar? Newsletter blasts, promotions you are planning, giveaways, special events (promote these!), promoted posts/content (ads).
Audit Your Seo
Take some time to perform a few Google searches with your business keywords and keyword phrases. Is your business found on the first page of Google (or other search engines) with any particular words or phrases? If your business does not appear on the first page, take a look at your competitor’s pages that are appearing. Look at their page descriptions and take notes. What keywords and phrases are they using on their web pages and on their pages metadata (the page description under the website link found on a search)?
Then, take time to edit some of your pages – add those keywords and phrases to your content. Also, take time to go through your website’s pages (including blog posts) and add keywords and phrases to each page’s metadata.
You can use great plugins like Yoast SEO to help you do this!
Also, wherever possible, add links to your own content within your content – this will help you keep people on your website longer and interested in your awesome content.
Take a few minutes to go through your social media profiles and update your photos, bio and more. Remember that your social media bio should also have a few keywords and a great description that will allow people to know exactly what you do and get them excited to follow you and click on your bio link!
Brainstorm NEW ideas
Now is the time to brainstorm new ideas and try new things. Video was huge in 2018 (on websites and on social) and it will continue in 2019! If you are shy – don’t let that stop you. There are plenty of ways you can add video to your marketing without getting in front of a camera. You can find a few ideas here!
Get with your team and think of new ideas – promotions, content upgrades, etc. It is always a great idea to speak to others about what is trending at the moment and try to come up with a few ideas to ride those trendy waves and get noticed!
Get website insight
After you have made changes to your site you can request insight from strangers. Although we may think our website is great, getting insight from others can be super useful! This will help you determine if there are any items that may require attention, if your site is user-friendly and more. You can use websites like UserTesting to do this for you! UserTesting does offer some free reviews, however, if you would like better-detailed feedback (and a deeper look at your website and its content and links) then you can use their paid feedback options.
Don’t take negative feedback personally! This feedback can help you change a few things that are not working for you – possibly some items that many other visitors would want to be changed as well whether it be for ease of use or other reasons.
Get started
Are you ready to start fresh in 2019 and get noticed? These tips will definitely help you get started on the right foot! stick to it, continue creating and you are sure to rock 2019! Let us know what your website and social media goals are for this new year!