How to Get the Most Out of Your Website

You invested a lot of time and money creating your website and you expect results. Here are a few important things to do to get the most out of your website.

By Alain Houle, Alco Web Design LLC, Appleton Wisconsin

The internet is a very dynamic place and website owners that do not periodically refresh their website leave big money on the table.

• There are more than 1 billion websites on the internet and every day, thousands get added or removed.
• The search engines modify their algorithm hundreds of times a year.
• New optimization techniques and tools are being developed all the time.
• Google assumes that newly updated information is more relevant. Over time, websites that do not change get pushed down to the bottom of the Google search results and are not being found.

Initial setup - When creating a new website or making significant changes to an existing website:

• Make sure all content is complete, accurate, and up to date.
• Make sure every page focuses on one, two, or a maximum of three keywords. Segregate content and create additional pages if needed.
• For every page, make sure the keywords naturally come up several times in the textual content.
• Make sure the pages meta tags are Google optimized.
• Make sure the pages picture size, names, and alt-name are Google optimized.
• Make sure the pages and paragraph titles are Google optimized.
• Make sure there are no errors and broken links.

Tell the world about your website - Shortly after going live:

• Submit your website URL to the Google and Bing search engines.
• Submit your website to Google WebMaster tools.
• Create your business profile in the Google and Bing Business directories.
• Get your business listed in the local business directories.
• Submit your website to the online data aggregators.

Keeping up to date - Once a year:

• Make sure your website is up to date as per the initial setup described earlier.
• Review & address warning & errors identified by Google WebMaster tools.
• Review & refresh your business profile in the Google and Bing Business directories.
• Review & refresh your local business directories listings.
• Resubmit your website to the online data aggregators (yearly subscription).

Having a website is pointless if nobody finds it. SEO is the art of bringing your website on top of the Google search results, where it can be found by potential customers. At Alco Web Design, we are well versed in the latest small business SEO techniques that will deliver consistent and sustainable traffic to your virtual doorsteps.

Let us turn your website into a cost-effective marketing tool! Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss how we can help you getting the most out of your website.