One thing must make a very strong point about is how your website affects everything else you do as it relates to Online Reviews and Local Search Engine Marketing.
If your website is not at or close to 100% keyword focused and optimized then all your other efforts may end up in vain. It all starts with your main website. It absolutely must be the core and center of your online marketing efforts.
There are a few key things that your website must have to succeed that you will not hear from your typical graphics design person or the fly by night website company that promises you a website live in a five minutes. I mean seriously how can something that you literally throw up in five minutes get the long term results you are after?
There are plenty of options out there that want to tell you how "easy" it is get your site up and going. They don't tell you what it actually takes to make your website "successful". If you are a local business you need new customers. A web site that you just threw up tonight is probably not going to give you that. Websites take work. Hard work!
So what are a few things you must have on your website.
1. Your "Meta Data" must be updated and unique for each page. (that is your title, keywords and description.2. You must have a tagged headline with your keyword in it.3. Your keyword must appear in the body of the page at least one for about every 100 to 150 words. (the page must be at least 500 words)4. They way your site links from one page to another must be done correctly. This includes navigation and in context links.5. You must have a XML Sitemap and an RSS feed (tech stuff I know but critical)6. You must have a plan for how you will build links back to your site.7. You need a way for your visitors to help you build the site content. This ensures fresh content that you don't have to come up with on your own. And it could have its own comment and rating system.8. If you are a B2C business you must do a deep Facebook Integration that includes "like" buttons, comments, etc.9. You must integrate other social media into your site. Google +1, Twitter, etc.10. You need to plan your site well with the end result in mind. That means your website should have specific calls to action that tells your visitors what it is they should be doing on your site. They can guess at this either. It must be obvious.11. Your site should have a very simple and easy way to navigate it so that visitors can easily find the information they are looking for.12. You must offer a free report or other information that invites your visitor to sign up on your email list. Yes Email Marketing is still alive and well and you need to be fully engaged in it.13. You must have analytical data on your website traffic. Things like keywords, user demographics, pages visited, etc.14. You have to measure everything. From visitor, to lead, to customer and beyond.15. Bonus: You should use special tracking phone numbers in your online marketing so you can measure exactly where your calls are coming from and what part of your marketing is working.
Each of the above items I mentioned is very critical to your websites success. Use this as a checklist for your next website project. Basically you need a Visitor Built Viral Website. There are probably less than 10% of all local business websites that actually fit into this category. Those that do have this are getting more traffic, more leads and more sales. Follow the list above and you can get it too!
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