(Newswire.net — December 31, 2013) Bedford, NH —
With the New Year upon us and tax season right around the corner, many NH businesses use this time to reflect on the successes from the past year and to start putting into place goals and strategies for business growth in 2014. Web design and internet marketing are a must for a successful game plan for both brick and mortar retailers and service based industries. A screenshot of 2013 shows a year where Google left businesses reeling from altered search algorithms that often resulted in major drops in rankings and steep penalties. The search engine power-house was relentless in its pursuit of web sites with poor SEO and unscrupulous web marketing techniques. This year also brought increased consumer confidence in online shopping with record Cyber Monday sales. Technology growth, specifically in the mobile phone market, is having a significant impact on how consumers surf the web and shop for products. Some tech publications are reporting bold predictions of web searches through handheld devices more than doubling this year. What considerations does your business need to consider as you implement your online marketing strategy for 2014?
Trust and Transparency: Consumer confidence is built on trust. Nobody knows this better than Target, whose recent credit card fiasco has left thousands of angry and disgruntled shoppers fearing for the safety of their identity and bank account balance. In the internet world it is crucial to build trust with site visitors through secure shopping, privacy policies, and easy to find contact information. But most web designers forget that it is just as important to build trust and confidence with search engines as it is to build it with people. Trusted web sites rank higher, acquire more traffic and the more a business is willing to put their face behind their site, the higher the level of trust that is instilled in the visitor. Google makes this easy for businesses through Google+ and its authorship program. Simply setup a Google+ account, add your photo, and link to your Google+ account from your web site. When a person becomes the author of web page content their photo appears next to the Google results listing. This literally puts your face next to your business content and holds you accountable for what your site provides. Brick and mortar stores have the benefit of having actual people behind a counter that can interact with shoppers to build confidence. Now, with Google Authorship, a single face, attached to a singe Google+ account, with a single address, phone and business can build both search engine and consumer confidence at the same time.
Social Signals: It is not what you say about yourself that matters… it is what other people say about you that counts. Most businesses understand the importance of social media marketing but often times they don’t know where or how to start. If used correctly, social media can have several benefits; traffic to a web site, branding, and even a higher ranking on search engines. It is important to have a goal for each action taken with social media marketing and defining these goals should be based on facts, stats and measurable outcomes. Understanding how users interact on social sites, why they click on specific posts and not others and how to generate viral content, is how successful campaigns generate positive results. Some social media portals are better for generating site traffic while others can build search engine ranking. Content for social media can be designed for achieving specific results. Gone are the days of posting random messages with high expectations of quick sales, site traffic or new followers. Strategic planning and precise marketing strategies can build social signals that work to grow a business. (http://www.nhmarketingcompany.com/brc/web-design/nh-web-design-strategies.php)
Robust Content: Quality web site content is now more important than ever. Web users have higher expectations of what a web site should provide. At one time, products alone where enough to generate substantial traffic but as consumers demand more from online retailers there is a belief that sites should provide useful content about products, reviews and industry specific insights. The more helpful the content is to the consumer, the greater the rewards are in the form of traffic, sales and building rapport with clients. With recent changes in the Google search algorithm web sites with more content typically rank higher. There are many factors that determine ranking but it is clear that web sites with more pages, longer content (1000 words or more) on their pages, and original content do better in search results than those with less content. The type of content that appears on pages also plays a significant role in how a web page ranks. With a large volume of web searches taking place through mobile devices in the form of voice queries (ie. Siri, where is the nearest pizza place?) content needs to be designed to answer specific questions. If a business can determine what questions users are asking, they can build content to provide solutions to these questions and fulfill those queries.
As the web continues to grow in 2014 look for Google to continue to make large changes. The more honest and transparent your business can be online the better chace of success you will have with your web promotion this year.