How to optimize your website for online marketing

ow that you have your business up and running on the web, it's time to maximize your platform and turn it into an avenue with the potential to earn. Here are a few pointers to improve your website's online marketing abilities:  

Connect Your Social Media Pages

Drive traffic from the millions of social media users to your site by providing links to your website on your social media pages. Create a social media marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website. Here are some templates you can use to get started.  You should also include links to your social media on your website in case your site is your customers' first interaction with your brand. You need to establish a well-rounded approach to your online presence as early as possible.  

Create Meaningful Content (that is SEO optimized)

If you aren't creating content on your website to promote your business, it is not at its full potential. Invest time and resources to create high quality, engaging content to drive traffic to your site. "Content" might sound like a vague concept, so let's break it down. When we say "content," we're referring to blog articles, photos, videos, infographics, and any other easy and effective ways of promoting information about your business. The more engaging, the more likely people will share your content; this, in return, does wonders in bringing traffic to your site. Tools such as AddThis and ShareThis facilitate user content sharing.  Creating SEO optimized content is an important aspect of online marketing success. The main point of SEO is for Google and other search engines to find your site, rank your page relevance (determined by your content and the user's search phrase), and deliver it at the top of the search results. Online business consultant Jon Rognerud lays down a top-level checklist of how to optimize your website content here.  

Allow Interactions on Your Site

By allowing users to interact with your brand and website, you allow the creation of user-generated content, which makes your business more than just another "brand." Allowing interactions refers to everything from customer reviews and testimonials to comments on your blog posts.  Making your website interactive adds transparency to your brand and products that will encourage others to try it. It's different for you as a brand to convince people to buy your product, compared to others who have already tried and tested it. Tools such as Livefyre and Disqus allow users to add comments on your content via their Facebook accounts.  

Optimize Your Site for Lead Generation

Lead generation involves acquiring customer information that you could eventually use in transferring potential customers into your sales funnel. This means dedicating a section of your website to acquiring email addresses, so you can regularly engage customers with newsletters and other marketing materials from your business.  This process has several steps of planning. To start, create "pop-ups" on your website so that, once users visit, they are prompted to sign up for your newsletters. Mailchimp and Sumo are some user-friendly platforms that are simple to use. For example, Mailchimp makes email marketing a breeze with quick and easy newsletter templates. You can also send out detailed sign-up forms (compliant with the latest data privacy laws, of course) and start collecting more information from your customers for these newsletters.  Be sure to handle whatever information you collect from your potential and current customers carefully and be transparent about how you will use their information. Also, you should never share customer information to third-parties, but, if it's vital to your business model, be sure you have a Data Privacy Policy to avoid any legal issues.  

There is much more to consider to fully optimize your website's marketing potential, but these basic points will help you get started. Remember that setting up your website and generating meaningful content is not a one-time thing; you should maintain, test, and continually improve your website's content and performance. You have to run follow-up campaigns to keep your brand relevant and engaging for online customers. Consider this a long-term investment and possibly the best investment you could make to ensure the future success for your business.