Your website is your storefront. It’s the one piece of online real estate that truly belongs to your business. With 1.62 billion people shopping online each year, you need a website if you’re going to capture some of that market.
While some microbusinesses can survive purely through social media marketing and third-party eCommerce platforms like Amazon, sooner or later, every business needs its own website.
Here’s what you need to know about managing your website in 2022.
Step One – Gauge Your Resources
Creating and managing a website is one thing, but who will be responsible for it? Managing a website requires resources in the form of time and money. Some companies handle their website in-house, whereas others outsource to dedicated website management services.
Managing a website is more work than most business owners initially realize. If you want your website to generate revenue for your company, you cannot do it halfway.
This is what you need to do to identify and allocate business resources to your website:
- Identify Stakeholders – Note down everyone who will be involved in your website. This includes everyone from an IT guy to the writers creating your content.
- Assign Roles – List the roles required to keep your website running. Assign a stakeholder to each position and define their responsibilities.
- Set Time – Define a certain number of hours each role will spend per week on the website. You don’t want the website to take away all their time.
While it may seem tedious to go through this process, it’s a required part of the process. Setting down your plan now will save you a lot of confusion later.
Step Two – Choose Your Content Management System
Approximately 82% of marketers use content marketing, much of which takes place through their website. However, a content management system is much more than a place for your content marketing.
On the contrary, a content management system powers your whole website, including its design and the essential functions that make it work. Content management system software simplifies the management of your website but note that some in-house programming skills will be required.
Take the time to research different options. Keep a firm eye on security features and the level of customer support. Heading off common problems at the pass can save you significant headaches later.
Step Three – Create Content for Your Website
Content is the lifeblood of any website. Despite this, content is not just the blog posts or the videos. It also pertains to any downloadables you’ve made available or live webinars you might host on your website.
Lead generation relies on great content. Your traffic numbers also depend on engaging content. As you manage your website, you need a content marketing strategy. Approximately 60% of marketers say that a content marketing strategy is crucial for increasing demand.
Think about what your target market wants to know about and analyze the competition. Look at their content and think about how you’re going to do it better.
Simultaneously, you need to keep SEO in mind. While technical SEO aspects remain essential, Google has said countless times that being helpful is the best way to rise up the rankings.
Your content strategy is something you should review regularly. Your customers can and will change over time, and so should your content.
Step Four – Bring in Outside Help
Managing the content on your website will take up most of your attention when building a website. Drafting in outside help in the form of guest posters keeps your website diverse enough to hold the interest of your target audience.
Rather than employing just another personality, consider contacting an expert in your industry. For example, if your business sells fire alarms, hiring a professional installer or a fireman makes sense to write some content for your site.
Partnering with the right people can elevate your content above your competition. The investment in expertise can pay dividends in time.
Here’s how to manage your team of guest content creators:
- Make a List – Start by listing potential contacts who could help you get to that next level. The chances are you already have a few people in mind. Don’t be afraid to be ambitious with who you make contact with.
- Assign a Unique Strategy – Partnerships require persistence. Some contacts may require a simple phone call, whereas others may require in-person meetings to get them onboard. Everyone is different.
- Be Genuine – Partnerships are all about building a genuine relationship. Fakeness always shines through, and it’s not something your partner or your audience will appreciate.
Creating mutually beneficial partnerships takes time for everybody. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. Sometimes you’ll need to keep chipping away to get results.
Step Five – Monitor Your Metrics
Traffic, engagement, average time on page, bounce rates, and purchases are essential metrics to track on your website. Each one provides you with insights into what your customers are thinking.
For example, a high average time on page indicates that your content is hooking your target audience. High bounce rates show that you are bringing in people who are either not interested or looking for something else from your content.
Many of these metrics go hand-in-hand and empower you to answer the pivotal questions regarding performance, such as:
- Why are most of my visitors not converting on my landing page?
- How much does it cost me to gain a sale?
- What pieces of content do people like to engage with the most?
Adaptability is the key to success in content marketing. You cannot expect the strategies employed last year to succeed this year. Monitoring crucial metrics is an ongoing task that will inform you on which adjustments you need to make to dominate your industry.
Conclusion
Creating a website and letting it fester will not allow your organization to make headway in your industry. Website management is a full-time job, so it makes sense to provide it with its own dedicated plan.
Small businesses may find value in outsourcing this service to someone else. Handing the job over to an expert can save you time and allow you to focus on other aspects of your business.
What is in your website management plan for 2022?