New year! New you! Time to take a look at that website and see if there's anything you can do to improve its performance. After all, what better time than the beginning of the year to take a step back and make sure you're getting the most out of it?
This is a great time to take a look in the old marketing toolbox and see if you've got the latest and greatest working to bring you more customers.
The Right Tools for Your Marketing Toolbox
If you haven't figured it out by now, local online marketing is very much like a contact sport. You're not exactly trading body blows with your competitors, but your are in a fight for the attention of a the exact same prospects.
In that competitive world, if you don't keep your feet moving, you will get left behind. If you're not using the right tools to stay current, you're absolutely going to donate new business to your local competition.
Since you know what you did last year, let's see what we can add to the mix this coming year to get even better results.
Google Search Console
Back in 2015, Google changed the name of Google Webmaster Tools to Google Search Console.
We have all kinds of Webmaster Tools fans: hobbyists, small business owners, SEO experts, marketers, programmers, designers, app developers, and, of course, webmasters as well. What you all share is a desire to make your work available online, and to make it findable through Google Search. So, to make sure that our product includes everyone who cares about Search, we've decided to rebrand Google Webmaster Tools as Google Search Console.
Announcing Google Search Console – the new Webmaster Tools
Why You Need This Tool in the Toolbox.
So Google Search Console isn't just for internet geeks. It's for everyone who cares about search. Good to know. That makes a terrific PowerPoint slide, but what exactly does it do and why is it so important?
Simply stated, Google Search Console helps you understand what you look like online to people who are trying to find you. It's a free tool and if you have a Gmail account, you already have access to it.
There's Nothing to It But to Do It
The only thing you need to get this tool working for you, is prove that you're the actual owner of your website. After that, you'll have access to all kinds of helpful information that will guide what you do in the coming year to attract more prospects:
- Access the list of keywords prospects use to find you online
- Find out which pages on your site are the most popular
- Discover what links on your site people are clicking on
- Get a better understand how your website looks to Google
- Make sure you're serving your mobile visitors properly
- and quite a few other helpful bits of info
So to sum things up, Google Search Console is information. It's easy access and it's waiting to show you how your site appears to Google. But more importantly, it's waiting to help you understand how your site looks to your target audience.
They say, what isn't measured, can't be improved. This tool is a useful tool for improving your site's performance in 2020. If it's not already in your toolbox, you definitely ought to give it some play this year.
Revive by Animalz
The heart and soul of most local marketing plans is good content. Adding relevant content is good for your audience and is usually rewarded by the search engines.
However, there's a downside to adding new blog posts and new pages to your site on a regular basis. Eventually some of that content can become stale and out dated.
Luckily, there's a tool to help deal with that. Revive by Animalz keeps you from having to continuously pore over every blog post on your site to find the ones that are a little ripe and in need of a refresh.
There are three steps to putting this tool to use.
- Authenticate
To use Revive, you need to have a Google Analytics account up and running. This is how it gains an insite on your content's performance. - Analyze
Revive checks your site to look for what it calls content decay. That's a brutal term but it simply means pages and posts whose performance is on the decline. - Update
You'll receive an email with a list of pages that need your attention. Your job then is to freshen up those posts so they provide value to your visitors again.
Valuable content is the currency that drives internet marketing. Having a tool that helps keep your site full of relevant content definitely a spot in the marketing toolbox for the coming year.
Just thought I'd Throw these In As Honorable Mentions
Nobody likes coming to a webpage and seeing a wall of words. You've got to break that up visually. If you create enough content, you're going to need a reliable source of stock photos:
There are a number of free stock photo collections available online. Two I recommend that you investigate for your particular marketing toolbox are Pexels and PxHere. Their selection isn't huge but they are surprisingly useful.
You won't be able to type an obscure reference into their search bar and come up with the perfect image. However, they are a great option to have available when you simply need a generic image to break up the digital landscape a bit.
With the right tools in your marketing toolbox, there’s no reason that 2020 shouldn’t be your best year yet!
