The New Year is upon us, so it’s time to set some new goals for 2017. Most resolve to lose a pound or two or find a new love interest in the year to come, but as a website owner, your goals are probably centered on the success of your online business.
Whether you’re a profitable blogger or an online retailer, the success of your website relies heavily on your ability to keep up with changing online marketing trends and shifts in consumer needs, wants, and demands.
If you’re looking to get a leg up on the New Year by setting your goals and making a plan for success before the clock strikes midnight on January 1st, you could probably benefit from some helpful tips on boosting your site’s success.
Here are five ways to increase your site’s potential for success in the New Year.
1. Build upon your online presence
No matter how great your product is or how much you’ve spent designing an excellent website, none will matter if consumers can’t find your website. This is why site owners must build and maintain an effective online presence. This will include keeping up on SEO to ensure consumers can find you when they search terms related to your site, establishing your brand on various social media channels, and creating and promoting quality content to keep it in the public eye.
As a site owner, it will be essential to track and implement consumer trends in each of these areas in 2017 to ensure you’re keeping up with the digital marketing tactics that are working and identifying ways to implement them in your offsite onsite strategies.
If you’re a bit new to the digital marketing world, I recommend checking out this guide which provides an excellent overview of how to build an effective online presence for your brand. Your tactics and approaches may vary with time, but focusing on the elements provided in this guide as you get started will help you move in the right direction.
2. Get to know your consumers
Whether you’re a business owner or a blogger, one of the most important things a site owner can do is to get to know the site’s consumers. What type of content does your consumer base like to see? Are there minor tweaks you could make to your site to increase your ability to make an online sale? Are there any changes you could make to your product, service, or content to better meet the needs of your consumers?
Things like A/B testing, consumer surveys, Google Analytics, and focus groups can help you get answers to these questions. You should check your analytics at least every other day to identify consumer trends. As far as surveys, A/B testing, and focus groups go, trying out each of these tactics at least once throughout the year could help you get the valuable insights you need to make profitable changes to your website and its offerings.
If you’ve yet to do any conversion rate optimization on your site, take a look at these simple tweaks you can make to help you increase the rate at which your site can convert shoppers to customers.
3. Listen to the experts
One of the most challenging things a business owner can do is listen to what marketing and other creative areas experts have to say about their site. Although most business owners and bloggers understand that marketing professionals have a better grasp on marketing tactics and technical online marketing terms than they do, they often have a hard time taking new suggestions for their sites.
Suppose you’re not working with an outside marketing pro. In that case, you’re still likely neglecting what other marketing professionals have to say about the latest tactics because you’re busy working within your own company.
You might be a bit strapped for time, but if you plan to manage any element of your site’s marketing, you must stay up on the latest online marketing news. The field is ever-changing, so if you miss a simple announcement from Google, you risk pushing for outdated tactics that either don’t work or could leave you with a penalty.
Commit yourself to seseekingdvice from and listening to experts. I recommend following a few different influencers on their blogs and others. Some of my favorite resources are the Moz blog, the Kissmetrics blog, and Rand Fishkin’s Twitter account.
4. Re-evaluate and define key business goals
As your site grows, your goals as a business should grow along with it. This doesn’t mean that you should abandon your mission statement or values to accommodate growing trends, but it does mean that you should sit down at least once a year to re-evaluate where your site is headed and what you would like to see in the coming months. Even if your site is just a tiny blog at this point, you should treat it like a profitable business as you set your goals and strategize for their execution if you want to see your audience grow and your potential profits rise.
If you’re unsure how to evaluate your site’s annual goals like a business owner would for their business, check out these five tips to get started.
5. Hold yourself accountable for change
Suppose you’re not strategic about the way you set your goals and track your accomplishments. In that case, it’s nearly impossible to mail contain a complete understanding of your site’s performance and what you can do to improve its performance. This is why it is crucial to set up a system for self-accountability that involves goal setting, tracking, deadlines, and evaluation.
The first step in this process is to set specific numbers and time limits for your goals. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to determine why and how you did or did not reach your goals. The next step is to set processes for how and when you will track your progress. Next, you’ll want to set deadlines for your goals, and be sure to mark these on your calendar with notifications that let you know when it’s time to check in on how you’re doing. Finally, you’ll want to set a system for determining your success in your final evaluation at the end of 2017.
Creating a specific process will help you hold yourself accountable for successes and failures throughout the year.
