Grow your business by enhancing your website’s visitor experience.

If you own or manage a business in 2021, you need to have an online presence. But, just having a website is not enough. Our world has changed drastically and the online experience is no exception. People expect up to the minute content. For example: What is your business doing about COVID-19? Is there a mask requirement? Are masks available? Is it by appointment only? Is there an occupancy limit? People are visiting your website for instant answers. 

Your website is no longer a brochure, it is a salesman, customer service, and an extension of your business that can help potential customers feel comfortable and gain trust.

Consider the Instacart model. After you place an order, you are notified your order has been received and you will hear from your shopper shortly. Before you know it you receive a message from your shopper letting you know they are about to begin. Next, your shopper sends you a message, “the store is currently out of Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, but they have Lysol Disinfecting Wipes. Would you like me to replace the Clorox Wipes with the Lysol brand?” If your luck is like mine, you will have to replace many more items on your shopping list. Eventually, you receive a message saying your shopper has checked out and your order is on the way. Followed by a final message letting you know your order has been delivered, and would you be so kind as to review your experience by clicking on 1-5 stars.

This is a great example of where website interactivity is going. And for you to grow your business you need to find ways to interact with your visitors that will help them. Whether it is a simple notification bar letting them know your hours and COVID-19 protocols, or it is a chatbot installed that allows you to interact with visitors and answer their questions in real-time; you need to consider how to make visiting your website a more helpful experience.

When managing and maintaining a website, providing an exceptional experience is your top priority. You need to make sure your site is secure, your site is fast, and of course, your site is error-free. These are not only important to provide a good experience for your visitors, but they are also vital elements that Google is paying close attention to.

In fact, starting in May 2021, how well your website performs, especially on mobile devices, will have an effect on your Google ranking according to Search Engine Journal. 

This brings us to Search Engine Optimization(SEO). There are millions of articles about search engine optimization(SEO) that can get very overwhelming and make the task seem very daunting. The truth is SEO is a lot of work. Regular, ongoing work. But when done correctly it is sustainable and can build upon itself. 

An important part of SEO is making sure your website performance is surpassing search engine expectations. Regularly audit your website’s performance and make improvements to the areas in need. Google cares a lot about the mobile experience for visitors. So if you are paying attention to providing a fast and error-free mobile experience, Google will take notice and reward you with ranking your website higher than your competition that is not paying attention to their mobile performance. 

Google wants to provide an exceptional experience for each visitor. If you click on a link in the search results and the website takes a long time to load, is not secure, or worse, it is a broken link, Google feels you are not providing a good experience for their visitors. And that is the bottom line. Good experiences get moved up. And bad experiences get dropped.

Search engines are how customers find you. It is important to pay attention to their changes and updates. For example, Google updates its algorithm 500-600 times a year(Search Engine Land). This website performance update, coming in May 2021, is a big one. By taking the right steps now you can make sure your website is outperforming your competition’s website.

When looking to win the search results race, you want your website to appear in the top three results. The higher the better. And as mentioned above, if your website’s performance is not meeting Google’s expectations for a good user experience, your ranking will fall lower starting in May 2021. Maybe even into the worst place you can be, page 2 of search results. This reminds me of an old SEO joke. 

Where is the best place to hide a dead body? 

On page 2 of search results. Because no one ever goes there. 

If you would like a free report on how you can improve your visitor experience Clover Creative Group is here to help. Contact us today for your free report, visit our website or call us today at 1-603-677-7032.