How do you know if your potential customers are consistently finding your website? While optimizing your search engine strategies are important, findability goes hand in hand with your website SEO, as well as delivering your content to readers.
There is no one formula that is perfect for every website. Rather, you need to discover which strategies work for you and employ the ones that drive the most traffic to your site. Here are a few good strategies that, when engaged in the right ways, provide consistent findability results.
1. Publish Magnetic Content – A sound findability strategy includes the quantity and the quality of content that gets updated on your website. Do you include “pillar” content that provides innovative and helpful information that you can capitalize on? Do you post consistently new and fresh material that attracts subscribers and new search traffic? And do you post content that is relevant and interesting to your product or service?
2. Use Relevant Keywords – Not only do you need to post pillar and regular content, but your chosen keywords and keyword density are important as well. Research your keywords. Use your site statistics to find out which keywords are used most that land on your site. Use tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool where you can look up potential words and phrases, and get great alternate keyword ideas that may work better.
3. Understand the Consumer Search and Purchase Path – You need to understand how your customers use, find and buy from your website when they sit down at their desktop computers, searching for what you have to offer. What are their decision patterns? What keywords are used most often? Do customers make multiple purchases? How many customers abandon their shopping cart, and why?
4. Create Intuitive Navigation – Once a potential customer lands on your website, is it easy for them to find their way around? Be sure that your website is intuitive for any user to find the answers to the questions they have. A keyword or pay per click ad may have stimulated a potential customer’s interest, but after they visit your site, be sure they have a clear navigation available to get to the heart of a problem or question. Of course, make sure your customers have clear calls to action and links to making a final purchase.
5. Let Customers Search On Your Website – Be sure you include a search box on your navigation. Customers may want answers to a specific question or want to find a specific product or service. Adding a search box by Google or another popular search engine is free and easy, and it helps your customers know that you care about helping them find what is important.
6. Use a RSS Feed and Keep a Mailing List – Be sure your findability strategy includes a RSS feed to your blog. Readers will most likely return when they have a trigger that tells them that you have posted new content. As well, be sure you invite website visitors to join your mailing list, where they can receive exclusive information and deals.