Having a good website is crucial to the success of any business’s digital marketing efforts. But a successful digital footprint doesn’t stop there. Our clients are looking for ways to interact and engage with their audience more than ever before. Finding ways to improve consumer touch points has never been more important, so we’ve outlined four key practices that will help you stay relevant.
1. Make it Mobile
More than 50 percent of users rely on mobile as their primary internet source, and that number continues to climb. If your site offers a mobile experience that is not up to par, you are likely failing to engage a huge segment of your audience. This is especially true for eCommerce sites, as data collected from the 2013 holiday season found that nearly one in three online purchases (29%) were made on a mobile device. In order to effectively reach and engage the growing number of mobile users, your site must be optimized for viewing across all devices. But optimizing for mobile doesn’t necessarily mean redesigning your site. We work with clients to develop mobile-friendly solutions that are specific to their goals. Read more about how Starkmedia can help optimize your site for mobile.
2. Plan Your Email Marketing Campaign
An effective email campaign will not only drive traffic to your site, it also will increase engagement with your audience and drive conversions. Is your email strategy pulling its weight? Starkmedia works with clients to determine the optimal email frequency for their audiences, then we create a custom email content strategy and calendar to help achieve each client’s specific goals. Having all emails written, designed, and scheduled well in advance ensures consistent communication that will build audience engagement and drive conversions.
3. Improve Your Search Ranking
A good search ranking is crucial for the success of your site. There are several easy ways to improve your site’s ranking:
A. Make sure you are generating SEO-friendly content. Knowing how your customers are searching for your products and services is vital to understanding what keywords to incorporate in your content. We regularly help our clients write content and understand what keywords to use and where.
B. Improve your site’s load time using Google PageSpeed Insights. Google has been using page load times as a factor in search ranking algorithms since 2010, but the new PageSpeed Insights tool allows you to pinpoint exactly what changes need to be made to improve your site’s load time. Our clients have been surprised what a huge difference just a couple small tweaks can make. Read more about Google PageSpeed Insights.
C. Migrate your site from HTTP to HTTPS. Recently, Google launched a new ranking signal that gives HTTPS sites a ranking boost over HTTP sites. The boost is minor right now, but Google says that it “may decide to strengthen” the signal to encourage all site owners to migrate to HTTPS, “to keep everyone safe on the web.” The migration itself is fairly simple, and by taking the proper steps, our clients have been able to make the move to HTTPS without losing site traffic.
4. Target Your Audience with Strategic Ad Placement
Now is a good time to 
figure out where your target audience is living online, and which channels most effectively drive conversions. Starkmedia does extensive research to identify the best possible paid advertisement opportunities for our clients, ensuring the money they invest in ad placement is generating the maximum ROI. Our clients have seen a substantial boost in conversions from implementing highly-targeted paid search campaigns, placing banner ads, and more.
