Competition in every industry is bigger than ever, so if you think that your business needs a bit of an overhaul to push you to the top, then you’re in the right place. We’re here to introduce 4 things you can do to transform your business digitally, with such a big focus on the digital side of things as often that is where businesses fall behind. So, let’s get into it and find out what you can be doing to transform the digital side of your business! 

 

Invest in SEO

The first thing you can do to transform your business is to invest in SEO. If you aren’t already doing this, or you only assign a very small budget to it, you’re seriously missing out on a massive marked. SEO is all about improving your businesses’ visibility on search engines, so that when a user searches for something that you offer on Google, your website appears and they are introduced to your products. 

With other methods of marketing, particularly traditional methods like TV adverts, radio, newspaper etc, you just had to throw out an advert and hope that it might target someone interested in what you have to offer. With SEO, you are able to choose specific keywords that describe exactly what your business does. For example, on one of your web pages, you could focus on the keyword “credit insurance”, then when you start to rank well for that term (ranking in the top 5 is where you really notice a difference in traffic), the people landing on your website are looking for exactly what you offer. 

So, start by conducting keyword research (there are lots of different companies out there who offer this) to find how many people are searching for different terms related to the different services you offer. Then, before you decide on which keywords you are going to target, make sure you actually Google them yourself, to see how other people are interpreting those keywords. 

SEO is a very complex process, so it is always recommended that you work with an agency to make sure that you get it right, as it has the opportunity to completely transform your business. It is such a cost effective way to introduce new users to your business, so invest in SEO and it will provide a much more consistent stream of traffic to your website. 

 

Consider Your Web Design 

Next up, you need to consider your web design. As discussed, the online space is so competitive, so if a user lands on your website and finds it hard to navigate, it looks old fashioned or they simply don’t like the look of it, then they will just leave and go somewhere else. You don’t want all of your new traffic through SEO to be wasted, so get your website looking great and functioning even better and you will reap the benefits. 

Start with the functionality, as a good looking website is useless if people can’t use it. Make sure there is a really clear menu at the top of the website, so people can find the pages they are looking for and then also easily navigate around the rest of the website. Pages shouldn’t be overwhelmed with loads of content, but should have key points clearly displayed on the page, good imagery and then the option for the user to access more information in drop down sections or accordions. Include internal links to direct users to other relevant pages they might be interested in. Have call to action buttons to help the user understand what next steps they should be taken if they are interested in your product or service. These are just a few examples of things you need to be doing to make your website highly functional for a user. 

In terms of the visual web design, have high quality images (that are compressed without compromising the quality), easy to read text, make sure everything is consistent across the website and always include interesting graphics. Another thing you need to do is make sure everything looks like on a mobile device too, as for many businesses, this is the dominant platform that people are using. 

 

Make Your Website Faster 

Making your website faster is another key component of improving the digital side of your business. Linking back to our point about SEO, a fast website is seen as favourable by Google, as they want to show websites that will be a good result for their user and offering them a quick website will do that. So, if you have a slow website, you won’t progress with your SEO as quickly as you would with a quick one. 

On the user experience side of things, speed plays a huge role in how users perceive a brand. If they find your website and it is really slow, they will naturally see the brand as less professional and reliable, as well as causing annoyance. All of this will result in a negative perception of the brand within a matter of seconds, so you need to make sure you get this right. 

Work with web developers in order to do this, who will be able to advise on what needs to be improved for your website specifically. However, some of the common things are: 

  • Compressing images to reduce their size without reducing the quality 
  • Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML
  • Upgrade your hosting solution
  • Only use plugins that you really need

 

Create Share-Worthy Content

Last but not least, you should be creating share-worthy content. You should stand out from the crowd when it comes to your content and show that you really know what you are talking about, providing valuable insights in your industry. Start with writing bi-weekly blog posts, spending time getting them right and then sharing across social media channels. If the content is good, over time you will build a reputation for your great content and people will start sharing. Then, a big chunk of your marketing efforts will be done for you, when industry specialists are interested in your content and are willing to share that with their following, helping to improve brand awareness and eventually increasing conversions. 

This will take time to do right, but it is definitely worth assigning time to your content, as it will significantly build people’s trust for your company. Just like a slow website will damage trust, so will poor content, so it is vital you invest in this for your business. You might have content specialists in house, or you might work with a copywriter who will get to know your brand to offer seamless content across platforms.