Updated 4:04 PM CST, Tue February 13, 2018
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Sweethearts, roses, handmade cards and candy galore - Valentine’s Day is a pretty big deal at VGM Forbin. In celebration of this lovely holiday, we thought our gift to you would be to share some insight into something that makes our heart skip a beat - a beautiful website. Take these tips to make your website a sweet Valentine’s gift to your customers, fuzzy feelings and all.
First Impressions Matter
Are you trustworthy, considerate, easy to work with and sincere? Have your customers found this to be true through their first interaction with your financial institution or website? If not, you better believe they will talk about this online and with their friends, AKA potential business. It takes only seven seconds for a first impression to be formed about a person and less than two-tenths of a second for your site- so you better dress to impress and give them everything they need!
Checking the Ex’s List
Think about what past customers would say to others looking to get involved with your bank. This is where your reputation precedes you, so keeping an eye on directory reviews is vital. How successful are you at managing your brand’s reputation sites like Yelp, Bing and Google Reviews? Have you even claimed your listing? What love (or hate) notes are your customers leaving for you and how are you responding? This is a great opportunity to establish your brand, boost SEOs and boost customer confidence in good times and bad!
MetaDate(a)
Are you dating your followers? By that, we mean metadata. Having consistent dates is what keeps the spark alive between any relationship, right? Metadata provides connections between your content and your customers that is as smooth as honey. In its truest sense, it is data that describes other data. It helps search engines determine the relevance of page content and whether or not it should be displayed in the search results.
Give all your love to the Title Tag and the Meta Description. The Title Tag is the heading that is first shown in the search results. This could be the name of your business and the main keyword phrase you are targeting. The Meta Description should be used to describe precisely what your page is about based on your keyword research. These should be concise, eye-grabbing and original or your customers may move on to those who have it figured out.
Make Them Swoon With a Box of SEOs
If you’re looking to step up your game in this relationship, don’t just tell them you love them, you have to show up. Take a cue from Disney’s Enchanted as you make your moves. Do you find a way to show them a little bit every day? You can’t take their love for granted, but that doesn’t mean you need to dedicate a song to them. You only need to provide content that matters to your customers and makes them feel valued. This will make your site a heartthrob that your followers will adore.
Get Engaged
Search Engine Optimization is vital for a committed relationship. Are you popping the right question when you evaluate who your target audience is and how your business can fulfill their needs? The better you get at mastering SEO, the more your website will shine in the search results. Nobody goes to the alley, or page two of Google, to find a healthy relationship. You’ll have to put in continuous effort, research and planning to provide the right optimization for the right audience. Flattery will get you nowhere, so avoid keyword stuffing and focus on providing a quality user experience that will keep them coming back for more.
Blogs with Benefits
One surefire way to keep things interesting is adding a blog to your site. Blogging might not be for everyone, but if you are open to providing something a little extra for your customers it might be the way to go. It allows more content for Google to crawl and has the potential to meet the additional needs of you followers with helpful tips and advice from the banking experts in a fun and casual way. This will encourage longer site visits and opportunities for linking with other sites-a great SEO benefit. It can pay to step out of your comfort zone.
“We Need to Talk: Analytics”
The dreaded words of any relationship, “we need to talk,” come at a price. We know what they mean. You re-evaluate your past actions and words. Were you too clingy, too vanilla or simply taking them for granted? You gather your strength, and prepare yourself for the inevitable break, ready for a counter comeback if needed. After all, they just don’t recognize quality when they see it, it’s their fault. Thankfully, having this conversation with your customers doesn’t have to end in heartache.
With website analytics, you can get specific feedback on what content is performing or not performing well. Why would you want to waste time and money devoted to a tactic that is not backed up by data? An excellent starting point is to define your relationship goals. Make these specific and measurable. For example, “We would like a 15% conversion rate on X product’s landing page.” You then need to collect the data and decide on the next-step action items.
To Have and to Hold
You may find your visitors getting lost and losing interest on clunky pages, or complex navigations. You want them to feel like this experience was meant to be, and being hard to read won’t do you any favors. Figure out what strategies need to be dumped, and which ones are to have and to hold. Fortunately, learning your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is a never ending process, with endless opportunities to gear content towards your target audience.
Analytics are the most valuable tool you have to ensure you maintain and grow your relationships. You can measure page views, time on page and even source traffic. With Google Analytics, you are able to evaluate the engagement of your followers and alter your content to meet their needs.
We hope you are able to take some of our favorite practices to heart with your website, to really sweep your customers off of their feet with a wonderful web experience this year!
Get in contact with VGM Forbin for help growing your website relationship!
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