I recently had a client of mine do a complete overhaul of their website. New templates, new copy, new CTA buttons, new sitemap—a complete redesign. As anyone who has been through one of these major re-designs knows, it takes a lot of prepping, planning and time to execute a brand new website. When it was all over the client said to me, “I feel like I just gave birth.” She was so proud of all of the months of hard work and the constant emails and edits and approvals that she was gleaming as if looking at a new baby. Now, anyone who has given actual birth would probably laugh in her face (maybe even throw a punch), but I did see the correlation between putting all of your energy into something and getting a really great result.

And as many mothers in the past have said after giving birth, “I’m never doing that again!”… you would be surprised as to how many go on to have a second, third, fourth, and maybe even a fifth child. The same thing will happen with your website—you are most likely going to redesign that website many more times over the years.

This brings me to my own personal experience, as I have done many website redesigns between clients and the companies I have worked for. She was right! Website redesigns are exhausting and take a lot of energy to complete, but they are well worth it. I also realized, just like raising a child and teaching them to grow, we also need to help our websites grow!

Here are 5 ways to keep your website growing and working for your business: 

1. Give each page of your website the attention it deserves.

David Ogilvy, called The Father of Advertising, said, “If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.” 

How many times have you landed on a website that made your eyes glaze over and your brain turn to mush because the writing was full of jargon or just felt like it wasn't directed toward you? How long did you spend on that site?

To make your prospect stick around long enough to hear what you have to say, you’ve got to speak their language. Here’s how to learn the language your prospects speak.

I review and analyze websites on a pretty regular basis — for clients and prospects alike. While the level of functionality, design, messaging, and strategy for each one varies dramatically, there is one thing I see time and time again (or really a LACK of something). These rather simple, yet incredibly impactful, components of a great website are CTAs (calls-to-action) and forms. Seems easy enough, but then why is it that so many organizations don’t have CTAs and forms placed strategically around their websites?

You might be thinking, “Dani, who cares? What’s the big deal? I have a beautiful, perfectly crafted, well-worded website that drives decent amounts of traffic and tells our story perfectly. What is another CTA or form going to do?” Well… let me tell you what you’re missing out on without having these key conversion opportunities throughout your website. 

We hear it all the time: the myriad ways that our websites could be improved. Better images, more user-friendly layout, more cohesive language, better branding and positioning…. The list goes on and on. But when I look at a website, as an inbound marketer, I see things a little differently. While imagery, branding, and design are all really, really important, there are other key elements to a website that could be boosting your business, and particularly the amount of visitors that become leads. Here are three ways we see websites failing businesses.

A recent study by Google shows that 89% of B2B buyers use the Internet during the research process. Whether you get a call from these prospects or whether your competition does instead will depend on how well your website does its job. Here are six elements you can add to your site to generate more leads.

As an inbound marketing and sales consultant, each day I have the opportunity to work with clients to make recommendations that help them improve their conversion rates and generate additional leads. It’s difficult to not get excited about how helpful this can be to clients since it directly impacts their revenue and is proof that the recommendations I make are truly working. Most of the recommendations that I make for clients work across industries and, for the most part, can be used by other companies to replicate the same success. This is one of the reasons I enjoy writing about the recommendations that are implemented and produce amazing results.  

Is it time to update your website for the new year? Are you worried your traffic isn't where it needs to be? Perhaps you're changing hosting platforms, or you just have a feeling your new idea will attract your prospects more effectively. Whatever your reasons for deciding to move forward with a website update, here are steps you'll want to take for a successful redesign.

Don’t you love it when you click on a link to an article posted by a friend on Facebook and you're greeted with annoying popups that have to be closed in order to see the article you were interested in? Or worse, when you can't close that annoying popup without being directed to a new website from the advertiser?  

Yeah, I don’t like that either, and apparently Google agrees it's not a good experience for their users. TechCrunch recently reported that Google will be penalizing mobile sites that have “popups that cover the main content after users navigate to a page or as they are looking through it, as well as standalone interstitials that have to be dismissed before you can access the main content and pages that show what looks like a standalone interstitial above the fold.”

Today we have a guest post from Max Emelianov. Max started HostForWeb in 2001. In his role as HostForWeb’s CEO, he focuses on teamwork and providing the best support for his customers while delivering cutting-edge web hosting services. 

First impressions are everything, especially online. But is your website making the right one for your brand?

One of the most popular pages of any B2B website is the contact page. It’s where visitors go if they want to know where your company is located or what your phone number is. It’s also where they go if they want to ask a question or inquire to learn more about your products or services.

In the inbound marketing world, we call these types of leads bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) leads. These leads are typically reaching out to you because they have an immediate need or reason to contact you. These people are probably ready to make a purchase, and you want to make sure it's as easy as possible for them to contact you so you can get that conversation started.