Most IT Marketing Agencies Don’t Know How to Optimize Your Website for SEO
One of the common oppositions to digital marketing is, "There's no need for a digital marketing strategy because our web developer takes care of that for us."
The modern MSP website has to facilitate every marketing activity, such as content marketing, lead generation, targeted email campaigns, content, CRM, social media, client engagement, and a variety of other functions. Unfortunately, many web developers lack the resources to push their clients ahead with digital marketing in terms of digital marketing skills.
One mistake business owners make when creating a website is diving right into web development without giving any thought to the web presence strategy or their target audience. While the saying "Build it, and they will come" may apply to some situations, it doesn't apply in this case. Would you rather have a web developer build a static digital brochure that will need to be revived after being dormant for many years? Would you rather have a website that was built with a lasting digital strategy that will drive your business to greater heights for years to come?
A web developer will often build your business's website and add any relevant content that can help your target audience learn what they need to know about your business. Some web developers have some knowledge of SEO (search engine optimization) best practices and they will create keyword-rich content that helps your website show up in search engines.
While we understand that web development and web design are not the easiest things to do, there's so much more to digital marketing than having an active website.
Web Development Requires More Than Just a Web Developer
It's time you started looking at your MSP website like the asset that it is, a representation of your business on the World Wide Web. That's a wealth of potential clients.
A great website creation strategy places your website in front of the right clients. Most web developers focus heavily on website design and not so much on website design strategy. That is one of the reasons why they will expect you to produce the content that you want on your website. If you aren't prepared to do this, you could encounter several problems. This will also make you feel like you are doing all the work.
While there is nothing wrong with wanting a web developer to create a good-looking website, if people aren't visiting the website, does it really matter how good it looks? Search marketing is about more than having your business show up when relevant keywords are entered in the search engine. It's about building your MSP business's online presence so potential clients who have never heard of your MSP company can find your business when they search for your location and the services you provide.
While your MSP business needs a website, a web developer will only be able to do so much for your online presence.
What doesn't a web developer do?
Here's a list of some of the things a web developer won't do for you that a web marketing agency would do:
- Developing and executing a content marketing strategy
- Local link building
- Reputation management
- Building your MSP business's social media presence
- Creating and claiming pages like Google My Business and Yelp
- Local citation building
Web developers are not focused on what happens after your site is finished or whether you meet your marketing goals. All of this will be left up to you. What you will have is a website that may look and function well, but typically, only has information about your business. This is what most web developers see other companies do, so they assume you will want the same thing.
Your MSP Business Needs a Better Website Content Strategy
Unlike web developers, digital marketing agencies do focus on how your website will perform after it is completed. One of the reasons websites need to be built with the assistance of a digital marketing agency is that they will take the time to learn about your business before working on your project.
Marketing agencies will ensure you have a website content strategy that is customer-centric instead of company-centric, so your message will be driven to members of your target audience. Digital marketing agencies will spend more time in the strategy and design phases of your website content strategy to make sure all of the elements support each other and work together to support the goals of your business.
Rather than building a website that only focuses on your company, digital marketing agencies focus on creating content that resonates with your ideal clients. They are aware that this approach will help you rank higher than your competitors. With an improved website content strategy, you will have a website that educates potential clients about your IT services, so they can determine if your IT services can provide a solution to their problems.
Creativity is needed to bring your website to life. It's about more than having a page about your company on your website, you have to reel in website visitors with images, storytelling, color schemes, and more. Being lazy about your website will produce similar responses from your visitors.
Reach Your Audience by Optimizing Web Images With Alt Text
If you are not already aware, Alternative Text or Alt Text is a written description of a digital image. The alternative text appears when an image fails to load on a user's screen. Alternative Text is a great SEO enhancer and it is a must for accessibility. Unfortunately, many online images do not have alt text. Why is this a problem?
- Lacking alt text can cost a brand to miss out on several SEO opportunities. Without alt text, website images will not show up in the searches. Your brand is missing out on this form of organic traffic.
- You may have potential and existing clients who cannot access image information without alt text. It is important to think about all the content that these users are not able to find because of the lack of alt text.
It is important to realize the critical need to include this accessibility tool. Remember, it is important to specify the ALT tag for each image on the website with the keyword. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when writing alt text:
- Be specific
- Do not include any unnecessary language (Screen readers recognize alt text automatically)
- Remember to pay attention to context
- Not every visual on your website needs alt text
- Add meaningful content
- Use keywords sparingly
Whoever takes on the responsibility of taking care of your digital marketing, the strategy should include more than just a website. Your web developer probably doesn't have time to do all that, but we do. Reach out to Ulistic with any questions, and to learn more about how web development can be created with your long-term marketing goals in mind.
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