“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Rahm Emanuel
At a time when most businesses – large or small – are fearing for their future, the title of this piece may seem to be missing the point or, worse, trivialising it. We know you’re scared. We’re scared too. But, while you’re hanging on the phone waiting for HMRC, consider some of these impactful housekeeping activities that you’ll reap the benefits of when the crisis passes.
1. Clear out your content
Time was, regularly publishing new content was the way to Google’s heart. It’s still important to keep your content fresh, but the best way to have an impact on your ranking in 2020 is to work with what you’ve already got.If your website’s been around for a while, chances are you’ve got a tonne of blog content on there. (No? Read this instead: 17 reasons you should be investing in content marketing).Some of that content, no matter how old, will still be serving you well. Some of it will be bringing you nothing at all and may even be harming your overall SEO by diluting ranking for better quality pages. It’s time to Marie Kondo your content.
Start by identifying pages that have brought you zero clicks in the past three months (using Search Console or Google Analytics).Download these to a spreadsheet so you know where you’ve got to (you’re in this for the long haul) and can add new columns. Then, work through the list and mark each page for either upgrading, merging or removing. Make sure to specify the redirect url for any pages you’re removing to avoid 404 errors. A few tips:
Don’t be sentimental. This page has brought you zero clicks. That means that no-one is looking at it. If the subject matter is irrelevant, or it’s targeting an audience you’re no longer seeking, remove it. By all means print it and frame it for your own personal pleasure, if that helps ease the blow.
Be patient and methodical. There are no shortcuts to this, and no cheap software is going to do it for you. Accept that this is going to take a long time and do the work in small chunks – say an hour a day – to keep fresh eyes on the task.
Viewing your obsolete articles will prompt ideas for new content, so make sure to jot these down as you go.
2. Tidy up your mailing lists
Have a long, hard look at your historical email marketing results. If your open rate is low (use MailChimp’s benchmarks for your industry to compare) then take a breath, let go of your ‘subscriber’ vanity metric and prepare to cull. It is better to have 50 engaged, relevant subscribers than 5,000 poor quality ones.
If you’re a B2B retailer, review your lists: are they brimming with gmail and yahoo email addresses or nicely populated with business emails? If email addresses look spammy, chances are they are exactly that. Remove them, and think about how to improve the quality of your email marketing sign-ups in the future.
For B2C, take a look at how long ago these customers purchased. If it’s more than two years and they’ve never opened your emails, maybe it’s time to consider a re-engagement campaign.
3. Speed up your website
