The process to update, make changes, or even completely overhaul your website is never a walk in the park. I’ve worked on a myriad of websites in all shapes and sizes over my career and can confidently say that you can never be completely prepared for what’s to come. You can build the plan, but it can quickly change with feedback loops and new eyes. Your website isn’t static. The best brands are constantly evolving their websites in real-time to meet the demands of their customers. I’ve always viewed a company’s website as its most important digital asset. It’s the first impression that brands make on their next customer in 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲. Your website is the host of your company’s messaging, positioning, and content. Most importantly, your website is the gateway to the first conversation that your next customer has with your company. 

My first meeting with my new team at Pneuma was in Denver about 90 days ago. I was drinking from a firehose trying to gather as much information as possible to have an understanding of what was happening in the business and how I could help. It was in those first few days with Pneuma that I began to form the narrative of 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲. Also, it was during those conversations that I realized that we need to make some strategic updates to our website. I’m a big fan of setting quarterly rocks or goals. It was very apparent out of the gates that my primary goal for the next 90 was going to involve reframing the website. 

The process to update your website takes a great system and continual feedback loops. Your website doesn’t just get updated overnight. The process to update your site takes a strategic plan and a ton of communication. 

As I type this week’s newsletter we’re in the final stages and will have the new site pushed through soon (maybe even before you’re reading this). At Pneuma, we use the SCALE (Strategy, Create, Author, Launch, and Enhance) Methodology to help our customers best position their most important digital asset for 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲. I wanted to take a moment to share the pillars that went into the fresh coat of paint we’re putting on our website. 

1. Customers Customers Customers: People buy from people and not brands. I believe the most important thing you can do for your website is to humanize it by highlighting your customer faces and their advocacy. The power of social proof holds no bounds. Remember, when people land on your website it’s a first impression. It’s important for you to use your customer’s to help tell your story. 

2. Positioning of Services: We’ve simplified the way we talk about the services that we offer and the methodologies that go into the work. We use SCORE for SEO, SPEED for PPC, and SCALE for website work. We believe in acronyms and want to make it as easy as possible for people to understand how we can help them.

3. Overdose on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲: We want to highlight our story in everything that we do. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 has become our content strategy, podcast, story, the way we go-to-market, and should be represented throughout our website. I’m not convinced that our work with the story and the website is over yet. We’re just getting started and excited to share more soon. 

4. Focusing on our target audience: We help a lot of different types of companies out with our services. If you dig into the data you start to see a theme with our ability to help service-based businesses. Because we have a lot of service-based customers it’s important that we communicate to that audience on our website. This update begins the focus, but this quarter we’ll be developing landing pages for us to niche down that category even further. 

I’m not sure there’s an exercise that exists that can make you a better marketer than going through the website process. Also, I understand the volume of work that goes into making those changes on top of all of our other priorities. If you are struggling to get going or need some help with making updates to your current site give us a shout. We’re here to help. 

The Content We Dropped This Week

In the seventh episode of 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 podcast we discuss how CEOs can best prepare for 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲.

We discuss why CEOs should care about search. We share the importance of CEOs making SEO a part of the broader company strategy and ways that we can communicate the value to leaders who might not understand the potential growth impact.

Please follow and subscribe to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 wherever you consume fine audio and video content.

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• YouTube

Quick Tip for The Search Economy

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 requires executive buy in to be sustainable. This doesn’t mean that your CEO or owner needs to be deeply involved in the tactics, but it does require great communication for their approval on the investment. I had a conversation this week with Crystal Carter, Head of SEO Communication at Wix that will be a future episode on the podcast. The entire episode was about the way we get our boss or boss’ boss on board with SEO as a strategy.  

I’m excited to share the episode soon, but the punchline is that you must tie your SEO work back with key business goals to gain long term support and commitment. The best part about great SEO is that it helps capture demand in real-time and we can easily tell that story if we’ve got the right infrastructure in place. 

What They’re Saying About Search

Internal linking might not always be at the top of the SEO conversations, but is a great way to best position your site in 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲. I saw Haydn’s post this week and it stopped me in my tracks. I started to think about the site work that we were doing and how we should best connect the dots on future landing pages that we were planning to build out. I find comfort in getting reminded about some of the most obvious tactics. 

If you’re looking for a team that will help give you a jump start into 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 give Pneuma a shout for a free traffic audit!

Content That Supports The Search Economy

I love it when people jump on a podcast and make themselves vulnerable for a bit. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 is about earning trust and sometimes that means admitting to some previous mistakes. Search with Candour is an excellent SEO podcast and in their latest episode that talk about red flags to look for before selecting an agency. 

You can listen to the conversation here. 

I appreciate you being here for 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 newsletter. If you’re looking to learn more about how your company can get found by your next customer then give the Pneuma team a shout.