Speeding up your website became even more important – now it matters to Google as well as your visitors.

Google likes to keep the website owner on their toes, making changes to their ranking algorithms which we have to respond to if we want to keep good rankings for our website. Google’s new update is called “Page Experience” and is made up of “Core Web Vitals”, or basically how fast your web page loads for a visitor.

In truth these changes are about making the internet a better overall experience for all its users. For a long while Google has been encouraging faster loading websites, and canny website owners have already adapted. But going live on Google right now are the changes which make this pretty much compulsory, and start pushing slow loading websites, and others with poor user experience, down the rankings.

If you are running WordPress websites you probably already know about the exceptional value for money they offer (the code is free, hosting so reasonably priced), when compared to any enterprise CMS system. 

You probably know too about the flexibility that the huge community of plugins that make WordPress (and comparable Open Source platforms Joomla and Drupal), the most flexible that there are.  After all, where else can you get hundreds of popular shopping carts, community forums, calendars, or galleries, all completely free of charge?

But despite its benefits even a WordPress site is not a free pass – you still need to look after it like a responsible web citizen, if you want to provide your customers with an exceptional user experience.

Let’s be honest here.  How many people enjoy being marketed to? 

Do you ever feel stalked when adverts follow you around on your social channels, or flash up on websites you visit?  How much does this turn you off that brand?

Conversely, what about the brand that is always offering free resources, knowledgeable information or fun and interactive content? 

Which brand are you more likely to purchase from when you are ready to buy?

Understanding this must be the key to defining your content marketing strategy and plan.  It should always be about adding value and never about straightforward selling your services or products.  Of course, your objectives still need to be met, but you will meet them so much quicker if you  build the relationship and trust first, before thinking about that conversion, or sale. 

Before you launch into a content marketing plan, it is worth defining your strategy and objectives.  Below is an overview of how to approach this, and a few tools to get you started or review your existing approach: