There’s no doubt that today’s businesses are in deep water when it comes to online marketing. From building, writing, and publicizing blog content, to developing and engaging on your social media platforms, sometimes it seems like the work never ends.

When you’re busy being busy, you may find that you’ve overlooked a few aspects of your website marketing program that could have a profound impact on your marketing efforts. Just in case, here’s a look at five things that might have slipped under the radar in your website marketing platform.

1. Blog RSS feeds

Few customers are willing to navigate to your site daily for new information. Save your customer time and effort by offering an RSS feed subscription to your blog. RSS feeds allow your readers to gather their must-read blogs in one place rather than navigating to your site to see your updates. What’s more, your blog feed acts as an awareness and lead generation tool, updating and reminding your client to engage with the new industry information as you report it.

2. Blog email subscription options

In more established industries, your clients may not curate and monitor their own RSS feeds. Take convenience one step further by providing the option for users to subscribe to your blog by email. This allows you to reach your customers on their home turf and keep them engaged, and offers them the opportunity to read and review your content at their leisure.

3. Lead-generating landing pages

If your landing pages aren’t converting your website visitors, bump renovating your landing pages to the top of your priorities. Smart and meaningful landing pages are the cornerstone of a successful inbound marketing program and each one needs to be carefully targeted to the special offer at hand. No matter what the call to action is, it needs to be clear that the information you’re presenting is valuable and worthwhile, and appropriate for that stage of the buying cycle.

4. Social media integration

Visibly integrating your social media presence into your website is an important step in building brand awareness and promoting conversions. Social media integration makes it easy for prospective clients and your "brand evangelists" alike to share and comment on your content, your work, and more. An integrated social media presence makes it easier for prospective clients to observe and engage with your community of interested users.

5. XML website sitemaps

On a more technical note, your website needs to have a useful sitemap structure so that search engines can read it more effectively (it can also help you speed up indexing after a website redesign project). This starts with your site’s XML sitemap.

An organized XML sitemap speeds up search engine indexing and helps search engine spiders identify new and priority content. Not as tech-savvy? No worries. Update your XML sitemap with a WordPress plugin or free online sitemap generator.

The very function of your website is to build awareness of your brand, provide useful content to your prospective customers, and encourage leads to move forward in the sales process. Take a hard look at what you are doing and make sure that you haven’t overlooked these five contributors to effective website marketing.

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