When was the last time you reviewed your online presence?

It's very easy to ignore your own digital presence and strategy...

You're busy working with your clients and it's difficult to find the time to do your own marketing, but it's important to bear in mind this sales channel is propably what your prospective and existing customers are using to find out information about you.

Maybe you're thinking; "Where do I start?  What questions do I need to ask? What can I do?"

Here are 8 pointers to consider and help you get your online presence performing even better....

1 - Does your website home page still deliver the correct message?

This can be the first page your existing and prospective customers see.  Does it still have the correct message about who you are, what you do and importantly, who you do it for? 

Does it appeal to your target audience and are the images still fresh and relevant or are they out of date?

Remember your home page is your shop window and needs to be regularly reviewed to ensure it contains the relevant and correct information about you that will appeal to your audience.

2 - What about the rest of the content in your website - is this up-to-date?

How about the services section in your site - is this still uptodate? 

What about your about us or team page?  Do you have pictures of staff that no longer work for your company or maybe old vehicles? 

Do you have an anniversary that you could shout about or maybe you have some new information or recent experience that you can promote on your about us page?

3 - When did I last update the news section of my website? 

Does your website have a latest news or article section?  If it does when was the last news or article written and has it been updated recently? 

There is nothing worse than visiting a news section only to find the latest news is a year old!

And if you don't have a news section then maybe it's something to consider.  It's a great way of raising awareness of any new or existing services or products, as well as helping with important search engine optimisation rankings.

Your content can be articles, how to guides, FAQ's.… in fact, any type of content that will appeal to your existing customers and attract your ideal customers.

This content can also be posted to your social media platforms for maximum impact, so all that great content gets shared in the places it will do you the most good.

4 - Ensure your website works across mobile devices

This is so important in todays digital world. With so many UK online browsers using their mobile phones and tablets to search for information and view websites, your site is considered out of date if it doesn't conform to the device you are viewing it on, so make sure your website is built in a responsive website design so that it works across all devices.

And with Google now moving to using website mobile versions for ranking, it's important to ensure your website mobile version is upto speed.

5 - Does your website run securely?

With Google's change in ranking algorithm last year, it will now check to see if your website runs securely.  If you've ever bought anything online, you may have noticed the padlock when you're viewing a site over SSL, so you know the connection is secure and the pages normally start with https://www instead of http://www.

Don't be mistaken in thinking this is just for ecommerce websites, Google has brought this in across the board, so even if you have a brochure style website, it still checks to see if your website is secure so it's well worth having an SSL  installed.

6 - Check your keywords are still relevant and optimised for SEO

When was the last time you checked your keywords?  Are they still relevant for your business and services?

If so is your content and meta data still relevant? 

If you haven't reviewed your website with SEO in mind then it might be worth reviewing it as you could be losing those all important Google rankings.

7 - How fast and secure is your website?

Ensuring your website runs fast is key to not only ensuring a quick browsing experience for your customers but you'll also earn extra brownie points with Google, as page speed is a core part of their ranking algorithm, which means it ranks 'faster' websites, higher.

Also don't forget about the speed of the mobile version of your website.  This is also a ranking factor and as mentioned previously, with Google now using a mobile index for ranking, the mobile version of your website needs to be on the mark.

As well as ensuring you have a fast website, another consideration is protection  and security for your website against the ever increasing online threats, ranging from annoyances like comment spam and excessive bot crawling, to malicious attacks like SQL injection and denial of service (DOS) attacks.  

Give your users a faster, more secure and more reliable internet experience.

8 - Are you using social media to engage with your customers?

Why should you consider using social media? What will it do for my business?

One of the first questions to ask is "what social media channels will my customers and target audience be using?"  There's no point regularly posting to Twitter if they're using Facebook!

The different social media channels allow you to get the word out and build trust about your products and services to your existing and potential customers.  Because of this social media such as Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. are now seen as an important part of your digital marketing strategy.

It can be a powerful marketing tool to improve your reach, extend your name recognition, bring in new customers and build relationships and loyalty.

Summary - key points to review

In summary, here's an outline of the tips so get your online presence performing well for you and your customers:-

• Does my home page have the correct message, content and imagery?
• Have I checked the content throughout the rest of my website - services pages, about us, team pages - are they uptodate - do they need new imagery?
• Does my website work across mobile devices?
• What are my keywords?  Are my keywords still relevant and is my website optimised for the right keywords for my services and business?
• Do I have a news section to keep my customers updated and when did I last update this?  
• Am I using social media to engage with my customers and am I using the right channels?
• Does my website run securely?
• Do I give my customers a fast, secure and reliable internet experience?

We can help you

When it comes to reviewing your online presence we're here to help.

Call us on 0117 4058919 or contact us to discuss any aspect of your marketing strategy in greater detail and what's important for your business.