What is an Online Presence Audit, and Why is it Important?

It is a new year with new year resolutions. You should consider doing some things differently this year to achieve new results in your business. One of those things is carrying out an online presence audit of your business from last year. Doing this will reveal the things that you did wrongly and will avail you the opportunities to do things better, like putting better policies and procedures in place to grow your business in the right direction.

In this post, we shall be touching on everything you need to know about online presence audits. Suppose you are concerned about figuring out what exactly is causing your website to produce low leads or why you are losing out to your competitors in terms of crucial keywords on Google, first-page search results, etc. In that case, a good way to start with your investigation is to conduct a total online presence audit.

In the process of doing this, you will touch the following areas:

• SEO factors
• website review
• social profile review
• editorial content review
• Google my business review
• online reputation
• Directory and citation review
• competitive landscape

Now, let’s discuss all these concepts in detail so you can understand what they mean and how they are important to your business.

SEO Factors

Search engines use over 150 SEO ranking factors to determine which websites should appear in search results and their rank. If you wish to see your website sitting on the first page of SERPs, then be ready to consider SEO factors such as:

• Backlinks/Inbound links: inspect to see if your website is having many backlinks to boost your credibility to Google.
• Good SEO research: check every page of your website to ensure that they are filled with quality keywords
• The number of index pages: how many of your pages has Google visited, analyzed and added to its database of web pages? If it is low, make effort to index your web pages; you can do this by creating more quality content, or simply requesting for it.
• What traffic you have: make sure your website is getting the right traffic. You can’t be marketing men’s wristwatches to grannies.  

All these SEO factors combined with other things ensure that your website sits comfortably on the first page of SERPs—at least for the moment. Therefore, when things go otherwise or as not expected, then you should take a deep look at the SEO factors listed above.

Website Review

Reviewing your website to check for errors at least once a week is a good way to go.

Below are some steps to take to run a thorough website review:

• Begin with a deep-dive review of content
• You want to re-calibrate your demography
• Adopt a more focused competitive recon
• Consider a new design for some or all of the pages for a new and refreshing look
• Msnage device and cross-browser testing
• Make sure you are up to date with the lastest hosting options
• Be on the lookout for improved security
• Estimate the need for a management shake-up
• Sync up expirations.

Social Profile Review

This is a very significant part of the total online presence audit too. Nowadays, it is easier to source for customers online than offline; that’s the reality now. Therefore, to take advantage of the phenomenon, you must be active on social media. You can seek our professional assistance or DIY:

• Ensure that your social media bios, display pictures, etc. reflect your products or services
• Identify the space where your targeted customers are and engage them there.
• Depending on the nature of your business and your customers’ preferences, you can utilize LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
• Integrate your social media accounts into your website so your customers can easily connect with you and also relate with other customers.
• Post the link of your website on your social media accounts so customers can effortlessly transit from your social pages directly to your website in seconds.

Editorial Content Review

Many website owners tend to overlook this aspect of the audit and take it for granted. Nevertheless, the texts—quality texts on your homepage are just as useful and important to your website’s growth as all other elements.

• Check that the number of words on each webpage is plenty enough (around 400 words) for Google to easily find you.
• Check that these words should also address the problems that brings clients to open your webpage.
• The content on your homepage should not be generic; instead, it should be specific, targeted at an audience.
• Ensure that your call to action (icon or paragraph) stands out and is good enough to build trust.

Google My Business Page Review

Never underestimate the power of Google My Business. You should even congratulate yourself for having your business on this platform. It is hard to come by people who haven’t used Google services in their lives—this is exactly how hard it is to prevent people from seeing your business on Google My Business Pages. By the day, people are developing the habit of consulting Google for the authenticity of products, services, and organizations in their whole.

• Your graphic designs go a long way. Make sure the pictures are doing the talkings. If you think otherwise, use the services of professional graphic designers
• Include relevant keywords in the names of your products or services
• Strive to have good reviews on your business page from satisfied customers and watch how your business will effortlessly thrive on these reviews. There are higher chances that a customer will trust your brand when they read organic reviews from other customers.

Online Reputation

Your online reputation is everything! You must intentionally take charge of your online conversations. Device strategies and techniques to ensure that your potential clients find the right information when they search for you on the internet. You must do this to establish a balance, counter false information about your business; it will also give you the opportunity to represent your business the way you want it.

Directory And Citation Review

You should also check that your directories and citations are uniforms across the internet. Maintaining uniformity feigns professionalism even when there’s no professionalism anywhere. Remember that it is very important to make a good and lasting impression, and this is one easy way to do that.

• Make sure that your business name, business address and phone number on your website are the same on all your social platforms.
• Avoid causing confusion for yourself and your potential customers.

Competitive Landscape

Be on the lookout for your competitors.

• One of the best ways to meet the demands of your customers is to simply check how your competitors are doing it.
• After that, you analyze their model and check for errors
• Then, remedy these errors and improve on the model overall.
• Never lend an ear to anyone who says social media likes and comments do not mean so much. It is better safe than sorry. Believe it or not, one potent way to defeat your competitors is through social media.

Parting Words

Understandably, all these factors and things to note may be daunting tasks. Suffice that to note that most of us have other things to do with our time besides auditing our online presence. In any case, we are here to conduct a thorough online presence audit for you at a very affordable rate. We have the best tools to handle your project, and our rates are very affordable.