Taking your own digital pulse... How to do a digital health checkup.
You know it, I know it. Your online presence is becoming increasingly important in the business world today, and it's certainly crucial to the success of your digital lead generation activity. But before hiring a professional to beef up your digital footprint, it’s good to know about things like SEO and other digital spots to check on for your own digital health check. Here are 10 digital marketing tools and spots you can check yourself, even if you're not a computer whiz.
Add an analytics code or use the tracker on your site.
The only way you know if you're making any kind of progress digitally is to know where you started and where you are going from there. Most free website builders like Squarespace or Wix have built-in analytics tools that are easy to use. Otherwise, using a tool like Google Analytics is also super simple to use!
Emails
Are you sending out email blasts? Check your stats every now and then. How are your recipients responding? Are they opening the emails (open rate)? Are they engaging with them (click-through rate)? Or are you getting reported as spam? This is a great way to gauge how well people are taking to your email content.
Social Media
Most people today use the Internet as their first go-to to do research. Social plays a huge role in this. Are you using social media already? If so, are you actually contributing to it? Or is it something that has been floating around, unmanaged for years? If so, you need to start contributing to it regularly. This way people know you care about your brand and you will position yourself as a useful brand in their lives.
Reviews
Reviews and comments on social media pages will impact the Internet community's opinion of your brand. It's important to stay on top of any and all reviews that may be circulating. If they are good, thank that person. If they are bad, kindly reply and ensure that your business is sorry and that the issue will be addressed. Do not simply erase or delete the negative comment, as this will certainly lead to bad things.
Blog
Search engines like Google and Yahoo love to see new, fresh content being pumped onto your website regularly. Creating a blog is the easiest way to go about this. Not only can you create relevant, useful content for your web pages and social, but it will also give the search-engine robots the meat they're looking for to look favorably upon your site!
Cross-Blogging and Cross-Linking
Have you been reaching out to industry partners to make sure they're distributing the content you've been creating on their own websites? If so, are they linking back to your website? This way people have every opportunity to get back to your website.
Mobile phone ready
Did you design your site with mobile in mind? If not, not only are you hurting your SEO, but you're turning off over 30% of Internet users who are using their smartphones and tablets to browse the web. You need to make sure you're ready for anything. The easiest way to check this is to simply go to your own website on a smartphone to see what happens.
Website Speed
Users are not patient. If your site is slow to load, users will be quick to leave. This is a negative signal to search engines. Spend some time on your own site and consider loading time. If yours is lagging, it’s worth contacting a professional.
Google yourself
This seems easy, but it's often most overlooked. When was the last time you Googled yourself? Take a moment every now and then to see what the Google gods are saying about you. What page are you ranking on? Is your address correct? Do you have any images affiliated with your brand? These are all a great way to get a pulse on what's going on digitally.
Lead generation on site
You spent a lot of time and money working on your website. Is it just a glorified digital brochure? Or is it actually driving new business through the door? This one is the most critical, so we saved the best for last. Is there an opportunity for your website's visitors to engage with your brand on every page of your website? If not, you need to correct that. Lead generation is absolutely possible - and absolutely profitable - if you give your visitors the opportunity to buy from you. Add a "contact us" or a lead-generation form on every page. That way they know exactly what it is you want them to do!
If you're still unsure of what to do or if you have any other questions, you can reach out to the knowledgeable experts at Action Ready Marketing. We can help get you where you want to be!