Today we’re going to discuss the overall online presence audit, whether you’re trying to understand why you’re not getting leads from your site or if your competition is getting key keyword benefits on Google, be it in Google Ads or on Google’s first page.
Are you wondering why your prospects aren’t showing up on Google? Why your website isn’t generating traffic and leading the way you expected? Why do your competitors seem to be showing up above you for high-value keywords in search results?
These are all good questions that you need to know the answer to. Owning or doing marketing for a business can dramatically improve your online presence.
To get answers to these questions, you’ll need to conduct a thorough total online presence audit. If you’re too busy to do this yourself, hire someone to do it. Create an in-depth report that outlines the top priority issues your business faces that need to be addressed to improve your rankings and become easier to find online.
In the last few posts in our Digital Presence Audit series, we’ve looked at how to clarify your website and how to build a powerful social media presence. We’ve also looked at how to improve these elements.
I’ve received a lot of questions throughout this series about how to do a full digital presence audit for my company. A lot of people worry that it’s a long and complicated process and that you need an army of consultants to do it.
In this post, I’m going to break down my audit framework into key steps that you can do on your own or work through with your team. Here we go!
There’s a saying in Hollywood: “You’re born lucky, you work hard, and everything goes your way.”
Unfortunately, that’s not true for entrepreneurs, business owners, bloggers, and side hustlers. They’ll have to make their luck, and it won’t always look like luck, but it’ll be worth it in the end.
One of the first things you need to do is understand your company. Who’s your ideal customer? What’s your marketing funnel? Why are certain keywords performing better than others in search engine results pages (SERPs)? Why do certain pages on your site have a high bounce rate?
Your audit will help answer these questions and more.
If you’ve never heard of SEO, let’s break it down for you. SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. But don’t let that name fool you. When you’re doing SEO tasks, you’re not optimizing any search engines. You’re optimizing various factors on your site to rank higher on search engine result pages (SERPs).
On-page SEO includes website SEO factors. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, involves building off-page links to your site. Also, Off-page links can come from a variety of sources, such as social media, blogs, and other websites. Off-page backlinks can be broken down into three main categories:
On-page ranking factors are one of the most important aspects of SEO. When conducting your audit, it’s important to start with your homepage. If you find problems on your homepage, you’re likely to find problems on the rest of your site as well.
Take a look at:
We’ll go into more detail about local SEO below. But if you’ve got a local business, make sure you include your city or the area you serve in your on-page attributes.
Make sure your site is mobile-optimized; Google penalizes businesses that don’t have a mobile-optimized website because it doesn’t provide a good user experience.
If you’re targeting local clients, make sure to pay attention to the following key local elements:
Is the National Advertising Period (NAP) accurate and consistent? Ensure that your name, address, and phone number match what’s listed on your website and other online citations/directories.
Local Content – Along with your regular content, you’ll want to include content that’s about your area, events, and local happenings. This way, your audience will know that you care about your community (and it’s also another way to let Google know where you operate).
Take a look at your homepage and your main pages and see if any of the below elements are missing. It doesn’t matter if they are all present, but most of them should be.
Social media accounts for a significant portion of your overall online presence. It’s a place where you can connect with your audience, grow your business, identify new opportunities, and communicate your story in a way that resonates with your audience.
An audit of your social media accounts can help you:
Take a moment to reflect on your social media accounts. Are they meeting your goals as they are? Are there areas that need improvement? Do you need to be more active on any of your social media platforms? It’s important to remember that being everywhere isn’t the same as being everywhere.
Your website is where you get your customers and generate your business, so it’s important to treat it like it’s your home.
John Jantsch recommends starting a website audit with your homepage, as “if you find problems on your homepage you’re likely to find problems on the rest of the site”.
Your website audit will reveal answers to questions like what actions your site visitors are taking, where they’re clicking, what landing pages are getting the most traffic, how long they’re staying on-site, and more. These insights can then be used to improve your site and your marketing funnel.
A website audit is a big job, but it’s worth it. If you need help, don’t be afraid to reach out to a professional. We’ve put together a comprehensive guide on how to online presence audit your website, with tips and tools to help you get started.
In this guide, we’ve also included instructions on how to do your on-page SEO reviews. In the next part of this article, we’re going to look at how to do off-page SEO reviews, which are SEO factors that are not on your website.
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