Have you ever sat down and googled your business? I should hope so, but if not, now is the time! Go ahead, I’ll wait… So what did you find? Were you surprised by what you found, or was there a lack of information about your business online? Either way, this is your customer and future customers first digital impression of your business.
Why is this so important? Well, according to statistics from Mashable, Google gets over 100 billion searches a month! And…the first impression is often a lasting one. So how can you improve your search results? Let’s dive in!
Review Sites
If you’ve been in business a while, chances are you’re seeing your business show up on different platforms, such as Yelp or Google My Business. This is great because you already have a presence on these platforms, so now it’s just making sure you’re utilizing them for your business.
If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to claim your business. This allows you to update your business profile with photos, hours, and more information. It also allows you to respond to reviews, which is an important facet of your digital footprint. Whether the reviews are good or bad, it’s important to acknowledge those as a business to demonstrate that you care about your customers experience with your products or services.
Need help responding to reviews? Check out our blog post on how to master your review responses.
Social Media Profiles
Are you seeing your social media profiles in your search results? If not, it’s time to beef up your social media presence. When we take on a new client at The Modern Connection, our first step is to set up and brand all social and review accounts.
Even if we don’t recommend using a particular social account because it doesn’t make sense for your particular audience, we still recommend claiming your business name, branding the profile and updating with a graphic to send your customers to the profiles you are actively posting on.
These platforms will show up in your Google search results, and the best part about this is that you control how it looks to your audience. Facebook in particular acts like a second website, so we always start there.
Website
Last, but certainly not least, how is your website showing up online? More importantly, when is the last time you updated your website? You may be showing up for your business name, but are you showing up for key terms that are related to your industry?
Chances are, future customers that haven’t met you yet won’t be searching directly for your business name. This is where updating your website with SEO friendly copy will come into play. When done correctly, SEO or search engine optimization aids in helping your website become discovered for topics pertaining to your industry. We recommend a yearly website copy refresh to keep your pages up-to-date and starting a blog to update your website weekly with new industry related information.
For more information on creating SEO-friendly content, check out this blog post.
Now that you’ve googled your business, don’t stop there! Make sure your online presence is clean and buttoned up to best represent your business. The caveat is that this is constantly changing, so it’s imperative to add this to your monthly, if not weekly to-do list.
Sound daunting? We can help! Part of our account management services here at TargetMarket is online reputation management. This is where our trained social media managers scour the internet for mentions of a business, making sure all presences are claimed, information is up-to-date, and responding to all reviews. Want to chat? We also offer free consultations to discuss your business needs.
