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There are always so many tasks to complete on a daily basis that it can be easy to forget about the big picture. Taking some time now to step back and evaluate your overall online presence could save you a ton of time and energy in the future.

Social media
First, list all of the social platforms your currently use. For each platform, note how many followers you have, referral traffic sources, post frequency and content, and user engagement. Determine what type of content, what time of day you post, and what posting frequency is most effective for each channel. Compare these numbers for this month versus last month, as well as this month versus this time last year. This data will help you determine which of your channels are performing best and which ones may need a closer look. Consider eliminating platforms that are not performing well, that do not engage your target audience, or that you cannot devote time to improving. Evaluate your target audience and buyer personas to see if there are any new channels your business should consider. Finally, if not already in place, develop a content calendar and posting schedule for each platform. Make sure everyone involved in your social media knows what their responsibilities are so that your messaging stays consistent and on-brand.

SEO
Start with a site crawling tool (we like Screaming Frog) to crawl your site looking for links, code, URI parameters, tags, and more. Title tags should not exceed 55 characters and meta descriptions should not exceed 155 characters. This will ensure that your text will not be cut off in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Set up 301 redirects for any pages with 404 errors. Try a tool like SEMRush to do some keyword research and make sure you are focusing on the right ones. Review inbound and outbound links to determine if there are any spam sites. Add robots.txt to any pages you do not want to be indexed. Use a tool like PageSpeed Insights to figure out how quickly your pages load and get recommendations on how to make them faster. PageSpeed will give you information for both desktop and mobile, so make sure your mobile site is being responsive. Finally, utilize rich snippets to provide more information in product listings.

Reviews
Reviews are a huge part of your online reputation. Google your company and sift through any online forums or review sites that you may be mentioned in. If there are any reviews, good or bad, take the time to respond, no matter how old they are. For negative reviews, apologize for any bad experiences and offer something to make it right. Thank customers who have given a positive review and encourage them to return. Make sure that all customer concerns or comments have been responded to on your social media pages. Lastly, check up on your product reviews. For reviews on your site, Magento allows you to moderate reviews before they go live. For any off-page reviews of your product, take the same approach as company reviews by providing solutions to negative reviews and encouraging positive reviews.

Content
In addition to how your business is performing externally, this is also a good time to focus inward to your site. Take a look at your content. When is the last time you updated the “frequently asked questions,” “shipping policy,” or “about us” sections? Make sure all product pages and descriptions are accurate and up-to-date, check that images are properly sized and work with the current marketing plan, and review all other content for grammatical errors and outdated information. Also, consider other types of content that your customer might be interested in. This could include shopping guides, step-by-step photos or videos of how to use your products, industry-related news, etc. Running some A/B tests can help you determine if your new content is more effective than your old content.

Marketing
How are you marketing your business online? Assess your current digital marketing strategies to see what is working and what is not. In addition to SEO, these may include email, social media, blogging, remarketing, advertising, and promotions. If you do not already use email and have a blog, those are the first places to start. Marketing emails, when well-segmented and thoughtfully composed, are a highly effective and inexpensive tactic. Blogging will help improve SEO, add value to customers, and improve your position as an authority in your field or sector. AdWords can assist with your remarketing and advertising efforts to engage new and repeat customers. Do some research and see what tactics your competitors are using to stay ahead of the curve.

Analytics
Your analytics will provide you with a wealth of data to guide the audit process. Analytics will tell you which products sell the best, which day of the week is most profitable, what channels and referral sources users are coming from, if they use desktop or mobile, which pages they spend the most time on, what their interests are, and much more. This data will help you discover what aspects of your site are performing well and which ones are not, so you will know which pages to use as models. Continue to keep an eye on analytics on a weekly or, at least, monthly basis.

Survey
Finally, try reaching out directly to your customers and ask them about your company. You can send surveys in an email after purchase, put them within the order confirmation page, or in another highly trafficked place on your site. Keep the survey short and focus your questions on things you really want to know. Having a few goals in mind of what information you want to have after the survey will help accomplish this. The feedback from surveys will also help guide the rest of your audit as you make changes and improvements.

Think this all sounds like a great idea but really don’t have the time? Contact ParadoxLabs at 717-431-3330 and let us do the audit for you.