Before you answer this question, you should understand what your “total online presence” is. It’s easy to assume that this refers to your website alone, but that’s only part of your online brand. Your internet presence envelopes the entirety of your business’s existence online. This includes:
- A website
- Local directory listings
- Company blog
- YouTube channel
- Social media accounts
- Yelp reviews
- Google My Business listing
- Better Business Bureau listing
To see how your business looks online, try Googling your brand name. The results will show a jumble of links and descriptions where your company has been featured. Some of these are controlled, like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, while others are consumer-focused, such as reviews.
Now that you know what your total online presence is, let’s look at what an audit could do improve it.
The Comprehensive Audit Process
One reason you might choose to undergo a comprehensive audit is for search engine optimization. Cleaning up your online presence produces increased traffic and more leads. How? Potential customers are better able to find you if Google recognizes your brand and what it stands for.
An audit is performed to produce a roadmap of your online exposure. It maneuvers through current rank, keyword relevancy, and a review of your website, social media, and more. This gives you readable data to show where you stand among competitors.
Audits analyze the competitive landscape and how effective your content is at penetrating it. With this information, marketing specialists can better maintain or rebuild your online reputation.
The Outcome of Your Audit
An audit shows weaknesses and strengths, including:
The Overall Health of Your Brand
The more visible your business is online, the more likely your brand is to be featured in SERPs (search engine result pages). Audits recognize faults in the setup and structure of websites and other platforms so that they can be fixed.
Potential Threats to SEO
The algorithms Google uses to rank businesses aren’t just guidelines to pick and choose. When companies fail to adhere to these rules of conduct, they’re red flagged or penalized. An audit finds and eradicates these threats before they hurt chances for conversion.
It isn’t only measurable data that improves after an audit, customer relationships also evolve. A solid online presence increases the potential for customer trust and brand loyalty. Companies that appear transparent to their customers are easier to have faith in.
To Sum It All Up
In years gone by, an audit would conjure images of calculators and business receipts. Online presence audits are far less daunting for the company being audited. Forget the negative connotations you associate with this term. Instead, picture a streamlined digital business plan and updated digital occupancy.
If you would like to find out how your business stacks up against your competition and how you can better connect with your ideal client, then you can find out with a Total Online Presence audit.