How to Love Your Digital Persona

Love is in the air, and with Valentine’s Day just a week away, we suggest you make sure it’s flowing through the digital airwaves as well! No, we’re not suggesting you join Match.com — unless of course you want to, then by all means! We’re talking about showing some tender love and care to your digital persona. As they always say, love yourself first and foremost, and others will follow!

So, without further ado, here are a few questions to ask yourself to make sure you’re showing your web presence the love it deserves:

Is my branding clean and consistent across the board?

First impressions are everything, wouldn’t you agree? Well, the same can be said for your web presence. Brand identity and recognition are key in building trust and authority, especially in the digital sphere. That being said, professional, high-quality, branded graphics go a long way.

Take a look at your website and social media profiles. Are your brand’s colors and preferred fonts clearly displayed? Are images grainy, or are they clear and crisp no matter which device you’re viewing them on? How about your messaging; is there a strong brand message evident throughout your digital persona? If not, you may need to give your web presence a little more love!

Is my website easy to navigate?

Your website might look pretty, but is it user-friendly? Your navigation bar should be prominently displayed, and your font/color combination easy to read. Make sure visitors know exactly where to go to find what they’re looking for. As a general rule, customers should be able to find important service pages within 1-3 clicks after landing on your homepage — cue the visually appealing call-to-actions! If your website is flash-heavy, make sure it’s still fast-loading and displaying properly on all browsers and devices. There’s nothing worse than a beautifully designed website, that just. won’t. load.

Don’t forget about search engine optimization — SEO! In order to rank well in organic searches, search engines like Bing and Google will need to be able to easily navigate your page in order to index it properly. This means all titles, meta tags and descriptions should be optimized and accurate for each page of your website. (Bonus points if you’ve submitted your sitemap to Google!)

Do my local listings read accurately?

Your website is lovely, well-organized, and loads at the speed of light, but you’re not finished yet. Though your site may have been properly indexed, search engines will still have trouble serving up your brand to potential customers if your listings are inconsistent elsewhere.

When it comes to optimizing listings, NAP consistency is key. This means ensuring that your business name, address and phone number are accurate across the board, even on those listings that you may not have created. Oftentimes, listings are user-or-auto-generated, which makes it challenging to keep things streamlined. It’s important to be checking for listings regularly on major search engines and vertical specific sites, and claiming, verifying and suppressing those that are inaccurate.

In short — If you haven’t gotten your listings ducks in a row, you may find that your target market seems to be searching for love in all the wrong places!

Am I posting often across social channels?

Put it this way, according to Hootsuite, “there are over 3 billion internet users — and over 2 billion of them have active social media accounts.” Talk about purchasing power! If your business isn’t active on social media, you’re missing out on revenue, but more importantly, you’re appearing less reputable. These days, one of the first things folks do when researching a brand is check out their social media pages, Facebook being the typical first stop. If a consumer finds a stagnant, or worse, non-existent Facebook page, that business is almost immediately seen as less credible in their eyes.

Am I giving customer reviews the attention they deserve?

Customer reviews, both negative and positive, are opportunities to reinforce brand identity and values. When your loyal customers leave glowing reviews on sites like Facebook or Google+, it gives you the chance to show your apphttps://drivenlocal.com/breaking-down-a-bad-review-what-went-wrong-and-how-to-respond/reciation publically. On the flipside, negative reviews offer an opportunity to showcase just how much you care about your customers by responding, apologizing, and offering a resolve for all to see.

Still not convinced? The numbers don’t lie — 53% of small businesses report utilizing social media as their go-to platform for customer service and support, and over 67% of consumers consider social media their first stop when they have an issue or question.

Am I answering my audience’s questions with an onsite blog?

Are you seeing a trend here? Providing engaging content and opportunities to interact with your audience is essential. That being said, one of the best ways to do so from an SEO standpoint is by creating an on-site blog. Not only will your on-site blog provide an outlet for addressing frequently asked questions and sharing company news, but it also works to help you gain credibility in the eyes of both consumers and search engines.

Consider this — every time you post a blog you’re creating yet another page to be added to your site and indexed by search engines. The more pages (chock full of relevant content and keywords) that are added and indexed, the better the chances that your business will be served up in an organic search.

Are there methods in place to track the performance of my marketing efforts?

Sure, you may be doing some, or even all of the above, but with no way to collect and analyze data, you’ll never know what’s really working and what you can be doing better. In today’s digital world, it’s imperative that you have a means to both set attainable goals and track them. Is your website linked to a Google Analytics account, where you can measure keyword rankings, referral traffic, and conversion rates? How much is your PPC campaign really costing you — and even better, is there a way to cut those costs by tweaking your strategy? From SEO and SEM to organic and paid social reach and engagement, if you love your digital brand, tracking performance to improve it even more is a no-brainer.

Is it about time you showed your digital persona a little extra love? Consider us Cupid’s angels! At Ferocious Media, we’ve got the expert knowledge to not only execute your web design, social media, SEO and SEM campaigns – but also to ensure they’re continuously cared for and improved on a regular basis. For more information, contact us today!