Whenever we have clients reach out to us asking us for a refresh or website update we like to take take a step back and review their online presence as well. We work with a wide range of industries. While we have a pretty good handle on basic as well as more in-depth online marketing activities, we have found that there are a few simple activities we can perform monthly for our clients that provide a lot of value. These are so simple that you may not even think they are worthwhile, but we have many real-world examples that prove they are.
Have You Googled It?
Google is the best. I use it for all the things — recipe lookups, directions, people-stalking (not really … actually, yes, I do), whatever I need to know — I just Google it. As part of our monthly activities for clients, we've started Googling their names.
We found out that the fastest way to find something wrong with a client’s web presence was by Googling them. We are not doing this to see where they rank; we are actually Googling their name so we can see how their results appear in search engines. This helps us identify inaccurate map listings, crazy reviews, bad links and much more. We do have other measures in place to make sure these things don’t slip past us. As we all know, the Internet is an ever-evolving, fluid, almost living and breathing thing, and lots can happen without us knowing or at least knowing about it in a timely manner.
Another useful Google trick is to check out the auto generated questions that pop up when you type into the Google search bar. These questions could serve as relevant blog topics or even items for your clients website that need to be addressed.
View Your Client's Website on Your Phone
Checking a client’s website via your phone (not just the mobile view on your browser) is a wonderful activity you need to be doing regularly. Was there some crazy phone update and it’s now making your site look totally whacked out? It happens ALL. THE. TIME. I suggest making this a monthly activity.
Go to their website and tap around. Pretend you are a potential customer of your client and go. Does the submit form work properly? Is the Home button working from all pages? Is the formatting still correct — no broken paragraphs? Links all work correctly? Taking the time to view your client’s mobile website like a prospect will not only help you catch issues; it can also let you experience the site as a customer would. This is your chance to make sure the mobile site is user-friendly and can attract customers.
Every month we go through a checklist of items that force us to step outside the box of typical online marketing practices. These examples are just two of the 10 or so items we go through monthly. This checklist has served us well because it makes us think like a prospect or a customer of our client which, in turn, gives us better insight into what we need to do for our clients to help them achieve their marketing objectives.
Can we help you and your business? If so, reach out, we'd love to talk.
