While this question may seem innocent enough, if the answer is anywhere in the realm of ‘negatively’ you could be in big trouble.
Can you think of an instance when you didn’t look something up online before buying? Perhaps you just needed the location and directions, but maybe you wanted to read reviews about the product or service. And what if somebody wants to look up your site via mobile?
The point is that your online presence is your first impression, whether that’s in Google Maps, a review site or your website.
So I’ll ask again—How do your customers see you online?
Let me explain with a few different scenarios:
Online reviews and reputation management
According to Marketing Land, 90% of purchases are influenced by online reviews. Most business owners, especially the good ones, want to make their customers happy because they know the value of word of mouth and referrals.
It’s no different with online reviews—positive ones need to be thanked, and negative reviews need to be addressed. If people see a horrible review, but they see that you’ve addressed the reviewer professionally, they’ll respect that you took the time to answer a complaint. They may even realize that the negative review was exaggerated, as can be the case.
Online reputation management is a huge deal, and if you’re not regularly checking, generating and optimizing your reviews, you could be missing out on a huge chunk of business.
Google My Business
Let’s say you’ve already sold somebody, and they’re just looking for directions or your contact information. If your business address, phone number and website don’t pop up in the top rankings of their search, you’re in danger of losing that person to a competitor with a clever and optimized AdWords result.
People simply don’t have the attention span to dig through the Internet to find your info—they expect it immediately, and it’s not that hard to give it to them!
Google My Business is a free tool to help local storefronts get found via Google search. This includes maps, contact info, etc. This is an absolute must for anybody with a physical location or even a service area.
For more advanced goals, you’ll need to look into search engine optimization, or SEO, which is more complex, but can be implemented by any digital marketing agency worth its salt! And you can always ask for a free SEO audit.
Mobile-optimized site
“Mobilegeddon,” Google’s new penalty for non-mobile sites, went into effect April 23. This means that if your site is not optimized for mobile devices, it won’t show up in search results! If that doesn’t scare you, check out this list of statistics where companies saw huge drop-offs in important web analytics categories.
And even if somebody does find your site, or types it into their phone, and it provides a poor mobile experience, what does that say about your company’s attention to detail? It’s a mobile world.
So, I’ll ask for the third time—How do your customers see you online?
If you have any doubts about the three items listed above, we’d be happy to give you a free website audit!