Do you know how the world views you?

When we do Deep Dives with clients, one of the first things we do is an online audit. It is vital to know how the business shows up or doesn’t online so that we have a snapshot of what potential customers see when they look at our clients online presence.

Here is some simple groundwork (some are even fun!) you can do in preparation to lay a solid foundation for your online marketing. The great thing is they take hardly any time and can give you some real productive insight into how the world sees your business. 

1. Google Yourself: It’s what everyone else is doing, so you should too! Type your name or business name into Google and see what others are seeing.
2. Do a Pinterest Source Search: Just type this url using you’re your business URL at the end to see what others are pinning about you: http://pinterest.com/source/yourbusiness name here.com. Then you can see exactly what people are liking or not liking. 
3. Do a Google Keyword Search: Knowing what people are searching for helps you pinpoint your content strategy. The most simple way to do this is to use Google’s Keyword Tool. You’ll look for keywords and phrases with a high amount of searches and low competition.
   
4. Know Analytics: Google has a suite of helpful tools for small businesses. One of these tools is Google Analytics. This shows how many people visit your site, where they come from before they get to your site and what they do on your site–very helpful information for developing an online strategy.
5. Check Review Sites Frequently: There are many review sites out there, such as Yelp!, TripAdvisor and Urbanspoon. Pull up those sites often (we recommend a couple times per week at a minimum – check daily if you are in the hotel or food service business) to see what people are saying about you. Most likely there are both positive and negative reviews. The negative reviews are a great way to find areas to improve your business. To be really effective, respond to negative reviews within 24 hours.
6. Do a Related Search: This one is kinda fun and takes no time at all. Pull up a Google search page and type: related:yoursite.com (example: related:thrivefocus.com). When you click search, Google will pull up pages that are similar to yours so you can see exactly what your competition is or isn’t doing.
   
7. Subscribe to Google Alerts: Another one of Google’s suite of business tools is Google Alerts. When you sign up for this, Google will send you an email whenever there is an article for the topic. Set Google Alerts to your name, your company’s name, and any key words that relate directly to your business or your interest in tracking.
   
8. Check Search Inquiries: Similar to a Source Search on Pinterest, this search tells you what people are searching for on your site. If there is a popular search that you don’t have content for, it is the perfect opportunity to create popular content and to rank higher on Google.