If you are like me you are neck deep in the day to day life of your business. It is easy to get stuck in the rut and become complacent saying “I have a great website” or “my ranking on the search engines is fine”. It is very important to make sure you take a break at least once a quarter and look at how customers view you on the internet. It could be the difference between making new sales and increasing business or missing out on your next big customer.

If you do not keep up with your competition you mide as well be grabbing them by the belt and collar and heaving them much further ahead of you.

Facts about the Internet

1. It is always changing and growing and other companies in your industry are improving their presence

2. over 1 billion local searches are performed each year and that number doubles each year.

3. 98% of people use a company that is found on the first page of search results.

When did you last….

…view your website as the customer sees it?

Customers, in general will be looking at your website for information. you need to look and make sure your content is up to date so that your potential customer knows that your company is still active and that you are an expert. The last thing you want to do is have hours on your website that are not accurate and then have the customer show up and be closed, there is a definite possibility that that customer will not return even if they see the open sign on.

Steps to make sure your content is updated

– Make sure your products and or services listings are up to date.

– Update any dated content such as sales or years in business are up to date.

– Make sure the last time you posted an article or blog was not 2 years ago (if you stop blogging remove the blog on your website you are not using it properly).

– Make sure any employee names, emails, and phone numbers are up to date.

– Check that hours posted are current.

…search for your company on the major search engines

– You should search for yourself on at least Google, Bing and Yahoo.

– Type in just your company name and see how you are listed. This should let you know all the listings customers will find when they are looking for you.

– Take a look at all the listings and make sure that you are not coming up in places that reflect negatively on you, if people are posting negative information about you, or any other things being posted about you.

– Search for yourself using keywords you would like to be found on. It is an easy way to find out if you are showing up where you need to and where you are vs competition in those keywords. If you are not coming up your site is probably not giving the customers the information you want them to have.

…search your industry and competition on the major search engines

– You should search for your competition and industry on at least Google, Bing and Yahoo.

– Search for your local competition using just their name. This will show you what they are doing and what people are posting about them. It might give you ideas where you are strong or weak vs your competition.

– Search your industry and see how other companies around the country or world are positioning themselves and then you can see how you match up against them. This will help you adjust your marketing by seeing what is working for others in that industry and help propel you ahead of the local competition

In Conclusion

Taking the above steps should at least keep you informed on how the customers will see your website. It can also help you determine if you need to spend some marketing dollars on hiring a marketing company, web designer, or seo company in order to stay ahead or get ahead of your competitors.