Each December, we recommend to our customers that they review their online presence and their website. For many (who are not retailers) it is a slow time of the year so it is the perfect time for this type of work.  Think of it as a website year-end check-list. The goal is for you to set aside a couple of hours every December to make sure your site and company are well represented online.

Print PDF year-end list here>>

=1= Online List:

• Open Chrome in Incognito Mode to ensure that you have “clean” search results. Search for your company name. At the very least, your website should be up in #1 position on page #1 for your company name. If it does not, contact your webmaster immediately.
• Search for two keywords which are important to your business and see what your website’s ranking is. If you are not on page one, schedule a time to meet with your webmaster or marketer to establish a strategy to improve your online ranking in 2018.
• Search for your full name. Example: John Smith. Online reputation for your company or you as an individual is very important. If you find any negative reviews, again mark your calendar to address the situation. Do not ignore it!

=2= Website List:

• Click on every link on your website. Start with the top navigation bar and work your way to every page. Check internal links (those that go to other pages within your site) as well as external links (linking to other sites). The pages might have been renamed, moved or deleted. If you have hyperlinks to other sites, revisit the importance of these links and remove or keep accordingly.
• Test all of your forms. This includes your main contact form, your newsletter sign up, your quote request and any other forms you might offer on your website. Make sure the email is received by the right people in your team and that the sender is either receiving a confirmation message or better yet is redirected to a thank you page.
• Open your website on the following 4 major browsers: Firefox/Mozilla, Chrome, Safari and Edge (the replacement for Internet Explorer). Make sure there are not distortion or misalignment in any of these browsers. To be thorough you will need to test every page on each browser.
• View your website on two popular smartphones. We recommence checking on an iPhone (newest version) and an Android based phone.
• View your website on two popular tablets: iPad and Samsung for example.
• Check the spelling of your copy writing. There are online spell checks but you can also copy and paste your content into a Word document which will highlight spelling errors. Of course this does not always fix grammar. In our company, we make every new team member read our entire website to review the copy. This is a great way for them to become familiar with our services and find any copy writing errors. Make sure the copyrights year in the footer of the site reads 2018.
• Test all website specific functions. Examples: Social media shareability, signup function, purchasing a product, downloading a document, searching a page, etc.
• Make sure your site has a SSL certificate. If you are unsure, had https (with the s) at the beginning of your domain name.

=3= Digital List:

• Review your email signature and make sure this is inline with your company’s brand and direction for 2018. More on how to brand properly your email here >>
• Make sure you have a branding plan just like you should have a business plan. Have your staff (and yourself!) read it so that everybody in your team will promote your brand the right way each and every time they communicate with a client. The plan should include colors, font choices, “tone of speaking”, etc.

If you do not have the time to review these 3 checklists, you can hire experts to do it for you. We offer such services so do not hesitate to contact us for a quote.