Your website might seem like an online platform you’ve got under control, but a regular audit of the content could reveal inconsistencies like broken links, outdated information, or a less-than-ideal user experience.  

These are small issues – and easy fixes – but if unaddressed, they could lead to a drop in trust. You can easily confirm your website is reliable by looking into the following: 

• Your web content/navigation: As a first step, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and see how easy it is to use. Give yourself a few goals in this exercise like locating contact information, getting a quote, or finding basic company information. If this trial run isn’t smooth, make necessary changes to improve the experience. 

• Broken links: If your website links to any external sites, (perhaps a supplier page or news outlet), make sure the links still work. They could be outdated or non-functional, leading to a non-existent webpage. 

• SSL/TSL certificates: This is how websites keep data secure. These certificates verify ownership of the site domain, assuring visitors of their safety on your site. 

• Website outages: If your website experiences outages, this could be a roadblock for customers trying to reference information about your brand. Having an alert system in place for these occurrences is recommended. 

• Web analytics: Use web analytics for browsers like Google or Bing to monitor web traffic, engagement and bounce rates. These numbers are clues on how your website performance could improve. 

A smooth online experience leads to customer confidence, which leads to customer trust – the ultimate goal as you work to maintain a strong online reputation.

Smooth Online Experience → Customer Confidence → Trust → Strong Online Reputation

Another exercise to try when researching your online reputation is to search for your business online. For starters, perform a search on Google for your industry (HVAC, electrician, general contractors, etc.) and explore where your brand comes up in the search results.

As you might know, these search results relate to your brand’s online relevance, and SEO (search engine optimization) is the practice of increasing your visibility online. Consistency is key as you infuse your online content with the right keywords, contact information and links to boost your brand on search engines.

As for your online reputation, SEO tactics can ensure your business is showing up in the right place when people are seeking your products or services. Here are some SEO factors to monitor:

• Search results position: Where does your brand show up in search results?

• Search result relevance: Does your brand show up in search results for a keyword that isn’t related to your offerings?

• Keyword overview: What are all the keywords connected to your brand?

• Broken links: As mentioned above, it’s critical to confirm these links are in working order.

• Backlinks: This is part of many SEO strategies as it relates to external sites linking to your website. The key is to make sure these sites linking to you are legitimate and trustworthy.

Where is the bar set for your industry? As you work to meet a certain standard, analyzing your competitors can help identify the strengths and weaknesses of your own brand.

Maybe you’ve already done this work but look at it through the lens of online reputation, especially if there’s a top brand that immediately comes to mind. Compare how you match up with them in terms of engagement, web traffic, and overall audience perception to inform your own benchmarks for success. 

As a starting point, here are some places to analyze your competitors’ online reputations:

• Websites: Accuracy of information, accessibility, usability 

• Social media channels: Posting frequency, content, responsiveness, audience perception 

• Ads: Messaging, trust indicators, trends, promotions

• Reviews: Patterns, frequency, how up to date they are, how they handle feedback

Take this information to form your own reputation goals, then map out the steps and strategies you’ll use to get there.

Social media platforms are great tools to post content for your audience, but they’re also great for listening to them. This is easily accomplished by prioritizing the following (if you’re operating multiple social channels, social media management tools can help track these as well):

• Brand mentions

• Comments

• Messages

• Branded hashtags or campaign-specific hashtags

Bottom line: Monitoring your online reputation on social media is a great way to both interact with customers and be responsive to their needs.

*WebFX

Lastly, keep your ear to the ground when it comes to online mentions in the media. These outlets offer a large platform for potential customers, so stay tuned to your online news mentions – especially good news, which could be repurposed as website or social content. 

Free tools like Google Alerts can be set up with specific local or industry keywords to notify you if any news is published. Any articles and press mentions of your brand are valuable data. Your team is better informed about your overall reputation in your community when you’re aware of it.