Process to Evaluate Your Website
Step 1: Analyze what you have
Do you know how many people are currently visiting your site a month? Have analytics installed, or ask your website provider for them. Focus on the number of unique visitors a month, since that tells you how many different people visited you. These are leads. Find out what they do on your site, for more useful insights.
Step 2: Google yourself
Trust me, this is normal, and not something you fear your mother will catch you doing. Your goal is to show up on page one for your target keywords. Before you can know what you need to do, though, you need to know where you are.
Step 3: Define how you want to be found
Successful websites pick out key aspects and focus on those on their websites. Your keywords are how you are found. Define how it is you want people to find you.
Step 4: Know where to compete
Keywords are how you are found. Some keywords you simply will not “win”. Aim for “Jacksonville Insurance” rather than “Insurance”. The more general the keyword, the more people you are competing against.
Step 5: Know what your customers are searching for
Online tools like Google Trends will allow you to compare keywords that people are searching for. Being number 1 for a keyword that no one searches for is the same as selling a product no one wants.
Step 6: Know how much of your site Google has indexed
In order to see what Google indexes on your website, go to Google and type “site:http://www.domain.com” and click search. The “site:” prefix is a lesser-known tool that asks Google to show only pages that Google knows about from your site. Content is king on the web, and if you only have 3 pages showing, Houston, you have a problem.
Step 7: Interview yourself
Look at your site as a consumer. You know what sites you like, you know what sites you use. Does your website look, or feel like any of those? If not, why do you expect others to use your site?
If you need help with any of these points — either in figuring out how to get the information or in making the changes you decide you need — contact us at Oyova. This checkup list was first presented at a meeting of BNI.
