How to Polish Up Your Online Presence

If you typed your name into Google right now, do you know what would show up? If a new customer or prospective business partner did the same, you would want to be confident that they’re going to like what they find — or that they can find you at all. Your online presence is typically where you make your first impression, so it is essential that your information is consistent across platforms and aligned with your brand and business goals.

By taking some time to do a complete audit of your online presence — think of it as spring cleaning for your digital self — you can ensure you’re providing a strong first impression, achieving the desired results with your online marketing, and making it easy to find you through as many channels as possible.

What To Look For In An Online Presence Audit 

The goal of tidying up your digital footprint is to: 

Portray a consistent brand image to your target audience.

You’ll be reviewing things like your logo, headshot, bio, and licensing and contact information to confirm they’re all up-to-date. At a higher level, you’ll want to make sure you’re clearly communicating your brand story and competitive advantage.

Identify areas of poor performance and take steps to optimize those platforms.

You’ll take a look at your website content and search engine optimization (SEO), social media activity, business listings, and customer reviews to see what’s working and what’s not. Based on your findings, you can adjust your strategy to better support your business goals, such as trying a different approach to your social media marketing or refreshing your website.

Ensure your business is visible online.

Once you’ve optimized your online presence, you’ll increase your chances of ranking higher in search results. This makes it easier for your target audience to find you and to generate new leads.

But before you get started, you need to have a solid understanding of your business goals and your target market. Being crystal clear on these two items is critical to your success, so if you haven’t already, take some time to look at the big picture and define what you’re aiming to achieve and who you’re aiming to help.

Conducting Your Audit, Step By Step

Ready to dive in? Follow this guide, which will walk you through what to review in order of priority. Keep in mind, you don’t need to do this all in one day. You can break up each section into mini audits that you can tackle over time. If that’s still too much, hire an expert to do it for you, or use a service like Real Grader. (Hiring a professional could be worth the investment as it generally comes with a full report of actionable insights, delivering instant value without all the leg work.)

Taking a comprehensive look at your online presence is vital to the health of your business. While you should monitor these items on a smaller scale throughout the year, doing one full audit every year will help you keep your online reputation in shape and aligned with your goals.