Don’t Let Your Business be Haunted by Bad Online Practices
It’s that spooky scary time of year. How are you getting in the Halloween mood? By watching a scary movie? Going for a haunted hayride? Enjoying a cup of hot apple cider while decorating pumpkins?
One way you do NOT want to get spooked, no matter the time of year, is by witnessing something terrifying happen to your business online!
You might be wondering, what are some of the worst things that can happen to your business’s online presence? Maybe one of these things is happening right now and you aren’t even aware of it! Now that’s truly spooky.
You Get Some Bad Reviews
Reviews have much more of an impact on your business than you may think. Just a couple of negative reviews on Facebook, Yelp or Google can deter potential customers from giving you a call. You may even find you have fake negative reviews posted by anonymous people who just want to hurt your business. Unfortunately, the public doesn’t know these reviews are fake. Or, a ghost of an unfortunate incident from the past may be coming back to haunt you via a review.
You Have a Website That Isn’t User-Friendly
There are lots of website companies out there who will claim to get you prime real estate on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), but won’t actually utilize user-friendly strategies. For example, they might make you a non-mobile-responsive site, not create clear opportunities for conversions, hide the important information under too much content, not use click-to-call phone numbers, etc. If your site isn’t user-friendly, potential customers will get frustrated and leave your site before they can gain the important information and make a conversion. Lost opportunity is truly a nightmare for your business!
You are Ranking for Something Your Business Doesn’t Do or Sell
Let’s say you’re a lawyer, and Google starts ranking you for family law. Suddenly you start getting phone calls from people looking for a family lawyer. Problem is…you’re a personal injury lawyer! Or, you’re a veterinarian, and somehow you are ranking for hamster health services, but you only work with dogs and cats. You have hamster owners coming to your website, only to not find what they are looking for and clicking off.
Ranking for the wrong words is clearly bad for your business. You may think there is some dark spirit haunting your online presence and drawing the wrong people to you…but odds are it comes down to your SEO tactic.
Don’t let the skeletons of the Internet mess with your business’s online presence!
Inconsistent NAP Information
NAP stands for name, address, phone number. It may sound like common sense that you want this information about your business consistent across the internet. Your NAP information should all be exactly the same on your website, Google My Business listing, Yelp, social media platforms, etc. However, this isn’t often the case. Are the witches of the Internet casting spells over your online presence? Probably not, but not only does inconsistent information hurt your SEO potential, but it is also extremely confusing for people looking to contact your business! They may get so frustrated they just decide to go with one of your competitors instead.
You Get Penalized By Google
You’re scrolling along through Google one day, running through a couple of searches to see where your business is showing up. And the answer is….nowhere! You go through pages and pages of search results with your business nowhere in sight. You may initially think it is the demons of the internet stealing the soul of your business from the SERPs. But, most likely you are being penalized for a spammy, black-hat or outdated tactic, such as having duplicate content on your website, not having a mobile-friendly site, or utilizing fake addresses to try to rank in areas where you don’t have a physical location.
During the Halloween season, and all year round, it is best to remain vigilant of your business’s online presence. Here at Next! Ad Agency, we can protect you from the ghouls of the internet! To learn about our website, SEO, and online reputation services, contact us today at 585-427-0020!
