A large part of that success consists in understanding the performance of your cumulative digital efforts. You have to take stock of everything you’ve done, and beyond that, your total digital presence.

You may think that means reviewing the actions and things you directly control online, like your website, your social media profiles, and your on-page SEO. And you’d be correct… to an extent.

Don’t forget that you can’t control the entirety of the conversation around your business on the Internet. If you want to audit your total online presence, look to the areas you can’t directly manage, too.

We’re going to discuss the various parts of a total online audit in this post, and we’ll point you in the direction of some tools that can help you accomplish the task. A comprehensive audit takes time, but is vital to your business’ online success, so if you can’t dedicate any time to an audit, consider hiring an expert who can help.

Performing a Complete Online Audit of Your Web Presence.

You should go into your audit with a plan, and you should be able to put one together using this guide. So let’s get to it.

We’ll be learning a lot about performing a web presence audit today, like:

• The issues it can help you uncover and solve.
• The items and areas to be reviewed in your audit.
• The insights you’ll gain into your online presence [Office1] and business post-audit.

Why You Should Perform a Total Online Presence Audit.

There seems to be this recurring trope in Hollywood — the one about someone who’s born lucky, or has some magical event befall them, and then everything they do works out in their favor. Do you know the one?

Somehow, that mentality has gotten into entrepreneurship. We hate to break it to you, but that happens in the movies and only in the movies.

If you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, blogger, or side-hustler, you’re going to have to make your own luck. And fair warning: It’s going to look a lot less like luck and a lot more like dedication and hard work. But the end result — success on your own merit, is so worth it.

The first step to success is understanding your business.  

Do you know who your ideal customer is? Can you describe your marketing funnel(s)? Wondering why some competitors perform better than you do for certain keywords in SERPs? Or why certain pages of your site have high bounce rates?

These are all questions you need to know the answers to, and your audit will help you gain these crucial insights.

Tracking Your Audit Findings.

Before getting started, make sure you have a way to track and record your audit and your findings.  

If you use a cloud-based solution for record-keeping, then you can quickly and easily share your findings with anyone who needs to access them.

Depending on your preference, we offer and recommend both GSuite, which comes with all the Google tools you know and love, like Gmail, Sheets, and Docs, and Office 365, that offers all the familiarity of Outlook, Excel, and Word plus a host of other features.  

Parts of a Complete Online Presence Audit.

Now that you have your tracking tools at hand it’s time to plan your audit. It will consist of reviewing the following areas:

• Website
  • SEO analysis, both on and off-page
  • Content
  • Analytics
• Marketing and digital campaigns
• Social media platforms and profiles
• Local directories
• Review sites
• Google My Business Listing

As we move through each section we’ll tell you what to look for and provide you with a set of questions to guide you. Feel free to add your own as you go.

How to Audit Your Website.

Your website is your home base online. It’s where you drive customers and generate business, so you need to treat it well.

We really like that John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, recommends starting website audits with your homepage. He writes that, “If you find issues on your homepage, odds are you’ll find issues throughout the rest of your website as well.”

When you review your site, you’ll discovers answers to things like:

• What actions are your site visitors taking?
• Where are people clicking on your homepage?
• What landing pages receive the most traffic?
• How long are people staying on site?

And all of these insights can be used to further refine your site and improve your marketing funnel.

A website audit, in and of itself, is a large but fruitful task, so don’t hesitate to ask for help from a professional if you need it. We wrote an entire guide dedicated to auditing your website, and it includes tips and the tools you’ll need to accomplish it. Check it out here. This guide also includes the instructions for performing your on-page SEO reviews. In the next section, we’ll cover how to review your off-page SEO, or SEO factors that aren’t on your website.

How to Audit Off-Page SEO.

If you haven’t heard of SEO yet, let us explain. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Don’t let the name fool you though, when performing SEO tasks you won’t be directly affecting any search engines. Instead, you’ll be optimizing different factors on your site so that they rank higher in search engine result pages, or SERPs.

Along with those website SEO factors, referred to as on-page SEO, there’s also off-page SEO.

Off-page SEO mainly consists of building back links to your site from other online sources. That could mean a variety of things, like linking back to your site from social media or other blogs and sites. In fact, backlinks can be bucketed into three general groups:

• Natural Links
  • Links made to your site organically by others. Like if someone were to link off to your site in a blog post they write without you having to ask them to do it.
• Manually Built Links
  • These are links that appear on 3^rd party sites or platforms, but you’ve had a hand in getting them there. This could mean you’ve asked a customer or friend to share it, or maybe you hired an influencer to do a social media campaign that links back to your site.
• Self-created Links
  • These are the bad boys of backlinks, and we recommend you use caution before plastering your site links all over the Internet. Search engines don’t look fondly on spammy links, so if you’ve inserted them where they don’t belong — like random blogs and websites that don’t relate to you in some meaningful way — you could be doing yourself a disservice. Only post your links where it’s appropriate and makes sense.

You can use Google Search Console, a free tool, to audit your links. Use Google’s instructions to start your free account and then you can download a list of all your backlinks. Then, if you can, remove any that fall into “spammy” territory.

How to Audit Social Media.

Your social media profiles comprise a good portion of your total online presence. Social media is a place to connect with and grow an audience, identify new business opportunities, and tell your story the way you want it told.

Auditing your social media can help you find new audiences, improve relationships with existing ones, direct people to your site to transact, and more.

You’re going to want to start your social media audit by tracking down all your social media profiles. In your Google Doc or Excel Spreadsheet, record the platform (like Instagram, Facebook, etc.) and the link to your profiles. Also include:

• Your social media username, or handle.
• What your goals are for the channel.
• How frequently you post to support those goals.
• Top performing content.
• Information on your audience or demographic.

Then, stop and reflect on the different social media platforms and channels. Are they supporting your goals as-is? What needs to be refined? Are there any you don’t need to be on?

Remember, it’s not about being everywhere, it’s about being where it counts, or where your audience is.

How to Audit Marketing and Digital Campaigns.

Are you running any marketing or digital campaigns?

Those should be part of your complete web presence audit, too. As you compile your different campaigns, make sure you’re clear on their goals. Create S.M.A.R.T. goals for each of your campaigns.

Once you know the goals of your campaigns, you’ll want to review their looks to make sure they’re on-brand. Is your type consistent? Are your logos the same?

Check out this thorough guide from FlypChart to help you analyze the headlines and copy of your campaigns to make sure everything is support of your goals.

How to Audit Online Reviews.

When it comes to online reviews, there’s not much that can be done to change any that exist, but it’s a good idea to audit them anyway.

Auditing your online reviews, on sites like Yelp or Facebook, can help you keep your finger on the pulse of what people are saying regarding your business.

Lots of positive feedback? You must be doing something right.

Too much negative feedback? Use the critiques and criticism you see to improve your business and after doing so, encourage people to leave new, positive reviews if they’d had a good experience.

No reviews at all? That doesn’t mean people don’t like your business, but it may mean that you’re not exactly memorable enough. You can work to implement a word-of-mouth-marketing strategy that can help increase what people say about you — online and off.

How to Audit a Google My Business Listing.

Have you set up a Google My Business Listing (GMBL) for your business?

If not, you’re missing out. Google is by far the most popular search engine, so it’s good to have a GMBL. These listings have all of your important business information like your hours of operation, contact information, and website links, along with the ability for customers to leave reviews on your listing.

We recommend using Google’s guide to setting it up, or making sure yours it set up correctly, as part of your audit.

Audit Your Web Presence to Better Your Business.

Total online audits have a lot of parts to them, it’s true. We don’t expect that you’ll be able to complete your audit in one day, and that’s ok.

Break your audit down into manageable chunks and record your findings and results as you go so that you don’t forget where you left off.

If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact an expert.

If so, you need to learn a thing or two about SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO is made up of various strategies and best practices that exist to improve your position in search engine results.

Google, the dominant search engine, relies on different SEO ranking signals to determine what websites or pages are the best results for different search queries. These ranking signals consist of things like: a secure website (SSL enabled), appropriate keywords, a site’s mobile friendliness, and quality of links. When your site is optimized for SEO, you have a better chance of ranking higher in SERPs, or search engine result pages. This is vitally important considering “75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines.”

There are two kinds of SEO: On-page and Off-page, though we’ll mostly focus on the former in this post. So without further ado, let’s look at some SEO strategies that can help boost your business in search results.

SEO Strategies for Your Business

We asked our resident SEO expert, Mike, what strategies and tactics he recommends as the most impactful that you should implement ASAP. He’s developed successful SEO plans for small businesses, agencies, and large corporations, so he’s well-versed in what helps a website rank higher in search results.

Here’s what he had to say.

Understand Users and Their Intent

Remember when typing three keywords into Google would still give you decent, relevant results? That doesn’t cut it anymore. Now, people are searching the Internet using more complex, natural speech patterns. Considering how voice search is on the rise, this trend doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. To make the most of it, you need to know a thing or two about your users.

How well do you know your audience and user base? Understanding them will give you a leg up in search results.

Are you wondering how that’s possible?

Search engines value content and sites that users themselves find valuable. So how does Google know what content and sites users find valuable? They use information like bounce rates and dwell time to determine whether someone is staying on your page, consuming relevant content, or bouncing away because your site doesn’t meet their needs or answer their query.

You can use Google Analytics to help you understand who your users are. You can figure out how they’re reaching your site, where they’re landing, and more information to help you refine the user experience of your site.

Google BERT (one of Google’s newer search algorithms released in October 2019) supports your need for a user-focused site. BERT, “is Google’s neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP)…” and “in short, BERT can help computers understand language a bit more like humans do.”

Optimizing Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

Page titles and meta descriptions are some of the first things users and search engines see and they influence how your page is understood.  

Page titles are the clickable titles that display in SERPs, like you see in the example below, circled in red. Depending on the browser you’re using, you may also see page titles in your tabs.

Meta descriptions are little snippets of HTML content that describe the content on a page. Optimizing them for SEO is crucial. You can see Domain.com’s homepage meta description circled in blue below.

Page Title Optimization

Your page title is one of the most important on-page SEO ranking factors. To make the most of it, keep these tips in mind:

• It should be no more than 65 characters in length (including spaces.)
• Your most important keyword should feature in your page title.
  • Don’t stuff it full of keywords. That’s ineffective and search engines see right through it.

Meta Description Optimization

Meta descriptions are brief snippets created to describe a page or site. Good meta descriptions increase the click-through rate from search results to your site. Create effective meta descriptions by:

• Including a CTA (call-to-action) in your meta description.
• Keeping your description between 50-160 characters, including spaces.
  • While you can write longer meta descriptions, Google tends to truncate them if they’re too wordy.
• Including keywords is important, but don’t keyword-stuff for the sake of keyword-stuffing.  

Create and Write Longer, Better Content  

Articles and pages that appear on the first page of Google search results tend to average ~1890 words. If you’re still writing 500-word fluff and puff pieces, your SEO is in trouble.

Let’s hearken back to the first SEO strategy Mike suggested, understanding your audience. If you can find out why people are coming to your site, you can cater your content to them.

Writing good content takes time, but it’s worth it because the quality of your content matters. Good content is:

• Engaging. It keeps people on your site longer.
• Shareable. If your content is good and trustworthy, others are more likely to share it and that gains you backlinks (a form of Off-page SEO.)
• Editable. Good content needs to be tweaked. Google likes “fresh” content, so be sure to revise your content to include updated keywords, newer facts, or reflect changes in user-behavior.

Remember, search engines want to display the best results for search queries. If your page has the best, most comprehensive content that answers a question, naturally, it’ll rank higher over time.

Secure Pages

Having a secure website is essential to your success. You might think you can get away without SSL if you’re not running an e–commerce website or asking for user’s personal information (like via an email sign up form), but you’d be mistaken.

SSL isn’t just vital for site security; it also matters for appearances’ sake — never discount the power of perception. We’ll explain below.

Since Google introduced security as a ranking signal in 2014, SSL has been a must-have. SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer” and it protects and encrypts the information passed between an end user (site visitor) and your site, and vice versa. It keeps information safe ranging from credit card details to email addresses. Without SSL, hackers and bad guys can intercept, read, and alter that information.

Remember how we said perception matters? Consider this: Sites with SSL enabled have a visual indicator in the URL bar that signals the site as safe and secure.

Sites without SSL, or not secure sites, show up with an ugly indicator, like you see below, that can cause site visitors to lose trust and confidence in you.

Don’t push your site visitors away before they’ve had a chance to peruse your pages. Enable SSL on your site and reap the benefits of increased customer trust and the secure exchange of information on your site.

Use Your SEO Tools

If you’re working on SEO, it makes sense to use SEO tools designed specifically to help! As an added bonus, many of them are free. Let’s look at two resources created by Google that are indispensable to your SEO efforts.

Google Analytics

Use this tool to understand basic KPIs (key performance indicators) and benchmark performance. With Analytics you can:

• Understand your audience.
• Gain insight into performance fluctuations.
• Visualize user behavior.
• Create reports.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console has one main purpose: to help you understand how GoogleBot has interacted with your site.

What’s GoogleBot? It’s Google’s Search Engine Bot that crawls webpages. It uses sitemaps and links to catalogue sites on the Internet. Google stores this information in their index, which is like a massive repository of sites that exist online.

GoogleBot crawls sites using different SEO ranking factors and looks for things like broken links or updated content. When it finds these things, it updates and makes note of them in the larger index.

When using Search Console, don’t forget to look at your Index Coverage Report (ICR). Your ICR:

• Lists both the pages you’ve submitted to Google (like via a sitemap) and all the pages Google has discovered on its own.
  • Each page displayed in the report will fall into one of the following four buckets.
    • Valid
    • Valid with warnings
    • Error
    • Excluded

Use the status of your pages to make any necessary changes to your site. For example, if you find a webpage that’s excluded from search results that shouldn’t be, you’ll need to correct it.

Search Console also lets you see the queries people made to find your site! Neat, right? This is incredibly insightful information that allows you to:

• Improve your keywords, and therefore, your content.
• Understand your most valuable organic keywords.
• Gauge and monitor keyword movement to see what you should be targeting.

Technical SEO

Have you ever completed a technical audit of your site? If not, now’s the time to start. As a best practice, you should audit your site at least once a year (more if you have a complex site.)

Technical site audits help you understand various things about your site, like:

Are You Searchable?

• When people make search queries, are your pages surfacing as results?
• Help you understand what “noindex” tags exist on your site that shouldn’t be there.
• Check the validity of your webpages (especially by using Google Search Console in your audit.)

Clean up Your Redirects

• When you click on a specific URL, but the page that loads has a different URL, it means you’ve encountered a redirect. Redirects are ways of getting people from one webpage to another.
  • Here’s an example of how it could work. Let’s say you used to sell tons of Product A because people just loved it. But you discovered Product B, something far superior, and stopped carrying the other one.  If someone has the old page for Product A bookmarked, you can use a redirect to get them to Product B’s page instead of seeing an error.  
• Over time, your redirect chains can get longer and longer and that can dilute your SEO equity.
  • This also adds load time to your pages.
• Check for temporary redirects and make sure they stay that way, temporary! They shouldn’t be used as long-term solutions.
• If you need a permanent redirect, make it a 301. We repeat, 301 redirects are permanent, but they transfer the SEO equity of your old page to your new one, unlike a temporary redirect.

Evaluate Site Traffic

• To evaluate your site traffic you’ll need to use either Google Analytics or Google Search Console.
  • For Google Analytics:
    • Click on Acquisitions > All Traffic > Channels > Organic Search (under default channel groupings) and select your time frame.
    • We recommend choosing a longer time frame to really get a sense of any patterns or issues.
    • Use this information to identify landing pages with irregular performances.
    • Evaluate these pages individually looking for potential errors.
  • For Google Search Console:
    • Navigate to Performance > Search Results > Change date to “Compare.”
    • Sort results by significant differences in your KPIs to identify and evaluate your site performance trends.
    • Seeing a big gap in click and impression data? Bridge them by identifying the keywords you’d like to strengthen and then focus on those terms within that page(s).

Update Your Robots.txt File

Robots.txt files are made to communicate with web crawling robots (like GoogleBot.) These files tell the bots what webpages they can and can’t access for crawling on your site. It’s a file that creates “rules” around your domain.  

• Robots.txt files
  • Make sure no important elements from your site are being blocked from crawlers and therefore, search engines.
  • Block elements of your site (of your choosing) from crawlers and search engines.
• You should always check your Robots.txt file.
  • You can view its real-time performance from within Google Search Console, just look for the Index Coverage Report we mentioned earlier.
  • For example, anything that results in “valid, but with warnings” means your Robots.txt file should’ve prevented those URLs from being crawled, but they’ve surfaced anyway. If this happens, make sure your Robots.txt file is set up appropriately.
  • You could also see things marked as “excluded.” This means those URLs are appropriately and correctly blocked from SERPs by the robots.txt file.
    • We recommend giving anything an “excluded” status a once-over to make sure you haven’t accidentally blocked any pages that should be crawlable.

Review Your 404 pages

• 404 errors surface across pages that have been removed, deleted, or are otherwise categorized as “Bad Requests.”
  • Do you have any 404 pages that have actually gained significant value for your site?
    • This could be because they’ve generated a lot of backlinks, have great keyword ranking, bring in decent traffic, revenue, or a variety of other reasons.
    • If yes, you should consider redirecting those pages (remember, 301 redirects maintain all the SEO equity that a page has built) or reconfiguring them so they’re still relevant.
• View your 404s with a web crawl or with Google Search Console.
  • In Search Console, go to your Index Coverage Report and then navigate to the “Errors” section. This will display all the 404 errors that came from your sitemap.xml file.
  • In that same report, navigate to the “Excluded” section.
  • This will report on any pages with a 404 crawl anomaly or any pages throwing soft 404 errors.

Implementing These SEO Strategies and Tips Will Boost Your Business

We want your business to succeed as much as you do. That’s why we’ve compiled these SEO strategies and hope that you implement them on your website.

SEO is crucial to surviving and thriving online, so don’t let your website and business get behind. If you’ve never worked on your SEO before, consider starting with this beginner’s guide to SEO.

If you have any questions, or other SEO strategies you’d like to suggest, let us know in the comments.

Domain Names and Voice Search

Search engines are evolving at a constant pace making their user experience as simple and hassle-free as possible. The introduction of voice search has, in many cases, eliminated the need to type your queries. Every phone and computer is now powered by a voice assistant (such as Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, and more). The presence of voice-first devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are now highly common.

Voice search is all set to be the next big thing, and for good reason. Conducting a search through voice takes a lot less time than typing out a query and it even offers faster results. A user doesn’t even need to look at the phone or the device in order to get the answer.

A revolution in the way people use search engines also requires a revamp of SEO strategies. In fact, Comscore predicts that more than 50% of all searches will be done by voice in 2020, with Gartner predicting that 30% of all searches will be done on a device without a screen. Since users are asking questions differently, experts need to find better ways to be able to give what search engines will see as the best possible answer. Apart from SEO, there’s also a need for Voice Search Optimization.

What is Voice Search Optimization (VSO)?

Voice Search Optimization is essentially the process of optimizing your webpage content, business listings, and brand information in order to improve your ranking in the search results. VSO is, in a lot of ways, similar to SEO. Users are widely using search engines to find on-the-go answers for everything from “Best restaurants that serve sushi” to “Will there be snow tomorrow?”.

You may think that it’s too early to get into voice search but this is the perfect time to prepare for it. In fact, the sooner you get your VSO right, the better its benefits will be for your business.

How can voice search benefit your business?

Voice search optimization is a phenomenal way for small and medium businesses to attract potential customers to their website. According to Google, 39% of voice searches center around finding out more information about businesses. This is especially true for local businesses. The more you strengthen your brand presence locally, the better you’ll fare in voice search. A lot of voice search queries are local such as “Where can I get the best burrito in Los Angeles?” Or “Best hair salons near Sunset Boulevard.”

Therefore, highlighting the details of your local business such as the location, office hours, pictures, etc. can help increase the number of visits to your local store, office or working space.

By properly implementing voice search optimization, both B2B and B2C businesses can enjoy a variety of business benefits. Some of those are:

●      More website traffic.

●      Better brand awareness and visibility.

●      More foot traffic to your stores.

●      Stronger, more relevant connection with the users.

●      Enhanced user engagement.

●      Better chances of conversion and sales.

How can your domain name help you win at voice search?

A meaningful keyword-rich domain name can go a long way in ensuring that you win at voice search. Mentioned below are a few tips that can help you get the right domain name that is a perfect fit for this new search era.

1. Get voice-search-friendly domain names

The right domain name can be a huge aid in performing well in voice search results. A domain name that is clear in its intent and incorporates the right keywords can enhance the chances of your website being picked up by the voice search assistant.

To ensure you have the most voice search-friendly domain name, ensure it has the following characteristics:

●      It is short and simple.

●      It is devoid of hyphens, numbers, or creative and incorrect spellings.

●      It is keyword-rich.

For example, let’s assume someone wants to visit your website. Between www.gothicskullz-stuff.com and www.gothicstuff.store, which website do you think will be more easily comprehended by a voice search assistant?

A domain name can be your secret weapon in fighting the competition and ranking well in voice search. In fact, the use of new domain extensions such as .tech, .store, .online, .space, and more is on the rise and for good reason. They help optimize your domain name voice search.

2. Use natural speech patterns

Text based searches are very different from voice searches. When people type their search query, they prefer to use as few words as possible. However, when they use voice search, they will phrase their query as if they were asking another person. On average, people can only type around 40 words per minute, but they can talk at 150 wpm. Longer tailed queries are more natural for speech, so make sure your content is suited for this.

Let’s imagine that you’re using voice search to look for websites that sell Batman posters. Here, a domain name such as www.batmanposters.online has a stronger chance to beat the other competing websites. That’s the benefit of having keyword-rich domain names. Just remember, instead of only using single, to-the-point keywords that sound robotic, ensure that the sentences and phrases used on your site and in your content are more conversational.

According to a study by Backlinko, Google tends to answer voice search queries with short, 29-word results. This means that it is important that you keep your answers short, simple, and crisp and avoid any super technical jargon.

3. Optimize for local searches

According to research, 58% of consumers use voice search to find local business information. Just think about the number of times you’ve searched for things that include the words “near me”.

While the content on your website plays a crucial role in optimizing for local searches, your domain name can also be of great help. Domain names such as www.miamioxfordshirts.store or www.floridatacos.online are direct and to the point; they’re optimized for city-based voice search queries such as “Order tacos in Florida” or “Buy oxford shirts in Miami”.

Localized searches are no longer just about the city or state, but also about particular neighborhoods or localities. Local businesses would do well to factor this into their decision making process when choosing a domain name. For example, www.queensapparel.store is a good, local VSO-optimized domain name for anyone looking for apparel in Queens, New York.

With relevant domain extensions such as .store, .tech, .online, .press, and others, you can pick a short and definitive name that clearly highlights the nature of your business and where you are located.

A relevant domain name coupled with your business listings on search engines will make it easier for customers to find you.

Conclusion

In many ways, the era of voice search is already upon us. Marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs must identify this enormous opportunity to power such searches and take the necessary steps to optimize their content for a voice-first future.

Author Bio

Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .STORE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

We’re happy you’re here. Thanks for choosing us!

Perhaps this is your first time purchasing a domain name or maybe you’ve transferred from a different registrar. Either way, we want you to feel comfortable navigating your Domain.com account. We’re here to help, so don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have.    

Let’s explore a Domain.com account together. In this post, we’ll start by showing you what it looks like once you’re logged in. We’ll go through the toggles and options you’ll find in your account’s Control Panel and discuss what they mean. By the time you’re finished with this post you should have a great understanding of your Domain.com account.

Understanding your Domain.com account options

To start managing your domain name and update your Domain.com account you’ll want to navigate to Domain.com and click Login in the top right corner of the page.

Then, type in your username or domain name and password and click the red Log in button.

And you’re in!

The first screen you’ll see once logged in gives you an overview of your domains. You can switch to see an overview of your hosting plans by clicking on Hosting toward the top left on the page.

The domain names you’ll see on this page are all of the ones associated with the particular Domain.com account you’re logged into. You can filter by All Domains, Active Domains, Expired Domains, and even opt to show your subdomains on this page.  

Is there a particular domain name you’d like to manage or want to know more about? Go ahead and click on the blue Manage button underneath it to access more information on that domain.

Your domain name summary page

Here’s what that page looks like.

We’ve numbered the different sections so we can go through them and make sure you understand what you can do with your domain name.

Section 1 – Domain Settings

The domain settings area of your summary page offers a quick, convenient look into your domain name. Here, you can see if your domain

Is set to Auto-renew.

• Your domain name represents you online. Do you really want to risk having someone else swoop in and purchase it if you forget to renew your domain?
• No surprise charges. We’ll always email you prior to automatically renewing your domain name.

Is locked.

• It’s always in your best interest to keep your domain name locked unless you are actively transferring it.
• A locked domain name prevents unauthorized domain transfers and prevents any changes from being made to the domain’s settings.

Is encrypted with SSL.

• You want your site visitors to trust you, right? Let them know right off the bat that your site is secure with SSL.

Is your primary domain.

• By default, your primary domain is the first one you registered or transferred. Your primary domain is the one you want representing your site or business. This domain is the default when accessing FTP (file transfer protocol) or configuring mailboxes.

Turn any of these settings on or off by clicking on the toggle icon next to it. If the toggle is entirely grey then the item is turned off. If the toggle is green then the selection activated.

Section 2 – Domain Information

This section provides a brief overview of your domain name. It lists your domain, your registrar, the date your domain was registered, and when it’s set to expire. If you have auto-renew enabled then you’ll also see your renewal date listed in this section.

Section 3 – Domain Privacy + Protection

Domain Privacy + Protection keeps your personal information out of the WHOIS database and away from prying eyes. Whenever a domain name is purchased, the person or company registering it is required to supply their legal, accurate personal information. ICANN mandates that this information be made publicly available via the WHOIS database, but that means it can be scraped by spammers for unwanted emails and phone calls unless you enable Domain Privacy + Protection. It also helps keep your site and domain secure by running malware scans and working to prevent your domain from getting blacklisted.

If you already purchased Domain Privacy + Protection then you’ll see something else for Section 3 on your summary page. This is what it will look like.

As with Section 1, when the toggles are green that means that those items are activated. You’ll want to click on the arrow next to SMS Notification Settings to make sure the information there is correct. Here’s what you’ll see.

Section 4 – Email Accounts

If you haven’t set up a professional email address to match your domain name then you can do so right here! An email address that matches your domain name establishes credibility, supports your digital identity, and looks professional.

If you’ve already purchased email, then Section 4 will look a little different for you. This is what you’ll see.

Section 5 – Account Settings, Billing, Log Out

This is an important part of your account. If you need to update your personal information including phone number or address, or if you need to add your EIN/Tax #, you can do so right here. First click, Account Settings from the drop down menu and on the following page click the three dots next to Contact Information like you see below.  

Beneath Account Settings in the drop down menu you’ll see Billing. This section should be pretty self-explanatory, but you can click here to update your payment method and billing address.

You’ll also find the option to log out in the drop down menu under the Billing section.

Section 6 – Advanced Tools

If you’re looking for more information on your server or perhaps FTP, then this is where to go.

Section 7 – Help

Stuck on something in your account? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.

We’re here for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week by phone or live chat. If you click on the Help tab you’ll see a menu pop out on the right hand of your screen. From here, you’re able to search for what you need help with, view some popular articles, and connect with our team via live chat.

Section 8 – Option between Domain and Hosting Summary

You can click between the Domain or Hosting options seen here to view either summary page.

Section 9 – Summary Menu

This summary menu provides a quick, easy way to access everything you need for your digital presence. Here’s a close up of what you’ll find in that menu.

From here, you can learn more about our options for easy website creation by clicking either WebsiteBuilder, to learn about our easy to use AI-powered builder, or WordPress.

If you’re looking for email and productivity solutions, click either G Suite or Office 365.

You can learn more about site security by clicking on SSL Certificate and SiteLock.

Next on the menu is Pointers & Subdomains. Your domain pointer determines how you intend to use your site (you can point it to your home directory, a URL, or even park it.)

Need to edit your DNS & Nameservers? Click on the appropriately titled link in the menu and have at it!

DNS stands for “Domain Name System.” The main concept behind the DNS is that people have an easier time remembering names than numbers (could you imagine typing strings of numbers for IP Addresses instead of a quick domain name?). In essence, the DNS is an extensive directory that’s regulated and contains information on all the unique, one-of-a-kind domain names that exist and the IP addresses tied to them. And in order for people to type in your domain and arrive at your site, there needs to be a nameserver attached to it. Be careful when editing this section and ask for help if you need it. We’re available to assist.

And while we’d hate to see you go, if you need to transfer your domain name you can do so through the Transfer link.

Looking for the WHOIS contact information for your domain? You can find that by clicking on Contact Information at the bottom of the menu. This information should always be current and your legal information — no aliases or pseudonyms.

Navigating Your Domain.com Account

We hope this guide to your Domain.com control panel and account is helpful and that it’s pointed you in the right direction.

Whether you’re looking to build your domain name portfolio, claim your online identity, start a website or a business, you can do it all with Domain.com.

And if there’s something you’re looking for and can’t find, let us know in the comments below!

Congratulations!

It’s a big step, and we’re excited for you.

Create a website: From planning to execution

Is this the first website you’ve created? Or has it been a while since you’ve made one? Either way, we’ll help you understand exactly what to do. Follow along as we discuss how to plan and build your website.

Planning Your Site

Not all websites are created equal. Depending on your needs and goals your website may consist of only a few pages, or it could be a large e-commerce website.

Before investing too much time in your design, or jumping straight into website creation, ask yourself the following questions to help plan your site.

• What is my business all about?
  • This is question #1 for good reason. Your website exists to support your business needs. Your website will be a means to an end, it will be a means to support and further your business goals.
  • If your site will be a blog, or to support a passion project, you should still clearly define what your goals and needs are to support your vision. Then consider how your site will support those.
• What will success look like?
  • For bloggers looking to monetize their site, they might consider site visitors a key performance indicator, or KPI, of their site. The more visitors they receive, the greater the likelihood of getting better partners and adverts on your site.
  • For e-commerce sites, you’ll want to think more along the lines of conversions (when a site visitor becomes a customer, or takes the action you want them to take on your site.)
  • You need to have a clear idea of what success will look like for you and the KPIs you’ll use to measure it so that you can design your website properly. If you’re trying to drive on-site purchases, but have no call-to-action buttons on site for people to “Buy Now” or “Checkout Here” then you’re doing yourself a disservice. Identifying what your success will look like helps you build the website to get there.

• Who’s my target audience?
  • Websites need visitors to thrive. But if you attract all the wrong people to your site, and they don’t end up interacting with your site or purchasing anything, then what does it matter?
  • Your target audience consists of the people in your ideal market. They’re the ones who your service or goods are designed to help and benefit. Cater your website to these folks, and you’ll reap the rewards.
• Do I have the right domain name?
  • Your domain name is the address that leads people to your website. It should be easy to understand, easy to spell, and hopefully, memorable. Think of it this way: If someone were to hear your domain name without ever seeing it, could they spell it and get to your site?
  • If you don’t have the perfect domain name yet, you can find one here.

Now that you’ve asked yourself these questions, you should have a better idea of what type of site you’ll need to create.

Creating a quick, beautiful website

Ready to design and create your site?

You can quickly and easily create a website to suit your needs using something called a Website Builder.

What is a website builder?

A website builder is a lot like it sounds — it’s a tool to help you create a website easily. Website builders usually come with drag-and-drop functionality, offer pre-made templates, and leave less room for error when creating a site.

You don’t need to have a 4-year degree or advanced understanding of code to use a website builder, but that doesn’t mean they’re strictly the purview of website novices. Many advanced web designers use website builders, too.

Domain.com’s Website Builder and Full Service Design

We offer a website builder to help you get up and running in no time at all. You can put together a quick, simple site in under an hour, or create a larger e-commerce site to sell your goods.

No time to create a site? That’s no problem. If you would rather have some one-on-one dedicated assistance in creating a site we have options for you, too. We offer a full service design and marketing plan to help you get up and running, and you’ll receive a dedicated account manager who’ll reach out every month to make sure all is well and review your marketing campaigns.

What are you waiting for – create your site today!

Creating a website has never been easier or simpler. Take some time to plan your site — identify your target audience and set your goals. Once you know what purpose your site will serve it’s easier to design it.

Need a hand or have any questions? Let us know!

According to Statista, there are around 31.2 MILLION bloggers in the USA alone. So if you’re ready to start blogging, you’re in good company.

If you’re curious as to how to start blogging then stick around as that’s the focus of this post. We’ll be discussing:

• Starting your blog with the right tools.
• Planning for your blog’s long-term success.
• And the best practices to help you get there.

How do you start a blog?

Before we jump into how to start a blog, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what a blog is.

Blogs have been around since the dawn of time about 1994. Here’s how Merriam-Webster defines a blog.

If you’re like most of the people who reach out to us when starting a blog, you’re probably wondering, “What’s the difference between a website and a blog, and which one do I need?”

Here’s our answer: All blogs are websites, but not all websites are blogs. You definitely need a blog, but not necessarily a website. If your plan is to primarily share written content with the internet-at-large, then a blog will suffice. If your blog is meant to support a product, e-commerce store, or even a nonprofit, you’ll need a website and your blog should be part of that larger website. (Otherwise, where are people supposed to purchase your products or learn more about your cause and donate?)

Starting a blog: The tools you need.

What things do you need to get a blog off the ground ASAP? Depending on who you ask, you may end up with a laundry list of suggestions. We don’t want to overwhelm any aspiring bloggers, so here are the essentials you need:

• A domain name
  • If you hope to make money from your blog, sell your products, or grow a cult following, your blog needs to be memorable. One way to do this is with a brandable domain name.
  • What’s easier to remember: yourname.someotherwebsitesnamehere.com or yourname.com? You have a plethora of domain extensions available to you, like .com, .blog, .co, .design, and more, which will only serve to strengthen your domain name’s memorability.  
  • Pro-tip: Your domain name should pass the “radio test.” If someone were only to hear your domain name, and not see it, would they be able to spell it and find your blog? Ix-nay the dashes and creative spellings.
• Website, or blog hosting.
  • Your blog has to live somewhere. Your host is where all the files and data for your blog reside, and hosting makes it possible for people to view and interact with what’s on your site.
• A content management system, or CMS.
  • A what? What’s that?
    • Content management systems give you the power to manage your digital content. They’re what gives you the ability and control to format and publish your posts, videos, images, etc.
  • Ever heard of WordPress? It’s a free and open-source content management system, and the most popular blogging service to boot!
    • Check out our site, where you can get the perfect domain name and WordPress hosting (and lots of free, mobile-friendly themes) for your blog.

Those are the three things you must have when starting a blog: A memorable name, hosting, and a content management system.

Now that you know what you need to get a blog started, we should discuss what it takes to take your blog from meh to marvelous. If your blog isn’t good people won’t visit it, and it won’t be worth your time or theirs.

Tip and tricks to plan for a successful blog.

It’s tempting to say, “I’ll feel it out and see what my blog needs,” or “I’ll create a plan next week (or the one after that …)” but if you don’t take the time to plan for your blog’s success, you’re doing yourself a disservice.  No one wants to visit a terrible blog, much less website. If you aren’t going to put the time and effort into creating a good blog, why should people spend their time visiting it?

So, let’s talk about what you should consider and plan for to create a good blog.

Best practices and questions to ask when starting a blog.

• How much time can I devote to my blog?
  • There’s no sense in biting off more than you can chew. Go into creating your blog with a solid understanding of how much time you can devote to it. If you can only devote a few hours each week, an everyday posting schedule will leave you with too much work to complete in the allotted time.
• What am I passionate about? And how can that fuel my blog?
  • If you don’t care for the topic you’re writing about, it’ll show. If you have a passion, share it!
    • One big caveat: Your passion should be something others have an interest in, too. Unfortunately, there aren’t many people interested in the finer aspects of clown décor so don’t make that the focus of your blog. If there’s no audience for the subject matter then your blog will be poorly trafficked and a poorly trafficked blog is hard to monetize (if that’s your end goal.)
• What does my voice sound like?
  • We know, we know, no one will actually be able to hear your blog. But that’s not what we mean anyway. Your writing has a voice: Your word choice, sentence structure or syntax, and punctuation will all inform how people read your posts.
    • We’ve got nothing against the passive voice, but it doesn’t really belong in a blog post. Use it in moderation. Instead, write using the active voice. Active voice grabs your readers’ attentions and helps them stay focused on your writing.
• How technical am I?
  • Blogs live in a digital world. While you don’t need a ton of technical knowledge to start a blog, a little does help. If you run into any snafus, you’ll need to know how to address them, or know where to go for help. Many content management systems have tutorials or knowledgebases where you can find your answers. If your CMS doesn’t, you may need to rely on your own technical abilities. 
• How will I provide value to my readers?
  • When was the last time you willingly spent time on something you considered a waste? Can’t think of a time when that happened? Yeah, we’re having some difficulty with that, too. People don’t spend their time on things they consider to be wastes, and if your blog doesn’t provide value in some way, you can bet they won’t find it worth their time to read and peruse.
  • Can you help someone solve a problem? Provide encouragement or respite for them? The value your posts provide will vary based on your goals and subject matter, but always keep value in mind when working on materials for your blog.
• How are people going to find my blog?
  • “If you build it, [they] will come.” That strategy was great … for Kevin Costner circa 1989. But now? Not so much. There are a lot of blogs out there all clamoring for peoples’ online attention. You should think about how you’re going to get your blog in front of your desired audience’s face.
  • Have you heard of SEO? SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of positively influencing your search engine result rankings, thereby increasing the quantity and quality of your website traffic. Here’s an article we wrote about SEO that explains how it can help get your blog in front of the right audience.
• How will I measure the success of my blog?
  • Here at Domain.com, we frequently ask ourselves, “What will success look like?” before venturing into new projects. We recommend asking yourself the same question I regards to your blog. Keeping in mind that success may look different from one blog to another, and that it largely depends on your specific goals. You may want to consider using things like bounce rates, purchase volume, or user engagement as Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, of success for your blog.

Get your blog up and running with Domain.com

Becoming a blogger doesn’t have to be a daunting task. When in doubt, start at the beginning. To get your blog off the ground you’ll need a great domain name, hosting, and a content management system.

From there, make sure you know what your goals are and who your audience is. Write with them in mind, and turn your blog into a valuable resource they’ll want to visit time and time again.

Our last tip? Once your blog is thriving, consider monetizing it to make a little extra income — if you’re already putting the time and effort into it, you should get something in return.

If you have an active blog share it with us in the comments below and let us know what has and hasn’t worked for you!

If you think about advertising, it’s a lot like bragging, isn’t it? Except, in this case, you’re paying to talk about yourself and get your differentiator in your audience’s face. Sometimes, prospective customers get tired of hearing us talk about ourselves and if that’s the case, what alternatives do we have? 

Enter word of mouth marketing. If you don’t have a word of mouth strategy already defined, you’ll want to do that after reading this article. 

Get a memorable domain name so others can easily remember it and share it with their friends.

What is word of mouth marketing and why should I invest in it?

You’re probably wondering, “What is word of mouth marketing and how can it help me brag less about myself while inspiring others to talk about my business?” Dear internet reader, we’re glad you asked. 

Entrepreneur’s Small Business Encyclopedia defines word of mouth as:

Jay Baer, of Convince & Convert, takes it further and breaks word of mouth down into two buckets: proactive and reactive. How does he define the two? 

Reactive word of mouth: You can think of reactive word of mouth as similar to referrals. When someone is looking for a solution to their needs, they may ask their friends and family for a recommendation. Their family and friends react to their question by recommending a solution or business that they’ve used before and enjoyed. 

Proactive word of mouth: Proactive word of mouth is generally unasked for. An example of proactive word of mouth is when someone is so happy with an experience or service they tell all their friends about it — even if their friends aren’t asking for those details and recommendations — they’re proactively sharing that experience or recommendation.

Is one form of word of mouth, either proactive or reactive, better than the other? Both are great! Both will do wonders for your business. But if we had to rank them, we’d give the edge to proactive word of mouth. That’s because proactive word of mouth isn’t asked for — those people are willingly taking time out of their day to shout your praises and share your product just because they like you. When someone is that happy with your service, you know you’re doing something right. 

Does word of mouth marketing make a difference to my bottom line?

Developing a word of mouth strategy for your business can affect your bottom line in two ways.

1. Saves you money on paid advertising
   1. Remember, if you make your customers’ experiences great, they will brag for you and about you. (Subpar and good experiences won’t cut it. Work to impress.) This could lead to a reduction in how much you spend on traditional advertising. 
2. Brings in new business.
   1. In his study, Chatter Matters, Jay Baer discovered that “83% of Americans are more interested in purchasing a product or service when they’ve received a verbal recommendation from a friend or family member.” You need to kindle those conversations and make your business worth talking about!

How do I increase word of mouth about my business?

That’s a really good question, and we don’t blame you if you’re stumped. You can smile and thank every customer that walks in your door or visits your site, but that’s not enough. You can give them a good shopping experience, or a good website experience, yet that’s not enough either. 

In order for people to talk about your business, they need a good reason. Better yet, they need a great reason. Pleasantries and run-of-the-mill good experiences aren’t noteworthy — they’re expected. Ready for some good news? You don’t need to deck your store or site out in wall-to-wall neon colors and pull outrageous stunts to get attention. All you need to do is create a “talk trigger.” 

What’s a talk trigger? 

Jay defines a talk trigger as “a strategic, operational differentiator that compels word of mouth, reliably creating customer chatter on an ongoing basis.” Your talk trigger should be something you do, not something you say, to set yourself apart and make yourself, specifically your business, a worthwhile topic of conversation. 

In his book, Jay uses DoubleTree hotels by Hilton as an example of a business with a great talk trigger. Whenever someone checks into those hotels, they’re given a fresh chocolate chip cookie. What does this one action do for them in return? It gets about 25 thousand customers talking about their hotel on social media, in a positive light, per day. If you’ve ever found yourself talking about DoubleTree’s cookies, we hate to break it to you, but you were the walking talking advertisement for the hotel. And we bet you were happy to do it!

What makes for a good talk trigger? To explain, Jay lays out the four Rs:

1. Remarkable – Give them something worth talking about, and remarkable doesn’t necessarily mean BIG.
2. Relevant – If it’s not relevant, it’s not memorable.
3. Reasonable – You get a car! And you get a car! And you get a car! Doesn’t sound so reasonable now does it?
4. Repeatable – Talk triggers don’t work if only one or two people talk about them. They must be repeatable. 

Get a memorable domain name so others can easily remember it and share it with their friends.

Can I create a word of mouth worthy experience on my website?

We believe that you can, yes. However, in order to create a word of mouth worthy experience on your website, you’re going to have to cover your bases. Here are our some of our top recommendations to make your website worth talking about. 

• Design your site with your user’s experience in mind. 
  • How will they navigate your site? Are all the buttons visible and working on both desktop and mobile? Taking the time to work through these little kinks improves the end user experience, and will make them think more kindly of your site.
• Provide good content.
  • Good content is what keeps people on your site. A lack of it won’t inspire conversation. 
• Make sure you have the right hosting package.
  • If you expect a lot of website traffic, don’t choose the skimpiest hosting package. The more traffic your website receives the more bandwidth you need to provide a seamless, glitch-free experience to your visitors.
• Know your audience. 
  • You can’t provide a relevant talk trigger (remember the 4 Rs?) if you don’t know your audience. Get to know what motivates them and what they enjoy, and you’ll find it easier to speak their language and market to them effectively. 

What defines your word of mouth marketing strategy?

Your word of mouth strategy will probably look a little different from your neighbors’ and your competitors’ strategies — and that’s ok! People don’t talk about things that are commonplace and mundane. So let your differences shine.

Have you implemented any talk triggers or word of mouth strategies? We’d love to hear about what’s worked for you and what hasn’t. Let us know in the comments!

Is it the striking colors you chose to use in your design? Is it the fancy way your website scrolls?

Probably not.

Good content is what keeps your website visitors engaged and interested in your site. But, “good content” is a little vague, isn’t it? We think so, too. That’s why we’ve put together the following tips for you. Follow these tips and you’re on your way to creating good website content.

It all starts with a great domain. Get yours today.

What makes for good website content?

• Know your audience and their goals.

When you create a website, you’re not creating it for yourself. Yes, you’ll reap the benefits of having a good website: increased visitors that translate into increased revenue, but that’s not quite the same. Your website exists to help your desired audience learn about you, or specifically, how your product or service helps them meet their goals or needs. If you do a good job of convincing them that you have what they need, they’re more likely to purchase from you.

 If you aren’t sure who your audience is, or what they want, how can you ever market yourself and your site to them? You can’t. At least not well.

Before writing content that you assume will attract people, do your homework. Take a look at your competitors and see how they’re positioning similar products. What’s your differentiator? Highlight it in your content and on your website.

• Clear, crisp copy.

Have you ever read a sentence worded so poorly that it physically made your brain hurt? Or one that’s left you cross-eyed as you try to figure out what it’s trying to convey? Don’t be that person and don’t create that kind of content for your website. If your website content causes people to stumble and falter as they read, there’s an issue.

So what can you do to make sure that your website content is legible and most importantly, easily understood? Write for the average reading level, unless your audience is more advanced (i.e., if your website provides resources for lawyers, let the legal jargon roll. If not, refrain from the difficult vocabulary and syntax.)

Did you know that the National Adult Literacy Survey results suggest that the average American reads at the 7^th to 8^th grade level? By using a readability grading tool you can score your writing to make sure you’re writing isn’t too difficult, or easy, for your audience. For example, after Microsoft Word reviews the spelling and grammar in a document, it can provide you with your writing score on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease tests. You can then use this data to refine your writing. 

• Mixed media.

Do you enjoy spending time on websites that have nothing to look at but text? No photos, no images, just endless text.

Good website content isn’t restricted to blog posts and the written word. In addition to the text and writing on your website, consider using videos or other graphics to share your message and value proposition with your audience.

• Concise, understandable CTAs.

What actions do you want visitors to take on your website? Is it completing a purchase, filling out a form, or donating money?

Whatever you desire, make it obvious to your website visitors with a clear Call-to-Action (CTA). If they don’t know what they’re supposed to do, then chances are they may not do it. Your CTAs should focus on one action at a time — don’t ask someone to do three different things all from the same popup — they’ll never remember everything and they’ll be driven away by the volume of your requests. When writing a good CTA keep these three things in mind: make it concise, clear, and actionable.

• SEO optimized.

Good website content is SEO optimized. In a nutshell, that means it’s written in a way that’s attractive to search engines, and of course, humans. If your content is disliked by humans (perhaps indicated by a high bounce rate on that certain page) then search engines won’t want to surface it in search results. Search engines are in the business of getting people the information they’re seeking — quickly, efficiently, and accurately.

To write SEO optimized content, do some research around keywords. If you know what your desired audience is searching for, you know what words and terms to include in your website content. That should give you a little boost in search engine results.

There are many free tools that can help you research your keywords, so don’t hesitate to use them.

A custom domain name helps customers find you and builds your credibility.

How do you know when you’ve created good content for your website?

If your content is good, you should see an increase in traffic, an increase in conversions, and increased activity on your website. Good content is rewarded by search engines and website visitors alike. Search engines will rank good website content higher in search engine results, and website visitors will be more likely to follow your CTAs and complete the actions on your website that you want them to take.

Go ahead and take a look at the website content you have now. Do a content audit to see what material you have that performs well and what is lackluster. Use an online readability tool to score your work to see if there’s anything you can change to better it, and then revisit it in a few months to gauge how well your content is performing.

As you practice our five tips to create good website content, let us know how it goes! If you have any other suggestions, share them in the comments below.

If that’s what you’re thinking, we’re delighted to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

If you have a website, you’ve likely heard of SEO, and with good reason — it isn’t going anywhere. Understanding and implementing SEO fundamentals directly contributes to increased digital and business success, so it’s time you learned what SEO means and how it works.

In this guide, we’re covering the SEO basics you need to know to help optimize your website. We’ll discuss:

• What is SEO?
• Why does SEO matter? How will SEO help me?
• The anatomy of a SERP.
• How to track your progress.
• Simple SEO strategies you can start today.
• What not to do with SEO.
• Where can I learn more on SEO?

Let’s jump in, shall we?

What does SEO mean?

SEO is an abbreviation that stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the practice of positively influencing your search engine result rankings, thereby increasing the quantity and quality of your website traffic. To put it simply, SEO gets your website in front of more people on search engines (like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo) without needing to pay for ads.

Although search engine optimization sounds like you’d be making changes to the search engines themselves, the enhancements you’ll be making will be to your website, blog, or content.

Why does SEO matter, does it affect my business?

Need more convincing as to why you should implement a SEO strategy? Consider these facts gathered from Search Engine Journal:

• 91.5 percent: The average traffic share generated by the sites listed on the first Google search results page.
• 51 percent of all website traffic comes from organic search, 10 percent from paid search, 5 percent for social, and 34 percent from all other sources.
  • Over half of all website traffic comes from organic search — this is website traffic you AREN’T paying for, so refining your SEO strategy can save you money.
• 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information.
• ~2 trillion: The estimated number of searches Google is handling per year worldwide. That breaks down to 63,000 searches per second; 3.8 million searches per minute; 228 million searches per hour; 5.5 billion searches per day; and 167 billion searches per month.
• ~20: The number of times SEO has more traffic opportunity than PPC (Pay-Per-Click) on both mobile and desktop.

Does SEO affect your business? Without question, yes. But exactly how much it affects your business is up to you. If you don’t do anything to optimize and edit your website and content for SEO then it can’t work for you. But if you take a few minutes to optimize your website, you’ll reap the benefits of SEO — an increase in the quantity and quality of traffic to your site due to improved search result rankings.

SEO is uniquely different from other forms of digital marketing in that, with SEO, people are already searching for you. They need your services or products and they’re going to a search engine to figure out where they can get them. With SEO, you aren’t paying for ads in an attempt to woo fickle prospects back to your site — these people are already interested in what you’re selling, so help them find you by implementing an SEO strategy before your competitor does.

The anatomy of a SERP

What happens after you click “Search” on a search engine?

You’re taken to the SERP, or Search Engine Results Page.

(We’ve pulled the following SERP examples from Google because they dominate the search engine market worldwide with a 90.46% market share.) Depending on your search terms your SERP could include different types of results; however, there are some components on the results page that don’t change. Here’s what’s always included:

• Paid Ads (or PPC, Pay Per Click): These results appear first because the businesses they advertise have paid money for their top placements.
• Organic Search Results: Organic, or owned, search results aren’t paid for; instead, these results appear further up or down on the page depending on how well they’re optimized for SEO.

Both paid and organic results can also display as:

• Basic search results
  • These results display as links with metadata (the description under the URL.) Basic results don’t include images, graphs, or shopping suggestions on the main SERP.

Pro tip: If you do decide to pay for ads, avoid clicking on those search results yourself. You’ll cost yourself money since you’re charged per click on those results.

• Enriched search results
  • This is the most common SERP you’ll see, although it won’t always look the same. Enriched search results can include paid ads, organic results, sponsored links, local packs (local businesses that meet your search criteria), product carousels, and more. Google is always making updates and changes to its SEO algorithms to display the most relevant search results, so enriched search results won’t always show the same things.  

If you click on a local search result it will take you to a page where you can find out more about those businesses. It looks like this:

Pro tip: If you have a business, claim your “Google My Business” listing so you can control and edit information displayed about your business. “Add missing information” isn’t a good look when trying to attract visitors to your site.

Before we continue, when was the last time you performed an online search to see how your business or website ranks? If you haven’t done that in a while, we recommend doing so. It’s a good idea to know where you stand in search rankings so you can better gauge your SEO efforts and improvements.

Can I measure my SEO efforts?

You certainly can! And with Google Search Console — it’s free.

Google Search Console gives you deep insight into your website. You can discover how people are getting to your site — where they’re coming from, what device they’re using — and what the most popular, or heavily trafficked, pages of your website are. The Search Console allows you to submit your sitemap or individual URLs for search engine crawling, alerts you to issues with your site, and more.

If you haven’t used it before, don’t fret. Click this link to get to the Search Console. Then, click “Start now.” On the next page you’ll need to input your Domain(s) and/or URL Prefix(es.) If you choose the Domain option, you will have to verify your pages using DNS to prove that you’re the owner of the domain and all its subdomains.Verifying your site and pages is for your security. Google Search Console provides great insight into your website and that’s information only you should have. By requiring verification, Google ensures a competitor won’t have access to your website data. If you choose the URL Prefixes method, you’ll have a few options to verify your account; you can upload an HTML file (a bit more advanced, and requires access to a site’s root directory), or if you already have Google Analytics set up you can verify your site on Search Console that way. This beginner’s guide to Google Search Console by Moz walks you through all the ways you can verify your site.

What SEO tactics can I implement now?

Here are three ways you can vastly improve your SEO.

• Write good content
  • Good content pays off when it comes to search engine results rankings. What makes for good content?
    • It’s linkable. Search engines like content that can be linked to from other pages. If you create content, but have it gated (i.e. – you can only access it once you’re logged in or completed a similar action) then search engines won’t rank it as highly. They’re in the business of providing information to those who are seeking it, so make your content discoverable and linkable.
    • Aim for at least 1000 words. Search engines reward robust content, so that 300-word blog post you’re hoping rises to the top of the search results? — that needs to be fleshed out, and with relevant, valuable content.
    • Valuable, informative content drives demand. Search engines reward in-demand content with improved search result rankings. So if all you’ve done is write 1000+ words that no one cares to read, and doesn’t address your audience’s needs, you’ve wasted your time as it won’t rank highly in. You can figure out what your audience wants to know and what’s in demand by looking at keyword research.

Use WordPress? There are many free SEO tools and plugins that can help you and provide suggestions as you work, like Yoast or ThirstyAffiliates.

• Keyword research
  • Why is keyword research important? If you know what your desired audience is searching for, you know what words and terms to include in your content — thereby giving yourself a boost in results ranking.
  • There are a variety of free tools that exist to help you identify trending keywords, like Google Trends. This tool allows you to search keywords and terms (and compare them against one another) to discover how well-searched those terms are. This information can influence what keywords you use in your content. If there’s a term that’s searched a lot and relates to your content, use it. Here’s a list of 10 free keyword research tools put together by Ahref, many of which provide an even deeper level of insight into the keywords you should use.
• On-page SEO
  • Moz describes On-page SEO as “… the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines.”
  • So what are the optimizable components of your individual webpages?
    • Content, which we touched upon earlier.
    • Title Tag

• Title tags are important because they dictate the display title on SERPs (search engine results pages). It’s likely the first thing people will see when they scan their search results, so a good title tag can draw them in and get them to click on the result.
• Trying to write a good title tag? Avoid ALL CAPS, don’t stuff as many keywords as possible into it, and keep it under 60 characters. Some characters take up more space than others, so you can use free title tag preview tools to help visualize what your title tag will really look like.
  • URL structure
  • It’s easy to make sure your URLs are working for you on search engines instead of against you. How’s that? Make sure your URLs display page hierarchy. By doing so, your URL is easily read by search engines and explains where the content or page can be found on your site.
  • What does a good URL look like?
  • www.domain.com/domains/transfer and here’s the breakdown of the page hierarchy:

• Now, imagine if the URL listed above looked something like “www.domain.com/int489/trans74087.” What does that tell the search engines? Not a whole lot, and definitely not where the page resides on your site.

For more information on On-page SEO ranking factors, take a look here.

What should I avoid when getting started with SEO?

For every piece of good SEO advice out there, there are a few bad pieces floating around. No matter whose friend’s cousin’s uncle tells you it’s a good idea, avoid the following practices.

• Keyword stuffing
  • Search engines are constantly improving and refining their algorithms to make sure the most valuable content is surfaced first. You can’t fool them by stuffing your content full of keywords and calling it a day.
• Duplicate content
  • When the same piece of content appears on the internet in various places using different URLs, it’s considered duplicate content. It may seem like having your content available in more places, with different URLs, is a good idea — more ways for people to find you, right? — it isn’t. Duplicate content confuses search engines. Which URL is the primary or correct one for the content? Should they split the results and show half the searchers one URL and the other half another? What page, or URL, ends up getting the credit for the traffic? Instead of dealing with all of that, chances are you’ll suffer a loss of traffic because the search engine won’t surface all of the duplicates.
• Writing for search engines instead of people
  • Search engines are in the business of getting the correct and best information to the people who need it, or search for it. If you’re writing choppy, keyword-stuffed sentences they’ll be pretty painful for a human to read, so they won’t. If you don’t have people reading or interested in your content, there’s no demand. No demand = poor search result rankings.
• Thin content
  • You should never create content for the sake of creating content. Make sure it’s quality content — relevant to your audience and at least 1000 words long — so search engines are more likely to surface it higher on SERPs.

Where can I learn more about SEO?

This introduction to SEO serves to get you acquainted with search engine optimization and lay down the groundwork, but don’t forget, the more you invest in SEO the better off your website will be. Once you’re familiar with the topics we’ve discussed here, challenge yourself to take it to the next level with these topics.

White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO

You know how in movies the bad guys are normally in dark, depressed colors while the good guys wear bright, or white colors? You can think of white hat and black hat SEO in the same way.

Black hat SEO tactics may seem to pay off at first, but just like with bad guys, what you do will come back to haunt you (like getting blacklisted from search engines!) Google, for instance, is constantly updating and refining its search algorithms. If it notices questionable behavior (like keyword stuffing) they’ll penalize those behaviors in their updates — so that “hack” you discovered that allows you to rank on page 1 of search results? That won’t work once the algorithm is changed, and you’ll lose your authority. Good SEO habits, or white hat SEO, won’t put you at risk of being penalized by search engines, so your authority will continue to climb.

Off-page SEO

Unlike on-page SEO, off-page SEO (or off-site SEO) consists of tactics to improve your search engine result rankings that aren’t done on your site. There are a variety of things you can do, but link-building is the most well-known. The more links that exist to your site and content, the better (within reason, if you spam every website you can think of with your links in comments that’s not ok.) Link building happens a variety of ways; naturally, when someone finds your content to be relevant and links to it in one of their posts or pages, manually, when you deliberately work to increase the number of links that exist for your site, say by asking clients or associates to link to your content, and self-created. Self-created links, including links to your site or content on random social media posts and blog comments, can be good in moderation. Too many spammy posts or comments ventures into black hat SEO territory, so tread carefully.

Putting it all together

If you work on improving your SEO tactics, your website and business will thank you. A good SEO strategy increases the likelihood of your content and pages displaying higher in search engine results. When your content shows up sooner in search results you get more website traffic and better quality website traffic, after all, those are people already searching for what you have to offer.

As you dive into SEO, remember to take stock of where your pages and content show up in SERPs today so you can gauge your progress and SEO results tomorrow. Use this introduction to SEO to help you write better content, create informative URL structures, and understand the SEO tactics to avoid.

With few exceptions, yes.

In order to succeed and thrive in today’s digital-first world, you need to have active social media profiles. Despite all the negative attention Facebook has received in the news lately, Snap’s struggling stock price, and Pinterest’s recent filtering controversy, social media isn’t going anywhere. There are roughly 14,449,000,000 active profiles (that’s right, OVER 14 BILLION) across the top 20 social media networks — that’s a huge potential audience for your business.

Today, we’re diving into 6 of the most important reasons why you need social media for your business. Then, we’ll explore some approachable ways to get started with, or “re-light”, your social media accounts.

It all starts with a great domain. Get yours from Domain.com.

6 reasons your business needs social media

1.     Establish Authority & Increase Business Reputation

Your social media profiles exist to make your business look good. They increase people’s faith in you as a possible solution to their needs. Use your profiles to share content from your website, industry news, and other materials that prove to your audience that a) you know what you’re talking about and b) you’re a trusted resource. Depending on your business, you may find that sharing news and content on Facebook or Instagram suffices, but don’t rule out other platforms like Quora or Reddit just because they don’t make the news as often. All platforms have loyal, active users — you just need to figure out which platform(s) your customers use. By sharing content and advice you can “win over” these users and hopefully, convert them into customers. As an added bonus, social media users can re-share your content which further increases your reach and authority.

2.     Audience Discovery

Have you gone through an exercise to determine what your ideal customer looks like? If not, you should — like, yesterday. Identifying your ideal customer to create a customer persona will help you to refine your marketing messages and successfully sell to your prospects. You can use social media to give insight to your ideal customer persona. Search keywords, hashtags, and other tidbits relevant to your business and look at the people who are talking about those things and engaging with them.

-What motivates them?

-What concerns them and gets them talking?

-What types of posts do they share?

These are some questions you should be asking as you review your intended social media audience. At the heart of the matter is this: Understanding your audience and customers is the key to providing them with the best experience and winning them over … for life.

3.     Customer Service & Relationship Building

Consumers aren’t willing to pick up a phone and wait on hold for answers to their questions and concerns. What do they do instead? Take to social media to ask for help or air their grievances. And if you aren’t there to respond, it’s not a good look. You can use social media to capture and address these concerns and posts, both to save face for your business and most importantly, help your customer. If your customers need to share sensitive information for you to best assist them, then nicely direct them to contact you via other means or take the conversation private, and explain why you need to do that. No one likes to feel like they’re being ignored or hushed, and you don’t want your customers thinking that you’re trying to hide any negativity from the public eye. By providing timely, good service and being there for your customers you’ll build your relationships with them. In fact, American Express states that, “US consumers say they’re willing to spend 17% more to do business with companies that deliver excellent service … [and] Millennials are willing to spend the most for great care (21% additional.)” Any wild guesses as to where you’ll find many a millennial? That’s right, social media.

4.     Competitor Analysis and Business Intelligence

We’re going to bet that at some point in your childhood you briefly entertained becoming a spy. Perhaps your idols were James Bond or Harriet the Spy, but as you grew older, your interests changed. Well, here’s your chance to put your sleuthing skills to work. Social media can be used to “spy” on your competitors.

-What products are they promoting?

-How do they position their services or offerings?

-What content did they share that got the most likes?

-Have they posted anything that received any negative reactions?

These insights will prove valuable to your business. You can use this info to refine your messaging, understand your differentiators, and position your products for the right audience. Not sure who your competitors are? Try searching keywords relevant to your business on the different social media platforms to see who the biggest players are in those conversations.

5.     Free Marketing

A lot of digital marketing platforms are pay-to-play. Now, this can hold true for social media (most platforms offer a paid advertising option) but it is not the rule. Organic, or unpaid social media posts, can bring qualified traffic to your website. The content and links you share on social media should largely lead people back to your site. As more people interact with and like those posts, their reach will increase and they’ll be shown to more people. That increases the chances of more people making it to your website where they’ll (hopefully) get sucked in with your great products, on-point messaging, and then convert into paying customers. Many small businesses and fledgling business endeavors are tight on marketing funds, so free is always a win.

6.     Boost your SEO

Depending on who you ask, you’ll receive different answers regarding just how much social media affects SEO, search engine optimization. However, one thing we can all agree on is that yes, it does affect SEO in some capacity. To get to the bottom of the matter, the team at Hootsuite conducted an experiment with their blog posts to determine social media’s effect on SEO. What were their findings? “…There is an indirect relationship between social media and SEO. That is, content that performs well on social will likely earn more backlinks, which helps boost search rank.” Go ahead and share your content and keep an eye on what performs well on social media. Those posts may just see an SEO boost, too.

Now you know that your business really and truly needs a social media presence, but do you know where and how to get started? There are quite a few social media platforms out there and learning to navigate them all can be overwhelming.

Tips for getting started on social media

Here’s a collection of tips that our social media marketing manager put together to help you navigate any murky social media waters.

• Quality, not quantity.
  • Don’t spread yourself thin by creating accounts on every single social media platform that exists. Start with one or two, and remain open to changing platforms in the future. As an example, if you run a fashion boutique, bakery, or other business that lends itself well to visuals, you’ll probably want to be on Instagram. Put some thought into your audience and desired customers — what platforms do you think they’re on? You should be there, too.

• “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” -Benjamin Franklin
  • Approach social media with a plan. Take into consideration any existing time constraints you may have, what content you’d like to share, and your ideal posting frequency. Do some research into social media customer service so you have an idea as to how to handle any interactions your customers initiate on social media. (There’s nothing like dealing with an irate customer on social media when you’re utterly unprepared for it.) Remember, what happens on social media ISN’T private — you’re on a stage for the whole world to see.

• Manual versus automated posting.
  • It’s difficult to stop whatever you’re doing multiple times a day to source content and post it to social media. While it may only take a few minutes to find the material and post it, it can take a whole lot longer to regain the focus you lost when you were interrupted. Consider using an automated tool that allows you to schedule your content and posts far in advance. There are many tools on the market today and a lot of them offer free plans for small businesses and those just getting started. Some social media platforms, like Facebook, allow you to schedule posts natively, or within the platform itself.

• Automated alerts.
  • Time is money. Have you ever caught yourself going online or checking social media for a specific reason, only to find yourself down a rabbit hole an hour later with no accounting for your time? Resist the temptation and avoid the distractions by setting up automated alerts. You can set up alerts to notify you when your business is mentioned, if a competitor is mentioned, industry news, and so much more. Two of our favorite tools are free: Google Alerts and IFTTT.

• Provide other avenues for contact.
  • We can’t begin to count the number of times we’ve gone to a social media profile to find contact information … and there’s none to be found. At a minimum, make sure your domain name is visible! If your website is clearly listed, people can always go there to find additional information about you, or even better, make a purchase.

It all starts with a great domain. Get yours from Domain.com.

Give your business a boost by going social

Once you get started with social media, you’ll find it provides a host of benefits to your business. From customer service, to free marketing, and competitive intelligence — the world is your oyster on social media.

What other benefits can a business derive from having an active social media presence? Do you have any tips for those just getting started? Share them in the comments below, we’d love to hear them!