Straighten Your Digital Tie

By Brad Frederick

The reason we look presentable most days is because we look in a mirror before we leave the house. Something similar can be said of where we work. Your office probably gets cleaned on a regular basis, and if you have a big client or prospect coming over, you probably check it twice just to make sure everything is in place. You sure wouldn’t leave trash out or have trip hazards that could cause a poor experience for your visitors. I bet you even have drinks and snacks ready when they show up – I know we do.

And yet, these visitors likely only meet with you in-person on an occasional basis. Your website, however, is out there representing you 24 hours a day to hundreds or thousands of visitors, and you probably rarely look at it or give it the attention it needs/deserves.

When I started Media Genesis a little over 24 years ago, all of the projects we worked on were just that – projects. They were one-time efforts where we’d scope out the deliverables/budget, kick off the project, and a few weeks or months later, we’d be done. While we often hosted the website as well, back then, there was a high likelihood that the site wouldn’t be touched again for a year or more – in some cases many years. Then, when the client was ready for a website redesign, it would typically require a complete website overhaul. That’s because there were so many aspects of the site that were either broken or outdated that the only option was to rebuild a new site from the ground up. Unfortunately, this also meant visitors to this site had been experiencing all of these issues for many years.

How often do you look at your website, test it to make sure forms and functionality are properly working, and make sure it looks good on a variety of devices? (And these are just the basics.) My guess is: not very often because you have a business to run. It’s hard enough for you to dedicate the time to get a new website launched; you don’t have time to make sure everything is working as planned on a regular basis. If your website is going to represent you 24 hours a day on the internet, you have to make sure it looks presentable at all times.

Regular Website Monitoring

Here are some of the core aspects you need to be checking/doing on a regular basis:

• Assessment & Strategy – analyzing, brainstorming, and strategizing 2 – 4 times a year will keep your site fine-tuned, refreshed, and adding more ideas and value for your visitors. This not only ensures all the information on your site is aligned with your current goals, but also acts as an inspiration for other aspects of your marketing plan that can be adjusted
• Infrastructure & Technical Support – behind-the-scenes, your site needs to be monitored, optimized, backed up, and CMS and security updates maintained in order to make sure that your site is functioning as expected, compliant to all regulations, and secure for your visitors
• SEO Monitoring – regular monitoring of your organic search engine rankings will let you know what’s working well, what needs to be improved, and how you rank compared to your competitors
• Analytics & Reporting – the beauty of digital is that everything is tracked, but it’s only valuable if you review it on a regular basis and make changes based on what you learn
• Website Maintenance & Upkeep – these are all of those basic updates/checks needed, whether it be refreshing content, creating  photos/videos, testing responsive/mobile, or creating new campaign pages. This ensures that your site is aligned in look and feel with your marketing plan, and gives visitors something new to engage with.
• Larger Design & Development Initiatives – each year, you need to be adding more functionality to your site to provide more value and give your visitors a reason to return

These tasks relate not only to your website, but to all of your digital efforts, including your social media plan, digital advertising, webinars, or any other way you connect with your clients and prospects. Managing your digital needs to be a daily routine you think about every time you look in the mirror. Media Genesis has a team of 35 dedicated staff members, and all we think about and manage is your digital.

Everything I am discussing we do for the majority of our clients on a regular basis. And, if the client can handle some of these tasks in-house or through another partner, not a problem – we will supplement those resources however you need. What’s important is that you look in the mirror each day and make sure you are proud of what you see.

If you’d like to start off with some analysis, brainstorming, or strategizing, we’d love to meet with you virtually or in-person. You can connect with us by phone at (248) 687–7888 or by email at inquiry@mediaG.com.