As of 2018, it is reported that there are more than 1.6 billion websites worldwide. It is safe to assume that the majority of those sites are commercial and so it also stands to reason that the competition in any industry is extremely stiff. Knowing that, you would want to be vigilant in monitoring your website. Here are some of the things you should look for.
Image is Everything
There is a growing end of the marketing industry that deals primarily with reputation management. It only takes a few unchecked negative blogs or remarks to spiral out of control and before you know it, your company’s reputation is shattered. The good news is that there are now image moderation platforms which can help you control the content on your own site as well as monitor activity around the web. As far as your own site goes, a platform like this can alert you to any content that raises a red flag. Whether it is something you have posted or has been submitted by a user or guest poster, it is vital to protect your image if you want to stay competitive in your market. Image really is everything!
Downtime Woes
It’s unrealistic to expect you to be online 24/7 to monitor whether your hosting goes offline, especially at peak hours. Nothing is more frustrating to a visitor who clicked through to your site from a search only to find that your site is down. They can just as easily hit the back button and move on to the next site listed in the SERPs, Search Engine Results Pages. A great deal of business is lost in this way, so monitoring up time is critical to your success.
Content is King
When it comes to organic traffic, content really is king. This is how the search engines find you and rank you and if you aren’t monitoring your content’s performance, you are losing out on a huge portion of your potential market. There are tools available to help you track the progress of your content and if you find that it is not performing up to expectations, you can be alerted in order to rectify the situation.
Customer Satisfaction
Another key area you should be monitoring is customer satisfaction. You could open up commenting on your site, ask for testimonials or even monitor return business. In this era, most complaints will be around customer service, so if you want to stay ahead of the competition, monitor how your site is performing in terms of customer satisfaction. Short surveys work well and these can be used to make changes based on customer wants and needs.
At the end of the day, there are more than 1.6 billion websites and you could be competing with more than a few hundred million of them, depending on your industry and market. If you want to use your website to grow your company, it will take constant monitoring. Few business owners have the time to personally monitor their sites so they hire professionals or use image moderation platforms to ensure they are getting it right. The key to success is probably tied to your website’s performance, so make sure it is continually monitored and you will do well.