Brand Building: 33 Tips To Improve Your Online Reach

Jaci Russo is a proud 'downtowner' and works every day to build brands. Her firm, brandRUSSO, is working to help companies rebound from the COVID-19 response. One way is to freshen up social media and websites. She joined Acadiana's Morning News to talk about ways to do that.

We are starting a new series of best practices for Brand Building. The series will include best practices and tips on how to make these marketing tools work for you: Website, Social Media, Brand Development, Sales Strategy, & Culture.

Today’s focus is on the 33 Ways for you to improve your website to make it a Brand Builder. Just having a website isn’t enough. Actually, if your website is out of date or inaccurate it can hurt more than it will help. The following are the 33 things you need to check on today.

BRAND REPRESENTATION

Do visitors to your site gain an understanding of who you are?
Do you have a list of your services available?
Do you have website copy that is both SEO friendly and has messaging representative of your brand?
Does your website reflect your brand standards?
Is your logo found on each page?
Do you showcase the story, team, and culture of your company?
Can they easily click to contact you?

CONTENT

Do you have a blog on your website?
Are you regularly publishing new content on your blog or news section?
Are your posts optimized for sharing on social media sites?

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Have you created an XML sitemap?
Do you have a list of target keywords?
Do you have meta descriptions (under 150 characters long including spaces) for each page?
Have you incorporated your keywords into URLs, page titles, headers, sub-heads, & copy?
Did you add title and alt image text to your images to make them readable by search engines?
Is your site responsive & mobile-friendly?
Have you created effective 404 pages and set correct 301 redirections?
Is your site secure with an HTTPS designation?
Do you regularly click all links to confirm they are still valid?

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGER (CRM)

Are you collecting visitors email addresses?
Are you using an auto-responder to send emails to your list?
Are there business processes (sales, customer questions, etc) that could be automated via your website?

MONITORING

Do you have Google Analytics connected to your website?
Have you set short and long term goals for your websites (visitors, subscribers, conversions)?

FUNCTIONALITY

Is your website backed up should trouble occur?
How does your website look on smartphones and tablets?
Can you reach your target audience with your current design and functionality?

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS (GMB)

Have you claimed your page and verified you are the account owner?
Did you create a GMB profile with up to date and accurate address, hours of operation, and phone number?
Have you selected primary and secondary business categories?
Did you write a short business description (with relevant keywords) under 750 characters?
Have you uploaded photos and videos of your business?
Are you actively soliciting and responding to customer reviews and questions?

Click here for a handy dandy PDF checklist that you can use for an ongoing reference to keep your website update to date and working to build your brand.

For everyday branding tips, subscribe to our Razor Branding blog and podcast

RUSSO is a strategic branding agency that uses consumer insight to change the conversation; forming emotional connections with the target audience. To learn more, click HERE to learn more about our process, RAZOR BRANDING.