Improve your social media efforts
There’s not many SMEs that have got social media completely right and have their presence working hard for them. Evaluate this year’s efforts and see where you can improve. It might be the frequency of posts, it might be the subject range, maybe the quality of posts; using images and hashtags appropriately. Or perhaps, your social media etiquette needs a check; replying, thanking and sharing are a must.
Build reviews
Google reviews, Tripadvisor reviews, Facebook reviews, Amazon reviews, Trustpilot reviews. That’s just a handful of the many review sites and systems open to you and your customers. Google reviews work in partnership with your on-site search engine optimisation efforts and help build your online reputation. Be sure to request product or service reviews at every appropriate opportunity, because if you don’t ask, you’re not likely to get and your competitor might attract your next customer instead of you.
Update your citations
Citations are online references. The way to make these really work for your business is to ensure the NAP (name, address and phone number) details are consistent. Remove any old postal/registered address details, correct mistakes, update old phone numbers and links too if the included url is no longer available. If a search engine finds variations of your NAP online, it doesn’t know which data is correct and which it should serve up in search query results. You can run into duplicate listing problems and negative effects on your local SEO efforts.
Produce more content
Even into 2017 there will be search queries that are not being answered with credible, authoritative content. Plus, the ideal is to have a dedicated page per service/product type rather than one page with a whole list on. The return? More visibility in the search engines and more traffic to your website or blog. New content also has multiple uses through repurposing for presentations, social media posts, FAQs, webinars, infographics, videos and so on. Obviously don’t repurpose out of date, completely no longer relevant content.
Don’t make an unrealistic resolution
Promising yourself to achieve something spectacular without properly thinking the commitment time, or related aspects through, is likely to end in failure. Instead of making an unrealistic new year’s resolution for your business, why not simply pledge to try something new? Make your first video, publish your first blog post, secure your first speaking event or create your first corporate social responsibility policy? Complete that one thing and the pleasure of achieving it will create momentum to achieve even more.
Happy New Year and best wishes for a super successful 2017.