As a small business, you need to use your time and resources wisely. Here are some social media and digital marketing tips.

Using social media and digital marketing for your business is exciting; the possibilities seem endless. In order to make the most of your online presence, I’ve put together a quick list of common issues that can prevent you from crushing your social and digital business goals.

Website Mobile Friendly A couple of years ago, Google announced that it was rolling out a new mobile first index. This basically means that Google wants you to have a mobile site, or at least a website that is mobile friendly. If your site is responsive, you’re probably OK. If not, visit this website to determine what Google sees when they try to crawl your site. [Run Mobile Friendly Test]

Make sure your site isn’t blocked. Have you seen the message “blocked by robots.txt”? A robots.txt file is a file in the foundation of your site that indicates that you don’t want those elements of your site to be accessed by search engine crawlers. Run a check to make sure that your site is being properly indexed.

Updated SSL certificate. Online security is no joke and that’s why Google warned webmasters that by the end of 2017, they would require an SSL certificate (secure sockets layer) on your website, otherwise they would mark your website as unsafe and ‘Not Secure’ in the URL bar. Check your website to make sure it’s secure.

How the search bar appears when your site is secure.

How it appears in the search bar when it is not secure.

Contact Forms That Work. A snag with your contact forms can mean lost leads. Are you asking for too much information? Are they secure? Are they going to the right inbox, rather than junk? I recommend setting up reminders and making these ‘contact form checks’ a part of your process each week. Make sure forms are going to the right place, with the right message – as well as sending the right data to Google Analytics (or whichever platform you choose.)

Social Media Buttons in the footer. This is up for debate, however, depending on where your audience is in their journey they may find you via Google. If you want to encourage them to visit your social channels, put buttons where one expects to find them (a.k.a.: the footer.) Also make sure to test the buttons regularly to ensure that they’re going to the right spot.

Active Social Channels. There is a difference between “presence” and “engagement” – being present on a social channel doesn’t mean much. So if you’re actively sending your audience to dormant social channels, what value are you bringing them and what is the incentive for them to keep going back? Remember that you don’t need to be on every social channel, but once you choose a couple to focus on – stick with it! [Be Visible, Be Valuable!]

Activate Social Channel Buttons. Through social media audits, I’ve noticed that many businesses don’t activate the social channel buttons. These are essentially Call-To-Action buttons like “Learn More”, “Sign Up”, “Buy Now” etc. It takes a second to set them up and test and it could mean extra traffic to your website.

Use Tools That Will Save Time. Check out scheduling tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, SproutSocial, SocialChamp – they allow you to automate and schedule social posts, rather than having to do it manually. If you don’t have someone helping you out with graphics, check out Canva or FontCandy – they make simple graphics easy (e.g.: create a Facebook cover photo in just a few simple steps.)

Plan B if website goes down. If you manage your own website, make sure you know all of the critical components such as website host contact information, website developers contact information, login credentials, plus other admin information. If your site does go down, ask your host about a redirect. That means that when someone types in your URL, they won’t come to a page that indicates the site is down, they will be redirected somewhere such as your Facebook business page (where you should indicate with a pinned post that the site is down.)