The Web Presence Checklist

5000 Yonge St, Ste 1901, North York, ON M2N 7E9 | marketingcopilot.com | T 416 218 2009

The Marketing CoPilot Web Presence Checklist: 15 Must-Have’s for Today’s Savvy Website Owners

When developing or re-doing your website, there are lots of things to consider. Marketing CoPilot has developed this 15-item web presence checklist because we think these things are paramount to helping business owners not only build, but also manage their web presence over the long term. Gone are the days when you could put up a website and not touch it for months or years.

The behavior of your buyer has changed. You need to think about how this impacts what happens when they go to find you online. How hard or how easy is that journey? It all starts with what you put on your website and how you manage that within your business!

Do you have… Yes No MC Best Practice1. Social Media: You have social media accounts integrated

into your website. People can tweet a post or connect with you on LinkedIn. Few will follow your company unless they have a deep or intimate relationship with you so providing your social accounts is often a waste of time. Give visitors the option on your website to use their accounts to share your content wherever possible.

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For companies selling a product or service to other business owners, we recommend, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+/Gmail & slideshare for your accounts and simple share icons on all pages for people to use their own accounts.

2. Blog: You have fresh and relevant optimized content not only for your trusted network but for search engines. Search engines look first at dynamic content on a website to determine how to rank a website.

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Dynamic blog content is important for SEO and for your prospects. Think about what your prospects want to read and create blog categories to help them find it so you get lots of engagement on your site.

3. News section: You have a news and events section as another way to generate dynamic content for your website. You can announce product launches, attending tradeshows, speaking engagements, etc.

☐ ☐News section can fall in your About Us section or live in your blog and provide markers to Google that there is activity happening at your company and site has not been orphaned.

4. Forms: You have places on your website for people to submit their contact information rather than calling you. Forms capture prospect information and provide clues to where people are in the buying process. Think about all of the opportunities on your website where a form can capture interest.

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Don’t limit yourself to just a Contact Us form. Forms are a great way to engage a visitor who in turn provides contact information. Think about how you set up pages and the information you request to ensure you don’t create friction in the buying process.

5. Mobile version: You have gone to your website with your own phone and experienced the content and information on a mobile device. More visitors than you may think are accessing your site via mobile – take a look at your Google

☐ ☐ Most websites should have a mobile version. HTML5 or WordPress plugin should be implemented for mobile.

| 2 5000 Yonge St, Ste 1901, North York, ON M2N 7E9 | marketingcopilot.com | T 416 218 2009

Analytics and see what is happening when they get there.

6. Website hosting: You have a web hosting company that understands how to host a website with respect to security, constant changes and server management. Your server is more important than you realize and Google looks at server attributes when it decides whether to trust your website.

☐ ☐Ensure your hosting company understands hosting WordPress websites and you aren’t on a server with thousands of other sites who may or may not be doing good things.

7. Domain management: You have complete control over your URL and know how to access it, when it comes up for renewal and the associated names you should own that affect your brand.

☐ ☐You should have a complete list of all domains your company owns. You should also be thinking about the strategy of purchasing industry and product domain names.

8. Email marketing & list building: You have a process for managing email addresses both in a legally compliant email marketing tool and for email address submission on your website.

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Constant Contact is a great tool to share content and drive traffic to yrou website. We recommend you find the right tool for you that is not Outlook and people can unsubscribe from your list if they choose to do so.

Have you thought about these? Yes No MC Best Practice

9. CRM integration: You have thought about managing leads ongoing from your website and created drip marketing and constant touch points throughout the year which can be tracked in a CRM tool.

☐ ☐It is crucial that your email database and your CRM are up-to-date. You will need to coordinate updates based on the frequency of your email campaigns.

10. Content: You have an editorial calendar and understand how you will post and manage new content on your website in 90-day increments. Content included in this plan should include type (static versus dynamic), segmentation of who it is for (current clients versus prospects), frequency and how you will track and measure it.

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We recommend vetting all possible content based on your value proposition, visitor needs and keyword strategy to determine what stays or goes. We also suggest developing an editorial calendar and thinking about how the content will be created.

11. Downloads/conversion tools: You have something to share that encourages engagement and conversion on your website. This is your value-add content – you need to decide how people access it, how you track it and how to manage that list ongoing (see Point #8).

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Determine what the right conversion tool is for your audience. It could be as simple as a checklist or a robust 10-page guide - something of value that will help drive the right traffic that would willingly provide their information (email address) to receive it.

12. Automated lead nurturing: You have a clearly defined road map for how to engage your audience over the next six months and have a tool or defined process for lead nurturing.

☐ ☐ There are lots of marketing automation tools available that make the manual process of lead nurturing easy but depending on the size of your company or the number of leads coming in monthly, these tools may be more hindrance than help. What is important is that connecting with your audience happens regularly and

| 3 5000 Yonge St, Ste 1901, North York, ON M2N 7E9 | marketingcopilot.com | T 416 218 2009

you have a process for managing this.

13. DNS resolution: You know who is landing on your website and what they are doing when they navigate your website.

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There are a number of tools on the market that resolve the DNS of a visitor to your site. There is also a lot of data in Google you can use to understand some of these things as well. Don’t just start rewriting content or making assumptions – use your data to understand what people are doing so you can improve navigation, engagement and conversion.

14. User access: You have a list of people who are qualified to add content and they are managed through a tool or web access document that keeps track of all user names and passwords associated with your website. User and password management is a big issue in today’s digital landscape. Have a plan for managing it!

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We recommend minimal users with minimal access. We also recommend each user has separate access information to avoid confusion and allow for easy transfer and shutdown of access.

15. Google Analytics: You have Google Analytics set up on your website and are tracking goals/conversion points. ☐ ☐

Many business owner complain that marketing is not measurable. Today, it is more measurable than ever before. Set goals for your web presence and track everything so you can stop doing what is not working.

Next Steps…

Download the Marketing CoPilot Process wheel and get started on the work that should be done before you start building or enhancing your current web presence.

Do you have?

1. A well-articulated and tested value proposition (with supporting proof points).2. A buyer map of how people buy a product or service like yours (this information content).3. A keyword strategy that helps determine how you will drive traffic to your value proposition.4. A wireframe indication how you will navigate your website and web presence based on your

value proposition and keyword strategy.

This is where it all starts. If you need help, we run workshops on all of these topics to guide business owners, entrepreneurs and CEOs in building websites that support the lead generation and buying process within their businesses.

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