Online presence audit

Audit requested: January 15, 2015
Audit delivered: January 16, 2015

Website: http://nipmoosebarns.org/

The audit may be found here: https://goatcloud.com/basic-online-presence-audit-nipmoose

This audit page is password protected and search engines have been directed to not index this page (so it won’t show up in search results). The password (case sensitive) is: NiPM00Se

 

Site speed The faster the site, the greater the reward from visitors and search engines alike. | Audit: Average to above average desktop, below average mobile. Photos do not appear to be optimized.
Responsiveness / mobile ready The world is turning increasingly to smaller devices for online activity. It’s imperative that a website look great and be completely functional on smaller devices (smartphones, tablets) and desktops alike. | Audit: Site is not mobile-ready.
Social sharing Today’s web is interconnected. Facilitating the sharing of your content can bring additional visitors to your website. | Audit: Social sharing element not found.
Social Media Basic social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn) should be deployed, also those used by your customers or relevant to your industry. | Audit: Facebook and Pinterest links only found only on contact page. Google+ not optimized. Consider Instagram as you would tend to have many beautiful pictures. Nice use of Facebook – many FB posts might work, elaborated on, as website blog posts. Don’t forget Twitter.
Basic SEO Sites should be structured well and have basic settings in place to permit search engines to know what is on the site and where. | Audit: Not conducive to organic search. Many meta title duplicates; many missing page descriptions;meta keyword stuffing observed; many duplicate H1 tags. Images missing alt attributes. XML sitemap, robots.txt not found.
Local SEO Contact information must be easy to find. A consistent NAP (name, address and phone) across the web and online business directories is imperative. | Audit: Listings on popular business directories/data aggregators substantially incomplete. Contact info (e.g., phone) on contact page only. Not ideal.
Back links The more links back to your site from relevant, well-trafficked sites, and other sites, the better. | Audit: 4 root domains linking with 5 total links. Many more desirable.
Measuring traffic It is essential to measure traffic so that you know what is working on your site and what isn’t. Google Analytics is the (free) gold standard.| Audit: GA code found. Great! Are the traffic data being reviewed regularly?
Content Nothing helps to generate organic search traffic to your website like the regular creation of compelling, original content in your own words. | Audit: No blog or RSS feed present.  Content largely static. Consider adding original compelling and varied content to the site with regularity.
Security Sites need to be secure, with updated software. | Audit: No security problems found. Great!
General observations No blog or feed, so little unique content. | Site looks a bit outdated. | Consider an email newsletter. | Events page shows only completed events. HTML sites like this can be tricky to update by non-coders; consider conversion to a content management system (CMS) like WordPress.

 

A couple of words on social media

Using social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and etc.) can be a very effective way to broadcast your message and engage in dialog with your target audience. Here are some basic tips:

  • Always link back to your website on any social media outlet.
  • Search engines favor websites that have connected and integrated social media accounts.
  • Understand how the individual social media outlet works and how its users use it. For instance, you are limited to 140 characters of text on Twitter, but not on Facebook or Google+. Facebook tends to be “chattier” and permit more of a dialogue than does Twitter. Google+ has a reputation of appealing to more technology-oriented individuals. More women than men use Pinterest.
  • Know what social media outlet(s) your target audience is more apt to use and establish a presence there.
  • If you establish an account, you have to use it! Social media accounts that look empty and unused are shunned.
  • Make sure that if you hire someone to manage your social media accounts that they know your voice. You do not want the wrong messages to be broadcast to your audience.
  • Remember that social media is about being social – permit, and respond to, communication back to you.
  • Share your website content on social media outlets. “Repackage” it into the right format.

Here are some online tools to help you to review and improve your own online presence:

We hope you found this no-obligation audit of value. If so, please give us a positive rating/review on Google+: http://plus.google.com/+Goatcloud.

Please contact us at [email protected] or +1.518.557.7613 to discuss how GoatCloud can help you to thrive online. Thank you!

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