This post was originally going to be five online marketing things to do January 1st, but common sense got the better of us. It is, afterall, going to be the day after New Year’s Eve! So, we’re taking it easy on you by including only three online marketing tasks for the first day of 2014. 

1) Check Your Domain Name Registrations

It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on your domain name registrations, especially if you renew year-to-year or have your domain set on auto-renew. Here’s what you will want to check:

Registrant Information – If your contact information up to date? Is the person who is actually responsible for the domain name listed as the contact? Is the email address valid? Keeping this contact information up to date is crucial, as it makes updating, transferring, and renewing the domain easier. 

Expiration Date – When does the domain expire? There are potential (but likely minor) SEO benefits to registering your domain for a period longer than 1 year. 

Your Registrar – Are you happy with your registrar (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)? As of right now, you should be paying approximately $9 to $11 for renewals if you manage your domain yourself. If you rely on a third party to monitor and renew your domain (such as your marketing company), you can expect to pay a small administration fee for annual renewals. 

2) Check Your Online Reviews and Ratings

Have you reviewed your online reviews and ratings lately? What are customers saying about your business? What are your competitors saying about your business? If you haven’t checked in a while, visit sites such as Urbanspoon (for restaurants), Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Places, Angie’s List, and others. Even if you believe these types of site are “bunk” they ARE impacting your business, for better or worse. 

You will want to check three things:

Your Company’s Information – Is all of your company’s information up to date? This includes the company description, address, phone number, website address, email address, etc.?

Your Reviews – What are customers and others saying about your business? Is what they are saying legitimate? We’re not necessarily saying good. We’re just saying legitimate. You can’t please everybody, so expect a bad review or two. However, if anything is libelous, grossly inaccurate (e.g. a customer reviewed the wrong company), racist, or otherwise legitimately invalid, you will want to know about it. 

Your Ratings – Check your ratings (e.g. “4.2/5 Stars”). How do your ratings compare with your competitors within your service area? Is your business rating above or below average? Keep an eye on it. 

3) Google Your Business

Last, but not least, search for your business on Google (and if you would like, Bing  and Yahoo!) to see where you are currently ranking. Be sure to include locality, if it’s relevant. Are you where you want to be? If not, Rocketship Marketing can help. 

Branded Keywords – Branded keywords are keywords that include your company name or branded product names. For example, if your business is named “Mary’s Widgets LLC” and you are located in Oshkosh, you will want to do a search for “Mary’s Widgets” and “Mary’s Widget Oshkosh.” Hopefully your business’s primary online channel (be it your corporate website or your primary social media channel) is showing as the #1 search result. 

Generic Keywords – You will also want to search for generic terms that include locality (if relevant). In our example above, we might search for “blue widgets” and “blue widgets Oshkosh.” Is where you showing acceptable? If not, you might want to take a look at bolstering your search engine optimization campaign for the coming new year!