Keeping Your Online Presence Healthy In a Pandemic
Staying healthy is on everyone’s mind in the middle of this COVID-19 Pandemic. As a business owner, you’ve probably already had to pivot somehow to keep your business running. And for many businesses, your online presence has become invaluable.
While we’re all working hard to keep things running, here are a few items you’ll want to do to keep your website and online presence healthy.
Keep Your Business Hours Updated
For those business owners with physical locations that are open, you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping your open hours up-to-date. Not only should you change these on your website (prominently), but most importantly, make sure you keep them updated on your Google My Business page. This will keep your hours updated not only in Google’s search results, but also on Google maps. So however people are looking for your business information, you’ll make sure they’ll have the most accurate.
Also, if you’re listed on Yelp or another online catalog service, make sure you’re updating your hours regularly there as well.
Utilize Social Media & Mailing Lists
Even if you haven’t posted consistently on social media, this is the perfect time to update followers. If you need easy (free) design help, try out the Canva app. With well-designed simple templates, they can help keep your posts looking good whether you use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media platforms. Post regularly on changes to your opening hours, current deals, or even thank you’s to your customers.
While drowning your customers in emails is never a good idea, sending out important updates to your email list can be helpful, especially for people who are looking to support small businesses right now. They can also be helpful for letting customers know of new sales.
Write Posts or Pages for your Website
Not every business needs a custom page for COVID-19, but you might need to expand on how your business is adjusting, cleaning, or handling COVID-19. For some industries, writing a post specifically about your field within a pandemic (much like this blog post!), can be a helpful tool for your customers.
Get a Website Health Check
If your website hasn’t been checked in the last 6 months, it’s time for a Health Check. A quality Health Check will look at your plugins, your WordPress version, security, basic SEO issues, unused plugins, and server/programming language updates. Much like a health check-up with your doctor, a Website Health Check can catch issues before they become expensive to fix. Check out our page on Website Health Checks for more information.
Summary
Communication is a big deal in this pandemic. Utilize email lists, social media, mailing lists, and your website to keep current and potential customers “in-the-know”.
There are so many people are sensitive to helping small businesses survive this pandemic; help your customers help you by getting vital information in front of them through whichever medium they follow you on.
