What is meant by ‘Digital Footprint’?
Your company’s Digital Footprint, in this instance, is the trail of information that is found on the Internet, including everything from Websites, Social Media platforms to Directory Listings. It is not unusual for low quality or inaccurate information to be spread inadvertently across the Internet, and you would not be alone if you have found this has happened to you. Not all the information regarding your company will have been put online by yourself. Your company’s digital footprint will also have appeared due to the activities of others in the form of online reviews, news stories or social media activity as well as the activities of Data Aggregators.
Why do I need to consider the Digital Footprint of my company?
The answer is quite simple; because you want potential customers to find the correct information about you, the first time they search for it. Phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and directions can be found in multiple places on the Internet. Sadly, not all of these are correct, phone numbers with digits missing, miss-typed, or old e-mail addresses and physical addresses that weren’t updated after moving are sadly regularly found by potential clients. If a potential client cannot contact you or loses confidence in your business due to inaccuracies of information, then you are losing out on valuable enquiries and the opportunity to convert these into paying customers. Additionally, the accuracy of your Digital Footprint is also essential for your Local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rankings; search engines do not like disparity in data.
Verified Data
Incorrect information is so easily spread around the Internet, either by Data Aggregators (companies who sell or ‘push’ data to other Websites) or by other means. It is, therefore, essential that you have a “verified source” of data; commonly, this is a Google My Business page or a Facebook page, both of which have a verification process. Google My Business send out PINs to the address detailed on the page, and Facebook provides the opportunity to verify via a PIN delivered by an automated phone call. Once you have a verified data source, you have created a point of trusted data for your customers and the data aggregators. Of course, you will need to update the information within these listing should you change your phone number, e-mail or location. You can also approach Data Aggregators directly.
Worried about your Digital Footprint?
Contact the team at NAMA for a chat.
