7 Ways To Better Understand Your Centre’s Web Presence

A digital presence is as important as physical identification for a childcare centre. Testimonials, services and credibility of your centre are gauged from an online presence on various digital platforms. There are four corners which lay the foundation for digital presence. These are:

1. Social networking sites

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube mandate a certain degree of engagement to recognize your establishment as a field expert.

2. Websites

A centre’s website is the first point of contact with potential parents. No one now has the time to physically visit the centre to explore the services and infrastructure. A detailed website offers a virtual tour of the centre complete with the listings and qualifications of the employed educators, centre management team and infrastructure.

3. Paid Advertising

Paid advertising provides visibility for your centre. Examples include pay-per-click (PPC). PPC includes Google AdWords, Facebook and Twitter advertising among other social and digital platforms. If potential parents can’t find you easily online your centre will be forgotten.

4. Directory Listings

A direct equivalent to the archaic Yellow Pages is Directory Listing. These are in the form of citation listing and review sites. Here, basic information such as the address, contact number and business name are presented. There are over 250 such websites and a few popular ones are CitySearch and Yelp.

Top 10 Australian Business Directories

1. yellowpages.com.au
2. truelocal.com.au
3. yelp.com.au
4. womo.com.au
5. infobel.com
6. aussieweb.com.au
7. australianplanet.com
8. startlocal.com.au
9. superpages.com.au
10. pinkpages.com.au

To understand your web presence, there are easy to access tools from Google. Listed below are seven such tools and how to use them.

1. Google Analytics for Visitor behaviour

The tool offers an insight into the behaviour of visitors apart from permitting tracking of data by device and channel. Analytics behaviour analysis through device allows you to identify the device used for site access. If the site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ve just lost a potential number of users. Channel analytics presents the information on traffic route. Half the traffic landing on your site is attributed to search engines. One-fourth of the traffic is dedicated to specific searches wherein parents visit your site directly.

2. Website review through Website Grader

All websites are powered by Website Grader provided by Hubspot to assess the site’s potential as a marking asset. Through this app, metrics such as mobile usability, Security, SEO and website performance are calculated.

3. Google Search Console Tool

Multiple facets of a website are simultaneously tracked through Google Search Console Tool, allowing you to view key performance factors to help determine how well the website is performing in search results. It checks on site indexing, broken pages and broken links.

4. Moz Local for Directory Listing

When your website is searched for online, search engines rely on various location data to present the most appropriate information. If there is a disparity of information between the sites, the listing fails to show up among the search results. The primary aggregators of location data are Axiom, Neustar Localeze, Inforgroup, Foursquare and Factual. The data search can either be done manually or through services like Moz.com

5. HootSuite for Social Media

A free sites to review and post social media updates, HootSuite can be used as a social media management tool for networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as Instagram.

6. Google Keyword Planner for Keyword Research

A strong online presence is established only through the use of appropriate keywords. Identifying keywords is essential before you begin using them. Apart from Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest is a useful keyword identification tool.

7. SERPS for Web Presence Rankings

A website’s ranking can be checked through various paid tools. The key intent of understanding a website’s ranking is to detect the upward trend of the site. When the focus is on keywords, there is great fluctuation in the movement, which is sometimes frustrating. It is uncommon for a keyword to hold a #1 position for prolonged periods. To assess the performance of your site, look into SERPS which offers a month of free trial.

Apart from the tools listed here, there are others which can aid your childcare centre’s website performance. Refer the above-mentioned tools to assess your site’s performance and to identify weak spots.