Just having a website is not sufficient for business owners to optimize their online presence.
In today’s digital world, a company’s online presence is just as important as its physical one. Unfortunately, many small to medium sized businesses do not understand this and do not invest in their online strategy or digital marketing efforts. However, with the right tools and strategies, you can make sure that your company has a sufficient online presence on all platforms that matter most for you.
There is a large potential market available to businesses in their locale, as thousands of persons are using social media and internet search engines to engage with brands.
On a typical day, a person who is searching for a place to have dinner will opt to ask Google for restaurants in their community, similarly someone who is searching for a dentist will also seek out recommendations from Google search.
If your business does not rank or show up in the search, you are losing potential customers.
Potential customers are expecting to get as much information as possible about your brand from the first search, otherwise they are likely to choose your competitor who was thorough in portraying their value proposition.
Optimizing your business’ online presence is a difficult task. It requires more than just technical skills; it also requires creativity and the ability to understand your audience.
So how do you take your business from being just a website to a highly competitive online brand?
Here are five ways to optimize your business online presence.
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Set up an effective interactive website which is optimized for mobile devices
A strong company website is the most crucial aspect of any business. It should be easy to navigate and designed to represent your business and its products in a professional manner.
It should represent your company’s brand in the best possible way and cater to your target audience.
A significant number of persons use mobile devices to browse the internet mainly because of the convenience. If your website is not optimized for mobile view, this can deter potential customers from engaging you directly via your website.
Google currently indexes mobile versions of your website first so make sure it is responsive, has a simplified design and uses compressed images.
Another way to optimize your website is by writing content which has a specific Call to Action (CTA) such as subscribing to a newsletter, purchasing a product or contacting support.
An interactive and functional website is necessary to engage visitors and convert them to potential customers.
Establish your business details with Google
Google offers a number of options to help you provide key business details which will show your business to local customers in search results if you have a physical storefront. You can claim your free business listing on Google My Business by verifying yourself as the business owner.
Once you’ve filled out your Business Profile, this step will allow you to easily connect with customers via Google Search and Google Maps.
If you also serve remote customers you can include information about the areas you serve, how far you are willing to travel to provide your service and/or if you deliver products to their locale.
In order for Google to confirm that a business is truly yours to manage and represent, you will need to receive a postcard with a verification code via mail. Once this step is completed your Business Listing will be active and visible in search results.
Compete and Win in Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is a process by which search engines rank web pages in their search results. SEO will boost your site to increase traffic and help potential customers find your brand when they search for keywords associated with it.
To make sure that your site ranks better on search engines, you’ll need to employ SEO techniques like content marketing, social media marketing, backlinking, etc. Listing your website on local business listings and review sites are a surefire way to drive traffic to your site and strengthen your website’s authority with Google.
Your webmaster should create a Google-friendly website, meaning, it should be secured with SSL encryption as Google will rank encrypted websites higher in its search results. Ideally your website should have minified code files, compressed images and be cached using a CDN.
A CDN will keep a static copy of your website in different locations across the world for easy accessibility to international visitors. These techniques are crucial in improving website loading speed as customers will usually give up on a website that takes too long to load.
Google, YouTube and Pinterest are search engines which enable your content to remain relevant and will show up in searches for years to come. Consider hiring an SEO expert such as www.likeslocale.com to improve the visibility of your site on search engines.
Build Engaging Social Media Platforms
Social media is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to building brand awareness and increasing traffic for your site or blog (as long as you know which platform is best suited for what kind of content).
Both Facebook and Instagram have business or professional profile options which help you to customize and differentiate it from your personal platform.
There are also very cool tools you can use to expand your market reach by customizing your demographics through age, gender, locale and specific behavior classification.
Once you have established your brand on social media, ensure that fresh content is in circulation. Fresh content keeps potential customers engaged. Publish content which offers the visitor useful information that ties into your brand’s value proposition.
Consider adding blogging to the social media content mix. Blogging serves the purpose of establishing the authenticity of a brand by showing potential customers your expertise in what you are selling.
Use content marketing for SEO purposes
Content marketing is a form of marketing with the goal of providing valuable content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It’s also one of the most useful tools in SEO.
The goal of content marketing is to create and distribute valuable content to attract customers, prospects, and influencers that align with the goals of the company’s business model.
It can be challenging for small businesses or startups with limited resources to compete with larger competitors who have deeper pockets.
If you want to optimize your online brand, then you should use content marketing. It is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business.
There are many benefits of content marketing such as building trust with customers, increased conversion rate and increased traffic on your website.
Invest in hiring a digital marketing agency such as www.likeslocale.com to create a content strategy which can target and engage your audience.
Monitor your Competition
One way to gauge the performance of your brand online is by scanning what your competition is doing and how potential customers are interacting with their brand. Make note of the pattern.
Do a critical analysis. Create a bullet proof strategy geared towards coming out ahead of your competitor.
The online marketplace is diverse, and each business is competing for the eyes of new customers every second.
