Every business needs a prominent online presence. Whether you're in the restaurant business, technology, or a book publisher, the internet is an essential tool to help you promote your brand, services, and products. Creating a business is the easy part, expanding is more difficult. If you're not using online platforms to bolster your audience and garner new customers, you are losing out. To grow and improve your business, it's imperative to create a unique influence on the internet. Here are six steps to building an online presence for your business.
Build a Website
The most integral step of improving your business's online presence is to build a website. Nowadays it's easy to create a sleek, engaging, thoughtful, and informative site with the help of website builders. WordPress managed hosting, for example, doesn't just enable you to create a beautiful website for your business. The platform also allows you to see and use the analytics to your advantage. See who is visiting your site, where they live, and other pertinent details you can use for growing your business and pivoting when necessary.
Set Up a Google My Business Profile
Another important thing to do when you're trying to boost your online presence is to create a Google My Business profile. This helps you get noticed when people search for your product, service, or brand. These profiles come in handy when you're trying to promote your company in person. If you tell the people you are talking to that you have a Google profile, not only will you seem legitimate-you will provide an avenue for them to learn about your business and what you do. When you're in need of a better online presence, setting up a My Business account will only help.
Focus Your Social Media
While it's a good thing to be on every social media platform, it's important to focus your energy. Think about what kind of product you have and which social media site is better for promotion. Then, focus on building an audience on that particular platform. It's not that you won't be able to use the others later, it is simply prudent to focus on creating significant numbers of followers in one place. Then you must utilize the platform frequently with well-timed posts, photos, brand promotion, and more.
Use Google PPC Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements are a useful tool your business should use to get the word out online. This means that you will pay for every click on the ad. While these clicks may not lead to sales, you will have the peace of mind knowing that you are only paying for when the ad is clicked on. Of course, there are accidental clicks and clicks from people who are simply curious, but PPC ads can help you boost your presence and put the name of your business in their heads.
Learn SEO & Use It
Search engine optimization (SEO) has become one of the cornerstones of digital marketing. If you don't currently utilize SEO to promote your business, you should get started immediately. It is the process of using keywords, metadata, hyperlinks, and more to get more people on your site and therefore boost your ranking on the pages of search engines. When you corner a particular keyword and publish it carefully in blogs, website pages, press releases, and more, you will have more eyes on your website and a better standing on Google and Bing. You'd be surprised just how much SEO can boost your online presence and overall sales.
Make Your Business Accessible
Finally, you should take the time to look your business up online to see how easy it is to find you and contact you. Accessibility can be greatly improved by SEO and is facilitated by your contact page. You need to have a clear and easy-to-use method for contacting your business about your products and services. When you take the perspective of the consumer, you will be able to see how accessible contacting you is.
When you run a business or just getting one started, it is key to bolster your online presence. With these six steps, you can create a more prominent internet presence, spread the word about your product and services, and create an audience of loyal followers.
