How To Build Your Business' Online Presence

Websites, Social Media and Search engine results. These are the new driving forces behind modern business growth and profits. While traditional growth through network and print media is still alive and a fine way to get new business, nothing scales easier than a well defined online presence.

Cultivating your online presence is easier than it sounds and though the learning curve can seem steep for those who are not tech savvy, small gains can quickly snowball into massive results.

Assuming you already have a website and social accounts, check the following tips for a basic overview of how to improve to your business' online presence.

Website Optimisation

Website optimisation is the first step to improve your potential customers experience when browsing through your site. Its a simple process that involves checking web page load speed and making sure that your website is mobile friendly. Load time can be reduced by compressing your image file sizes and not installing too many third party apps.

SEO Basics

SEO = Search Engine optimisation. In simple terms it means what search engines like Google or Bing think of your site. If you have good SEO your page will show higher when someone searches for business' like yours.

SEO sounds scary but its simple to tick the SEO basics and get you on the first google result page. This is done by making sure that 'Key words' relevant to your business are found across your website.

For example, a Woodworker will want to make sure that search terms his/her customers might use are on his homepage. Terms such as: Local Woodworker, woodwork, carpentry, chippy, carpenter ETC, should be sprinkled across his/her website.

Make It Clear How Customers Can Contact you

Imagine a customer finds your webpage and really wants to hire you or buy your product but they don't know how because your have failed to direct your customers to your phone line or shop address! This is more common than you might think and is one the most common problems small businesses find with their newly budding online presence.

Make it very clear how your customers can reach you. If its a phone line, put your number on every page. Include a Call To Action like 'Call Today' just to let your customers know that's how to get in touch.

Create Value With Relevant Content

Don't let your website be as boring as a yellow pages listing. Your business' website can be so much more! Really put in the effort and creating something unique that is filled with content that your customers will enjoy and learn from.

A blog is often the easiest way to do this. Commit to writing at least one article per week on your niche of business. This also plays greatly into your SEO as articles talking about your business will help your page rank higher on google.

So there you have it! Having a good online presence really will have an impact with your customers or clients. We tend to notice when websites and blogs have more effort put into them than others. Business owners who make this a priority will see growth stemming directly from their online efforts, growing steadily over time.