Owning a business today is all about marketing yourself online. Building a proper website and associating platforms like a blog and social media with your website is the easiest, fastest, and most effective way to building a client base.
How exactly is this done?
There are multiple steps you can take to ensure that your optimizing your online presence in a way that’ll make your content more visible to potential and existing clients. Here are just 7 ways you can be successful in this task.
1) Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of moving your content up the pages of Google and other search engine pages. There are multiple techniques you can implement with your online content so that when someone searches for a desires service, your business will be one of the first they see.
Some of these techniques include:
- Using researched keywords in your content
- Including backlinks on your website
- Using internal links to up engagement
- Optimize your images using ALT text
- Research your top competition and utilize what works for them
Search Engine Optimization can be a tricky concept to grasp. Luckily, if you’re having difficulty you don’t have to do it alone. There are SEO agencies you can hire that will help take your business and its online presence to the next level. That way you’ll be assured your SEO implementation is being done properly.
2) Register Your Business On Google
Working in tandem with SEO, registering your business with Google will also make your business more visible. When people are in the vicinity of your establishment, Google will be able to recommend your services to them. For instance, a potential customer types, “restaurants near me.” If your restaurant happens to be in their area I’ll be a top result on Google!
Google Business also offers customers the chance to leave reviews for others to see. That way customers will know your company is legitimate and reliable. Since it includes your contact information and location readily available, customers are more likely to reach out in comparison to if they had to search for your business’s contact information.
The cherry on top of it all is that Google Business offers a deeper look into your businesses navigation and analytics.
3) Use Google Analytics
Speaking of analytics, Google also offers Analytics software that can track your entire online presence. Google Analytics tells you everything you need to know about how customers interact with your website and anything else you have connected to Google.
It can track:
- How long users stay on your website
- How long it takes for them to sign up/make a purchase
- People’s navigation patterns
- Which page garners the most engagement
- The demographic of your viewers
- What time of day garners the most clicks
Google Analytics is also the perfect tool for any third-party company you bring in to help with growth. They’ll be able to have a basis of where your company lies and will better be able to create a plan that’ll drive even more traffic to your online sources.
4) Set Up A Blog
Every company website should have a blog attached to its name. Blogs bring in viewers and potential clients that aren’t even intentionally searching for your services. This is the best way to expand your target audience outside of its simplified niche in a risk-free way.
While setting up a blog is a great first step, you now have to figure out effective ways to drive traffic to your blog. Of course, like for your website, SEO will be your blog’s best friend. Especially with techniques like linking back to other articles and keyword research.
The main thing to remember when creating content for your blog is to make sure that what your releasing is relevant to your consumers. One way to ensure this is by releasing evergreen content. These would be articles that will stay relevant for years to come. Google values this content and a higher standard and will promote it more often than the content it sees as unuseful to its users.
5) Set Up Social Media
Social Media has been all the rage for years and will be all the rage for years to come. However, it’s important to stay up to date with all the changing tactics trends, and new apps that continuously get released. Social Media is an everchanging environment but if you can find a good pace for your company – can be an amazing way to attract prospective clients and build a community.
Social Media like Instagram and Facebook even have their own ad system, which can get your message across to thousands of online users in a matter of minutes. Social Media is also a good place to link to all of your other platforms like a blog or website. This cross-promotion should also be done in reverse as well. Always link back to your social media on your blog and website.
6) Start a Newsletter
Newsletters are one of the sure ways you can get information out to subscribers and customers who you know value your content. These customers would have signed up either through a portal on your website or even through a link on social media.
Newsletter platforms like Mailchimp are easy to use and will be able to give you the analytics you need in order to optimize the day and time you send your email and what content garners better feedback or produces the most clicks on the links to your other platforms.
The newsletter can include content like upcoming events or even a brief overview of new blog posts!
7) Make Sure Your Platforms Are User Friendly
Finally, it’s important to make sure that all of your online content is optimized to be as user-friendly as possible. This means making sure your website is compatible on multiple different devices and is straightforward when it comes to navigation.
When you’re writing your blogs make sure to space out your paragraphs so that users aren’t overwhelmed by large blocks of information. That can be daunting for someone who is casually browsing online.
Offering tech support is also important. This will make your company and its online presence more reliable and set a good image going forward.