Just because your business is online does not necessarily mean it has any presence.
What is an online presence?
Online presence helps to paint the bigger picture of your business. It elaborates to the consumer the type of content you produce, where you stand on search engine algorithms and how people perceive your business online. This could be in what they discuss about you on online reviews and how they engage with you online.
The more ways you can position your business in front of your target audience, the more opportunities you give your business to build and improve on brand awareness and your reputation.
Detailed below are suggestions on how to build your online presence.
Make a Website
To show up online, you need to have a website; this is one of the very first places a consumer will look when trying to find out more about your business.
Your website is an opportunity to showcase your branding; through colours, typography, videos, images and graphics. A website is a perfect opportunity for small local businesses to gain an online presence, to gain attention further than their demographic.
For help with designing your website, contact BeMySocial. One of our brands, their web designers specialise in building websites.
Learn Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is one of the best approaches to building your online presence. There are two categories for SEO, on-site and off-site SEO.
On-site SEO is mainly about the content you create. It involves researching relevant keywords, while also including internal and external links. The aim is to create content that matches your target audience and their search engine results.
On the other hand, off-site SEO is about paying attention to URL structuring. Looking at how fast your website and social media platforms load, make sure your website is complete and all the technical side of things is running smoothly.
If your business aims to appear on Google search, create a Google My Business account, and try using Google’s Keyword Planner.
Social Media Presence
Not only does having a social media presence inject trust into your current customers and potential consumers, but it is also a great way to showcase your brand. When researching a brand, most consumers are likely to look on social media to find more information on the brand, products or services.
Online presence is all about the quality of your content, not the quantity. Therefore, choosing platforms that your target audience is most likely to make engagement with is crucial. Having one or two accounts with active engagement is better than having several social media accounts with poor activity.
For more information on the importance of social media presence and engagement, click here.
Be Active Online
The final point to take away from this is making sure that you appear online; by being active online. Regularly post relevant content to your website and social media platforms.
In addition to this, staying engaged with your social media followers is also important. If something is trending online that everyone is talking about, it would be an opportunity to get involved. Small businesses rely on customer reviews. Therefore it is crucial to have an online presence; so your customers know you are responsive to their feedback.
To stay up to date with all the ways to improve your business, follow us on Instagram @humanauk. For any further enquiries or information contact us on 01302 494 050.