How to Grow Your Business Online

So, you’ve gotten yourself a shiny new website and you want to start growing your business on the interwebs (see: Internet). Unfortunately, many companies and small businesses out there think that just having a website and a few social media accounts is enough and that leads will automatically start rolling in. However, search engines such as Google LOVE to see websites that are constantly being updated with new content and adhere to their document structure guidelines. Not to mention that the quality of content on your website must be meaningful and relevant to your target audience. So what are the next steps you should take?

Know your audience

Having a firm understanding of  the types of users you are trying to reach is essential to begin marketing yourself either as a business-owner or individual. For example, if you have a business that sells hip, trendy, and stylish T-shirts, you may want to consider a certain age group to target and the type of audience who may want to wear said shirts. Does your business provide unique products or services? Try to get into the head of the type of user you want visiting your website and the actions they might take to make a purchase, subscribe to a newsletter, or contact you for a quote. By then, you’ll have a good starting point for the type of content you want to create and promote.

Solidify your web presence

By having a well-designed, mobile-friendly website, chances are you’ll rank higher in search engines and gain more traction for your business. Considering most websites today are accessed via a smart phone or mobile device, Google openly states that they rank websites higher if they are mobile-friendly and well-structured. A good designer and developer will know how to design and code your website to adhere to Google’s standards for document structure and content organization. In other words, the more clear and concise it is for the average user (and Google crawler bots) to access your content and find exactly what they are looking for on your website, the higher you will likely be ranked.

Next, set up your social media accounts and be sure to link to them from your website. Maintain consistent branding and design across your different social channels as much as you can so that users will be able to recognize your business easily. Depending on your type of business and the products or services you are trying to promote, you may want to consider focusing on certain social media outlets but it doesn’t hurt to utilize as many of them as you can. Managing all of your social media accounts can take up a ton of time, so you may want to consider hiring a business to do it for you.

Create meaningful content

Quality over quantity. Always. Your users and potential customers will appreciate the value in having quality content on your website, as opposed to having content where you are obviously just trying to get users to make a purchase or close a deal. While users can still have the option to take action, they’ll begin to recognize the quality of your business and the value that you offer by having meaningful content that is relevant to their interests. Back in the earlier days of website development, content marking wasn’t exactly a thing. For the most part, you gained rankings in search engines by “keyword-stuffing” the meta tags and content on your website. This is no longer the case. Nowadays, Google and other search engines like to see that you are keeping up to date with your website, staying active on social media, and putting out content that is most relevant to your audience, which brings us to the next point:

Promote your website and business

Many businesses think that they can get away with just simply having a nice-looking website and letting it sit there, hoping to generate new leads. However, if you really want to grow your business online and spread awareness of your company or services, you have to put in the time to promote your business and dominate your social presence. This means staying active on all your social media accounts by sharing useful and helpful links back to your website, participating in conversations with your followers, answering questions people may have about your services, creating blog posts every month and creating social media campaigns. You want to find ways to attract your audience to your website without coming across as spammy or gimmicky. Be authentic with your posts and your followers will become interested in what you have to say. Additionally, you can go the extra mile and shell out some money for paid search to help put your business out there. Just be sure to come up with a plan to research the best keywords to promote for your business and see how your competitors are ranking. No time on your hands? Not to fret! We can help with that.