The majority of businesses today have an online presence in some form, whether it’s a website, social media account or a listing in some kind of directory. Whatever you have, it’s more important than ever before that potential customers and clients are able to find you one way or another.
A company website is almost essential nowadays with the majority of people instantly taking to the Internet to find answers, products and resources but if they can’t find you, you’re not likely to enhance your overall reputation because people won’t be working with or buying from you; instead they will be going to your rivals or others in the industry – or simply generic retailers like Amazon and eBay.
While there is no quick fix to help you to go from relative unknowns to global superstars in the industry, there are a number of things that you can be doing to help to enhance your online presence and reputation. The first of which is to ensure that you are using the latest systems and processes to show that you are modern and doing everything you can to work in the modern digital era.
Many companies are set in their ways, implementing the same processes that they started out with and the only updates they’ve done might have been to go from Windows 7 to Windows 8, (for example). If you can show that you’re running modern packages like those from sysaid.com in the tech world, and that you’re abreast of the latest industry developments people are more likely to either buy from you or invest in your services.
Ensuring that your website contains as much useful information as possible is essential. When people visit your site, they do so because they’re looking for something specific such as a product, service or piece of information. If the site is easy to navigate and filled with useful information, then you’re likely to receive much more traffic to the site because more and more people are going to spend time there and then these visitors could become customers or clients depending on what you have to offer.
Another idea is to pay close attention to your social networking sites. While a lot of businesses will have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts, for instance, they might be using them in a way that isn’t beneficial to them. It’s great sharing pictures of cats and ranting about events going on around the world, but if they’re not relevant to your brand and – just as importantly – your audience, people aren’t going to be liking or sharing what you’re posting.
Each one of those should be seen as an endorsement and free marketing as the likes will appear in other people’s news feeds. Essentially, you need to be posting for the audience on behalf of your company, giving them what they like and need which can be analysed using the likes of Facebook insights.
Producing regular blog posts will also help because the search engines will see that you’re producing regular, reliable content which helps sites to rank higher for specific terms. Recent modifications to search engine algorithms have placed extra emphasis on the production of content which is relevant to the site it’s on, and to the audience and content strategies have become an essential part of search engine optimisation.
A final suggestion is to make sure that you have a Google business page. This is the information that appears in the search results that includes your address, a location on a map and extra detail such as your opening hours and contact details when people search for the company name or a product. If visitors can find all of this detail then they’re highly likely to get in touch with you and talk about the services you have to offer.