It’s not enough to just be online these days. Your business needs to be found among hundreds of competitors. For that, you need to have strong visibility online.
If you type your business niche and the location for your business into the top three search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing) and your business doesn’t appear on the fist page, you need to do some serious work on improving your online visibility – otherwise your potential customers will never find you.
Among managing social media activities for various clients at Social Media Shop, I also make sure that other aspects of their online visibility are improved. Social media won’t work to its full potential if other elements of online marketing struggle or are not well developed.
Today, I would like to share with you some of my tips and tactics that will elevate your online presence to the next level.
1. Develop your list of keywords and use them strategically throughout all of your online activities – knowing how people search for what you have to offer is critical to your online visibility. Do your research and make it a habit to use these phrases throughout all of your online profiles to help the search engines index your business more effectively.
2. Improve your website/blog – The centre of your online presence is always a hub, which can be your website or a blog or both combined. This hub is the most important marketing tool you have, so make sure it’s the best it can be. Double check if it’s properly search engine optimized so people can find it. Does it enable you to easily add new content? Is it easy to navigate? Does it display everything your audience needs to find you and get to know your services?
3. Spread the word about your hub via social media – Once your hub (website/blog) is search engine optimized and you provide fresh content every week, it’s time to spread this content further using social media tools. By adding your social media buttons with links to your home page, you will ensure that readers can spread your views through their social media tools.
4. Provide value and knowledge Give away valuable content that will attract your audience. The best way to do this is to write a blog post, where you can demonstrate your knowledge in your niche and establish yourself as an expert and authority in the field.
5. List your business in all the search engines Include Google Places, Bing Local Business Listings and Yahoo Local – remember to use your keywords (point #1), add a link to your website or blog, upload images and videos for more visual approach. The more information you provide, the better. If you can, try to get some of your happy customers to write reviews as those can be incorporated into the listing and help wit your credibility.
6. Get your audience to recognize you by being consistent across all your online activities. This means the same branding in terms of your profile picture, description (keywords!), usernames and links.
7. Incorporate multimedia in your online presence – images, graphics and videos expand your audience and increase engagement as well as trust. A tremendous portion of all internet traffic is video traffic. The reason video is so popular is because it takes the interaction to the whole new level by connecting with the viewer in more easily than text and in an intimate manner.
Final piece of advice: Take some time to learn about online marketing if you want to do it yourself. Read articles, sign up for a training course or watch video workshops online. If it’s not your cup of tea or you don’t have time to do it, seek professional guidance or outsource it completely.
I hope some of my advice will help you with your online efforts. Please feel free to share your online marketing tips, we can all use more inspiration.
