Website wisdoms: Building a bold, bright online presence for your business
Nowadays, having a strong internet presence is key to business success, yet most people focus on social media, which is only part of the equation. What you need to do is balance this out with strategies that help you use your website to create a healthy brand presence. Here are some useful tips to get you started.
Using social media right
These days, even the smallest of businesses need a positive social media presence if they want to maximise their networking potential. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest are stocked with potential clients, so it’s up to you to go out there and grab their attention.
What do you want?
Before you begin you need to decide exactly what you want from social media and be specific. Merely interacting with potential clients is too vague. Do you want them to buy your products or services? Do you want to boost your brand’s image? Do you want to draw more visitors to your website? Knowing exactly what you want from social networking will save you a lot of time and effort. Create a mission statement and let it shape your social media presence.
Building your web presence
Social media alone is not going to be adequate enough to promote your business. You also need an attractive website with content that will target your client niche and draw new visitors. There are millions of websites out there; possibly hundreds of them are based on the same products or services that you offer, so yours has to stand out above the rest. This can be an overwhelming challenge if you have no experience in website design. In this instance it’s best to hire an expert, that way you can be sure that your website looks professional and your business reputation will not be marred. If you need someone to help you build, cultivate and manage your website, check out the professionals at www.prontomarketing.com.
Cultivating your web presence
If you want visitors to hit your website, you need to attract them by meeting their needs. The way to do this is by using targeted keywords throughout your text, particularly in the upper third of your website. The keywords must also be relevant to the theme of your website. To find out how much competition your website will have, do a search for your niche keyword at Google and see how many results you get. If you end up with millions then the competition is too stiff and you should find another topic. If your results are somewhere between 10,000 and 500,000 then you’re onto a winner.
How to research keywords
You don’t have to be a marketing expert to do your own keyword expert; there are already tools out there to help you. A good example is Instant Keyword Research. It’s a simple tool to use and it will save you a lot of time and legwork because it searched through more than 40 different search engines and other sources within seconds to let you know how profitable your keywords are. The advantages of such a tool are obvious:
- You can find more specifically targeted keywords
- You can improve your search engine ranking
- You can save time
- You can increase your profits
- You can generate large keyword lists
- You can uncover negative keywords to avoid
Keyword analysis
Another advantage of using a keyword research tool, such as Instant Keyword Research, is that it will give you an estimate on daily clicks per keyword and pay-per-click bid values. Why is this important? If you want to optimise your profits you need a heads up on the competition. These figures will allow you to analyze how many pages are competing for the top rankings and to focus your keywords.
Maintaining your web presence
Your web content not only has to be well written but unique. Remember that few readers read every word on the page. They tend to quickly scan the text, so break it down into short paragraphs of information using headers and keywords that are easy to find. Use evergreen information so you don’t have to keep replacing content.
Using these tips will help you build an attractive and lasting online presence that will allow you to not only to draw new clients but also to retain them. In combination with your social media strategies, this should enable your business to flourish now and for years to come.
Derek Brown is the managing director of Pronto Marketing, a provider of outsourced website design and Internet marketing services to small businesses around the world. Previously, Derek was the director of marketing communications for the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft Corp. and oversaw all marketing disciplines including advertising, branding, Internet marketing and public relations on global efforts.
