For your online presence to be effective, you should view it as a virtual extension of your business. Incorrect listings, poor search engine optimization on your website, and no social media presence make it difficult for potential customers to find you.
We’ve rounded up a few honest and effective tips to help you stay on top of your game online.
Tips for Dominating Your Local Market
Harnessing the Power of SEO
You have probably heard the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO) quite a bit if you’re a business owner. Here, you’ll find every detail you need to know about Search Engine Optimization.
Why Should You Care About SEO?
Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving a website’s traffic by optimizing its content for organic search results. It is a set of techniques used to attract customers to your website. By using SEO techniques, you can help your target audience find you easier and put your website at the top of the search results.
What Makes SEO Important?
Digital marketing relies on SEO because people search for products and services on search engines before making a decision. If your site is optimized for SEO, it will appear at the top of the search results, leading to more traffic and conversions. According to Forbes, 75% of Internet users never scroll past the first page of search results. So, if your site does not appear on the first page, you will lose potential customers to your competitors.
How Does SEO Work?
The bots used by search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo crawl websites and index information. They are then sorted based on an algorithm that analyzes the index. In addition to keywords, a site’s mobile friendliness, security, and originality are also taken into consideration. SEO is tricky because the criteria are constantly changing.
How to Improve Your Business’s SEO
While SEO criteria are constantly changing, there are a few things you can do to improve your score and make your website more visible, such as:
- Fast, secure, and mobile-friendly sites reduce bounce rates and improve user experiences.
- Provide quality content that can answer search queries, so that it will be shared, cited, and linked to, increasing your visibility and traffic.
- By optimizing keywords for search engines, you will attract more prospects.
- By adding proper titles, URLs, and descriptions, you will be able to increase Click-Through-Rates (CTR) in the rankings.
- Crawl accessibility lets search engines locate you more easily.
Take Back Control of Your Online Listings
What Is a Business Listing?
Your business listing is an online summary of key information for your customers. It’s a great way to help customers find you online or in person.
A business listing typically includes your company’s name, address, phone number, and website, but it can also include your business hours too. Customers use this information to locate, contact and research your business and service offerings.
Is My Business Listing Effective?
An effective business listing depends on how accurate your info is and where you can find this information. Numerous platforms provide listings of local businesses, including search engines, online directories, maps, social media platforms, and more.
If you want customers to learn about your business, you’ll want to be listed on as many of these sources as possible. This is essential, but it won’t work unless each listing is accurate and identical to the other listings. For example, businesses are often surprised to discover how easy it is to create a duplicate listing by mistake!
While an honest mistake, duplicate listings, typos, and omissions may make it harder for people to find your business. There may be a little legwork involved if you want to manually adjust all of your business listings online.
What Is the Importance of Accurate Listings?
Businesses that have accurate business listings benefit in many ways. In place of merely hoping that your customers will find you, widely available listings will help direct them right to your doorstep. Consumers are apprehensive about dealing with a business that has incorrect or missing information in their listings, spurring them to choose your competitors instead. On top of retaining prospects, accurate listings also improve search engine ranking and build trust between you, the search engine, and your customers.
Gain New Customers: The goal of attracting new customers is to get people who are new to your brand to contact you or visit your store to make a purchase.
Customers will likely lose interest in doing business with you if they can’t find the information they need or are directed to the wrong location when trying to call your store or visit you. In fact, 71% of people had a negative experience with a business due to inaccurate information posted online.
Establish trust. Missing or incorrect business listings decrease customer trust in your brand and products and often lead to miscommunications or missed opportunities for your business. Inconsistencies also lead to confusion.
Boost your search ranking. A study conducted in 2018 on local search ranking factors showed that consistency in business listings was found to be the second most influential factor.
Your search ranking results will be affected negatively if your business listing is incomplete, making it more difficult to attract new customers. Correct and well-maintained listings across the Internet can result in increased website traffic and better ranking results on popular search engines such as Google. In the case of business listings, the devil is in the details.
Transform Your Social Media into a Conversion Machine
Did you know that in 2020 alone, the number of people using social media was estimated at 3.6 billion? By 2025, this number is expected to exceed 4.4 billion. You’re missing out on a great chance to connect with both new and existing clients if you’re not on social media. Want to learn how to maximize your presence on social media? We’ve got you covered!
Quantity Matters, But Quality Comes First!
In terms of social media posts, quality always beats quantity. Grammar and spelling mistakes will drive visitors away, as will grainy, dated, or unprofessional photos. Likewise, don’t waste countless hours crafting the “perfect” post—it all comes down to finding the perfect balance.
When businesses post consistently on social media, they often see the best results. Posting once or twice per week is a good starting point.
Don’t Just Focus On Advertising
Brand awareness can be improved through social media marketing, but don’t just talk about yourself and your services all the time. You can engage your followers even if they don’t need your services by posting a wide variety of fun, curated content. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Link to industry-related articles. Articles, blog posts, YouTube videos, or anything else you’d like to share can be included here. Just remember not to link to competitor sites!
- Give an insider’s look at your business. Tell your followers about your day-to-day activities. You can also share a funny anecdote or the story of your brand name.
- Tell them great tips or best practices. By sharing your experiences and advice, you will be viewed as an industry expert. You’ll find that when your followers need your services, they’ll turn to you because they trust you!
Lastly, Don’t Forget to Show Off Your Stuff!
If you want to grow your business and gain customers, social media is a great tool to harness. In your social media posts, don’t be afraid to include a “call to action” and invite customers to visit your website, call you, or purchase your products.
At OnePoint Business Solutions, we have the tools, skills, and expertise you need to succeed. If you’re looking to amp up your digital marketing strategy and attract new leads—and sales!— we’re here to help. Visit our website to see a complete list of services or get in touch with us today to talk to one of our experts.