Boosting your websites presence is critical to your success on the web. With more and more people searching for products and services online; how your company is portrayed is becoming increasingly important to potential customers or clients.
What is considered an online presence?:
I would honestly say that “online presence” has multiple definitions. But let’s go over a few of the important ones. I think the three most important things within your online presence it would be SEO, User Experience, and Branding. You want SEO so then people can find your site in general and user experience so then when they do find your site, they don’t hate it. Then you would want branding to remain consistent to the print materials you hand out or the colors that you use. Making people more familiar and trusting with what you do. So let’s go more in depth with these three main points in online presence.
Back Links:
Yes, backlinks are still important in 2017. As searchmetrics.com defines it, “Backlinks are incoming links that refer to all links from other websites referencing the website in question.” Basically,, its other websites linking to your site. Reputable backlinks to your site that are related to your topic are considered to be stronger backlinks. Another great source of backlinks would be from reputable media companies. This is especially important for businesses who serve a local area. A lot of local media businesses offer segments that are just for smaller local businesses. I would personally recommend contacting one of these media companies to do a report on your business along with possibly see if they could include your website in said report. That way you get the necessary links to your site.
Print Marketing & Popularity:
When you get a website developed and you don’t tell anybody about it, you pointlessly got a website developed. It’s important to include your finished website on print materials so then you advertise it yourself. In highschool, there was a popularity contest. Who were the cool kids, the smart kids, etc. Well, Google is like high school in the sense that their rankings are a popularity contest as well. Google likes to put what is popular on top. It makes sense. If a lot of people like it it’s probably what the person searching is actually looking for, right? Basically what this means is if you have a talent or you do something, make sure that you are screaming it to the world through the web and through your print.
Avoiding Black Hat SEO:
Black hat SEO is something you may or may not have heard of. There are many companies out there who promise to get you to the #1 spot on Google for extremely cheap but be warned, their methods are likely to be unethical. No SEO company can guarantee a number one spot on Google as the field of SEO fluctuates so much. Know that one of these companies could potentially get your website blacklisted by Google, and once it’s blacklisted; it’s over. It’s difficult to get your site to be removed from Google’s blacklist. So when you go to hire a company to do your search engine optimization, make sure that they are a reputable company. Also, make sure that there is actually a way to measure your results. Be it Google Analytics or another functionality that keeps track of visitors on your website.
Amazing User Experience:
Nothing screams well-designed website more than a website with an awesome user experience. When leads or potential customers go to visit your website you’re going to want to have it be easy to use along with easy to either contact you for your services or purchase your products. Driving profitable sales right to your doorstep. If you have good SEO coupled with amazing user experience then you have a profitable website. Assuming someone out there wants what you’re selling. (Though a properly optimized site should attract your target market.)
Brand Consistency:
Brand consistency, in my opinion, is a given, though it’s often overlooked. You might have a website that follows one style and some print materials like business cards or brochures that follow another style. Which isn’t a very good idea when it comes to building trust with your customers. Which is why we go through the process of asking about color schemes and other design restrictions when we initially go to build your website. Everything should follow a design guide that was preferably created by a designer that would include things like colors, fonts, number conventions, address conventions, etc to keep everything consistent. That way people begin to familiarize themselves with your company when you begin to build consistency.
So when someone asks for a recommendation related to the product or service that you offer, guess whose company is going to be in mind because they have built a trust? Yours hopefully. Or your competitors depending on who keeps more in touch with their customers and builds trust better.
Overall all of these things should help you improve your online presence. From building your SEO and having an amazing user experience, to keeping in touch with your customers in person with print and other forms of communication. All of the suggestions with a little bit of work should do nothing but benefit your business.
I appreciate you taking the time out to read this awesome article on boosting your online presence!
Ervin out.
