If you work in the digital marketing realm, you likely spend eight hours – or more – on various digital activities. For most, this is more than they sleep.
It doesn’t matter if you have an online business, brick-and-mortar store, or service-based business; having a strong online presence is a must. This doesn’t just apply to e-commerce. While the e-commerce sector has grown considerably since the pandemic, support for local businesses also has.
Even today, up to 97% of consumers go online to find and research local businesses.
However, as the internet continues to grow, change, and evolve, so does the meaning of a strong online presence. Here, you can learn more about the importance of your online presence and how to improve it.
If you are ready to get started, keep reading.
What Is Your Online Presence?
Your online presence is just what it sounds like – the full picture of your business online. It includes:
- You: The content you produce and actions you take.
- The internet: This includes where you stand regarding social media and search engine algorithms.
- The public: How people view your business online, what they say about you, and how they engage with you.
While having an online existence can help you get on the map, your online presence is related to your credibility, reputation, and visibility.
If you don’t have a strong online presence, you really don’t have a “presence” at all. In cyberspace’s noisy, crowded world, it’s all or nothing.
The good news is that there are some things you can do to help improve your online presence. You can also invest in affordable SEO for small businesses from professionals that can handle this for you.
Here you can find the tips that will help you improve your online presence.
1. Create a Modern and Attractive Site
Consumers have extremely high expectations today. In fact, if you don’t have a good website, there is no point in having one. It has been found that around 75% of consumers have admitted they judge a company’s credibility based on its website design.
It is best to invest in affordable SEO for small business since professionals can help create the attractive and modern site that you need to achieve success.
Using a point-and-click website builder may seem like a good idea, but they usually have a lot of glitches – sometimes costing more than hiring someone. If you have a lead-generation website that functions and looks how you want without spending countless hours on it, it will be more than worth it (in most cases).
2. Utilize the latest SEO Methods and Updates
Only about 49% of small businesses invest in SEO. Only 18% plan to pursue targeted SEO, such as keyword research, content creation, or link building.
Investing in affordable SEO for small business is an effective way to get your site on the first page of Google search results. While this takes time, when it is done right, it is a gift that will continue to help your business grow and succeed.
Some of the ways you can use SEO to help increase your online presence include the following:
- Follow the best practices, such as creating quality and keyword-targeted content, building links, and optimizing images.
- Improve your page experience by utilizing Core Web Vitals.
- Keep up with any mobile errors since all websites are indexed based on mobile-first indexing.
- Use schema markup to make rich snippets appear under your site title in SERPs, such as ratings or your primary navigation pages.
- Prioritize local SEO since so many people are now searching for local businesses to support.
3. Target Even More Keywords by Creating a Business Blog
The main pages of your website, which include the homepage, about us, services or products, and contact information, are limited in keyword optimization opportunities. There is not much text to use, and you must try to distill the information to just the essentials that people are searching for.
When you create a business blog, your posts can take a “deep dive” into the relevant keywords and optimize the content to ensure it ranks for the keyword. This allows you to appear in search results for all types of searches your target customers conduct at different stages in their journey. Having more pages of your site on the first page of SERPs results in more traffic to your site and increased credibility.
Studies have shown that businesses publishing blogs four times per week get up to 3.5 times more traffic and 4.5 times more leads than businesses publishing blogs just once per week.
This is also your chance to show your expertise and allow your brand personality to show. Both things impact the reputation of your online presence.
When writing blogs to improve your online presence, make sure you do the following:
- Target a single keyword (or keyword theme) in each post and ensure it is included in the title, headings, alt text, meta description, and image file names.
- Use question keywords in your H2s to help increase the possibility of appearing in the “people also ask” section on Google.
- Use bulleted and numbered lists when appropriate to make your page Featured Snippet friendly.
- Use email and social media to promote your posts.
Increasing your Online Presence Using Social Media
Social media is one of the most obvious and easiest ways to increase your online presence. It offers a huge user base and sharing capabilities, which make it easy for you. Also, social media signals will impact your site’s SEO.
It has also been proven that once someone follows a brand via social media, they are more likely to visit the website and make a purchase. These individuals are also likely to recommend it to people they know.
Continuing our tips for improving your online presence, you also need to improve your use of social media. Some steps to do this include the following:
4. Limit the Social Media Platforms You Are On
It is all about quality regarding your online presence, not quantity. Try to select the social media platforms your audience is on. Limit the number you focus on based on your bandwidth. If you have just a few accounts and good engagement, you are in a better position than having several accounts with minimal activity.
5. Focus on Your Audience, Not Your Follower Count
You may be focused on followers when it comes to social media rather than your online presence. However, your following will improve when you build a stronger presence.
Work to create a quality, niche audience of people who can benefit from and who are interested in what you offer. This will result in more comments and likes for your posts and more user-generated content.
Also, if you did not already know, marketing campaigns that feature user-generated content result in higher conversions than campaigns that don’t have this.
It is always better to have just a few followers with a great page than many followers without much value represented on your page.
6. Increase Shareability by Posting with Emotion
Creating quality posts that increase engagement is important, and the best way to ensure your content triggers the social algorithms to present them in users’ feeds. However, quality alone is not enough. You need to ensure your followers feel something when consuming your content – so much they want to share it with others.
To do this, use emotional words and phrases in the captions. Even emojis can help. Add evocative images and compelling stats.
When it comes to increasing shareability, make sure you pay attention to nuances in the captions to see if there are any patterns. Starting with a key stat in the caption results in more shares. You can also create link-free posts your followers can quickly and easily consume.
Not everyone wants to read a long post or click a link. They are also much more likely to share something that is not a huge ask of their followers.
7. Social Media SEO Matters
Just like affordable SEO for small business is important for your website, it also matters for your social media presence. Be sure to add popular keywords to your posts and profiles. You can use some of the keywords you use with your website if desired.
Social media platforms are for browsing and inspiration. However, it also depends on your business. Be sure to create content that works with your business.
Affordable SEO for Small Business – An Investment in Your Online Reputation
If you want to improve your online reputation, you can start with the tips here. These will provide you with a solid foundation to ensure that you set your site up for success regarding your online reputation.
Keep in mind that there are factors that can impact your reputation, both negatively and positively. Investing in affordable SEO for small business makes you confident that all the right steps will be taken to improve your reputation and ensure it continues working toward your ongoing success.
