Do you need to improve your online presence? As a business, having a strong identity online is crucial as it is often the first place people will look when they want to find out who you are and what you do.
You may have heard people say that your website is your shop window and this may sound like a cliché, but it’s true! Your website needs to look modern, fresh and easy to navigate to keep users engaged every time they visit and with this in mind, we’ve put together seven essential rules that will improve and maintain your online presence…
Rule 1. Be responsive
One of the best ways to improve your online presence is to be responsive, and yet, so many websites fail to ensure this happens, but it really does make a huge difference.
To be responsive, your website needs to work across a diverse range of devices, screens, tablets and mobiles and as they are all different shapes and sizes, you need your website to ‘mould’ to the right screen sizes for the best possible user experience.
And remember, if your website is responsive, users will stay on your website for longer, and it’s important for SEO rankings too.
Rule 2. Keep SEO in mind
Talking of SEO, when people type in keywords related to your business in Google, you want your website to come up, right? But good SEO takes time, effort and a little hard work; it doesn’t magically appear, but if you do it properly, that effort will be worth it.
Take the time to get to know about SEO, or even better, find an specialist agency to help you with your SEO as they know just what to do when it comes to staying at the top of those searches!
Rule 3. Stay social
Improving your online presence is easy with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but only if you use social media outlets such as these to their full potential and decide which ones are the right channels for your business. After all, there’s nothing worse than having an empty newsfeed as customers can’t see you’re active and there is no content to drive customers to trust what you say and do.
A strong social presence enables you to share your knowledge and expertise with others and show what you can do; this builds customer engagement and relationships, which in turn can boost your ROI… and it’s all free to set up, so why waste it?
Write regular and interesting posts and keep your customers up to date with news about your business. You can even use incentives like competitions to keep interest high. There are agencies (like us) that can help too if you just don’t have the time to do daily/weekly updates.
Rule 4. Be consistent
Now this is an important one. Strong brand awareness lies in consistency so take the time to ensure that everything you do online is consistent with everything else you do so that people recognise and remember you. Different designs and even tone of voice will only confuse customers so keep a similar and familiar feel for your brand across all your communication channels.
Rule 5. Be clear about your brand purpose
Keep it simple when communicating what you, as a brand, is all about.
Don’t fall into the trap of using jargon or complicated messages – be clear, concise and make it easy for consumers to understand your business and what you do.
Being clear extends to being transparent too – build trust by always being honest in your communication.
Rule 6. Be creative
Telling people what you do is one thing, but how you do this can make all the difference to how you are perceived as a brand. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need a creative marketing strategy that sets you apart from your competition and having interesting ideas is the key if you want to be noticed!
Think quirky campaigns, a crazy idea for a microsite, an informative video with a strong message… all these strategies require creative injection to set you apart from the competition and make people remember you.
Rule 7. Test, test, test!
Before you put anything online, make sure it works! Whether this is to do with the build, the design or the copy, test, test, test. And, when all this is right, track the strength of your online presence by using tools such as Google Analytics that assess how your website is being used and what you can do to improve that usability.
As you can see, improving your online presence needs time, dedication and knowledge if you want to make sure your business is going in the right direction, but if you are still unsure about how to begin, we can help. Here at Rawww, we know just what to do to get you noticed online so get in touch to find out more and discover just how quickly and successfully your online presence can soar.
