Online visibility is a key component of marketing for any business in this digital age. Where increasing numbers of people discover businesses online and make online purchases, a new business will stand to lose out if it does not have a strong presence online.
There are a variety of techniques that digital marketers use to enhance an organisation’s web presence. Some of these include search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and social media marketing. Thus, a good overall strategy is required to make good use of the company’s resources to reap the maximum benefits.
One of the first steps to any brand’s online presence is by creating a website. Not any website will do – for it to be effective, it has to be optimised to market your brand on the internet. Here are some key areas to note for making sure your website is effective in boosting your brand’s online presence:
Keywords
In internet marketing, keyword is king. Keywords are what the search engine algorithms track to decide if your website is relevant to an internet user’s search terms. Thus, you need to think like a consumer. What are the search terms you would input to search for a particular service? Once you have determined the relevant keywords for your brand’s products or services, make sure to incorporate these keywords in your website’s titles, descriptions, and content.
Content
Good content shapes a good impression of your company, and attracts web users to stay longer on your site. With a competitive online market, good content is sometimes not enough – your content needs to be better than your competitors’! Consider including a full spectrum of content types like text, images, as well as videos on your website. Make sure that the content is relevant to your business and is suited for your target audience. An engaging and relevant website will be determined by search engines to be better and thus be given a boost on the search pages.
Visual Impact
Although having a variety of content types on your site makes it more engaging, a cluttered site filled with moving graphics and colourful fonts is also not appealing. Thus, you should put care into designing a webpage that is clean, user-friendly, and yet attractive to your visitors. Select graphics thoughtfully to accurately reflect your brand’s products, services and image. If you need help with designing a visually-impactful site, you may want to engage a professional web designer to help you.
Mobile-Friendliness
A huge portion of search activity happens on the mobile phone. As such, you need to make sure your website appears properly on mobile devices as well. Mobile versions of sites should be quick to load, have streamlined visuals and content, and have larger, easily accessible quick links. This allows users to navigate the site more easily on their mobile device, giving them more reason to continue browsing your webpage. A word of advice is to test out your webpage on a few different devices to ensure that the page displays properly across different screen sizes.
Reviews & Testimonials
Just as word of mouth is a formidable marketing channel for brick-and-mortar businesses, brands online have the power of customer reviews to help. Many consumers check out online reviews on Google, Facebook, or other dedicated review sites before they choose to patronise a particular company. Thus, you should make things easier for your potential customers by including customer reviews on your webpage. If the reviews are good, they lend credibility to your business and motivates people to do business with your brand.
The above-mentioned points are just a few ways by which you can increase your organisation’s online visibility. If you want to find out more about how you can boost your brand’s webpage on the search rankings, you can enrol in a course on internet marketing in Malaysia, or hire an SEO company to do the job for you.