Modern businesses need to be highly competitive in order to stand out from the crowd. While utilizing traditional media remains somewhat effective for marketing products or services, establishing an online presence has become a must for any business owner or entrepreneur who is serious about ramping up an enterprise.
Online marketing goes beyond just creating a website or blog or having an active presence on social networking sites. It also entails using the right keywords for your business to ensure that you are easily found in search. This is what constitutes search engine optimization.
It is important to go local, establishing a strong local search presence to increase web traffic and improve website ranking in local search results.
Justin Franciscotty, an SEO professional, told us that reaching a large amount of people is great, but if you’re not getting through to the people who are going to spend money with your business, it’s all for nought. In my opinion, the most important SEO campaign a professional can run is an initiative targeting receptive local demographics. Learn how to reach the readers who are most likely to discover or frequent your business at the local level.
<h2?Get on Local Listing Pages
Being on local business listing directories is one popular SEO method. If you haven’t done so, you can claim your local listings on Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Google+, YP.com, Yelp and foursquare among others.
Complete a business profile on each site. You will be asked to verify each profile you create; the verification process is to check whether or not you’re the real owner of the listing. Directories vary their verification methods.
Some will only use your email address while others send a pin code in an email which you will have to enter on the site where you’re signing up to complete the verification process.
Make it a priority to put these domains in your business’s control. Anything you don’t control can be manipulated or influenced by outside users — and even competitors.
Create a Blog
A blog is a great addition to a website. On a blog, you can regularly share information on your business and flaunt some of your expertise on relevant industry topics. The content doesn’t need to exceptionally long, especially if you are targeting casual internet users who may have short attention spans when checking out websites. But it must be quality work without excessive promotional language or sparse, unedited content.
People devalue the power of a blog, according to SEO expert Justin Franciscotty. A blog can be one of the most powerful aspects of a professional website. If the content on your blog is well-written and informative, people will read it, Franciscotty added, so be sure to update regularly and maintain high quality content on your blog for maximum impact. Don’t initiate a company or personal blog unless you can commit to a daily rhythm of updating and enhancing the space with quality content.
Create a Mobile-Friendly Website
As a growing number of people purchase smartphones and tablets, you have an obligation to take steps to make your website mobile friendly. By making your site accessible and readable via mobile devices, you can be assured of a steady stream of visitors and followers who won’t be alienated by poor user interface.
Keep in mind that a website or blog will display differently on a mobile gadget such as a smartphone or tablet. Fortunately, there are free and paid online services today that can quickly and easily make your site mobile friendly. Making the jump to mobile is an unmissable mission for modern business owners.
Be on Social Media
Being on social networking sites is vital, but be careful not to spread your presence too thin. Choose to be active only on sites where your target market hangs out often. To do this, you need to identify the platforms on which your audience is active. Use surveys, observation, digital research, or a professional perspective to determine the social spaces that attract your target audience, then pursue those social avenues aggressively.
After you have created accounts on these preferred sites, make it a point to share updates on a regular basis. Fortunately, you can do this easily with the help of third party apps that allow you to schedule your posts or updates. So on one particular day per week, you can log in and schedule when you’d like your updates to be pushed out to followers for the rest of the week.
A reminder, though: don’t forget to engage with your audience as readers post comments or provide feedback. They need to know that you are actually there listening to them. You can’t use an app to do the updating for you and expect to build a sense of closeness and credibility with readers. Use the tools at your disposal, like third party apps, but make sure you never lose sight of the power of live updates and a personal touch. Local users will be far more likely to engage with you in person if they feel like they know you and your businesses through direct social contact.
Harness the Power of Visual Content
Going visual is a popular trend for marketers and major businesses these days. Many, if not most, people are visual in nature — in other words, they easily get attracted to a site that displays a large amount of images or a social media post that features a large and captivating photo.
As a business owner, it is highly beneficial to share visual content on your blog and as part of your social media updates. Aside from photos, you can share videos and infographics that are informative and interesting.
Through well-placed visual content, you have the potential to attract visitors who may want to linger longer on your site. You could also potentially net inbound links from other credible sources who find your visuals useful and compelling.
Modern business owners have to adapt or die to the rapidly-evolving marketing strategies of 2014’s digital landscape.
Maximize your local reach with local listings, a blog, mobile optimization, social media outreach, and visual treats for your readers.
Originally posted on September 18, 2014 @ 2:17 pm