Businesses need to be visible. Before, that meant spending money on a poster and a bright sign. Now, it’s all about your website. Google says that 97% of people who want to learn more about a neighborhood business do so online. You need a solid online presence to stand out if you’re a freelancer or business owner who works for themselves.

But what exactly does having an online presence mean? Why should people pay attention to your small business when there are so many others?

This guide will teach you why having an online presence is essential and give you tried-and-true ways to build your brand online.

What is an Online Presence?

You may believe having a website is sufficient for creating an online presence. But this is just the beginning. To make a real impact, more is needed just to be online. There are three main things that an online profile means:

  • Being Observed
  • Credibility
  • Reputation

Managing your online presence is called online presence management. You’ll need to keep working on it to keep your brand visible and your online image good.

Why Having an Online Presence is Important

If you can get your business in front of your ideal customers and give them a good experience, you can build brand recognition and improve your image in many ways. However, having a solid online profile also helps your business.

  • A massive 97% of people look for local goods and services online. People looking for what you offer can easily find you online, even if they aren’t actively looking for it.
  • 83% of people go to a store because of what they find online. People get information from many different places before they buy something. People and search engines will only notice your business if you inform them everywhere.
  • All digital marketing tools give you information about what’s working and what’s not so you can decide how to spend your money.
  • When Google ranks sites, it looks at more than just your page. It checks to see how regular your assets are all over the web.

10 Ways to Improve Your Online Presence

LinkedIn, a business networking site, says that 47% of small businesses promote themselves. There is no digital marketing service for workers and business owners working alone, so you must do it all yourself. These ten things will help you build your business and be more visible online in 2024:

1. Have a Website

Almost everyone will tell you that having a website is one of the best ways to improve your online exposure. Your website is like your physical store, but it’s online. It’s your digital spot. People can find your business there, whether you sell in person or online.

People will find it very hard to do business with your company if you don’t have a website. Over 70% of people look up information about a business online before they go there or buy something from them. That’s why you want to make it easy for people to find your business online.

There are a few things you can do with a website to make it better for your online presence:

  • Use a site builder like Wix or Shopify.
  • Get a web design company to make your page.
  • Ask an artist and writer who works for your company to build your website.

2. Maintain Social Media

Keeping up with social media is one of 10 ways to improve your online profile. To connect with your buyers, you will need more than a website. People are on social media these days, so you must go where they are.

Making a profile or page on the most popular social media sites doesn’t cost anything, and if you post updates often, you’ll reach more people than you could through website visitors alone.

You’ll always get free advertising when you create content your loyal customers share on their sites. Staying involved online, especially on social media sites, can help you build relationships with potential customers. You can use these sites to answer questions and react to people’s words.

3. Get Noticed by Major Search Engines

Help people who are looking for your business online find you more easily. Use buzzwords in your web content so that you show up at the top of search engine results pages. This is called search engine optimization (SEO).

Long-tail keywords help you get new customers if you work in a hot field. For example, let’s say you work as a computer designer. If you just use the term “web design” by itself, search engines won’t be able to find your different web design business.

4. Establish a Budget for a Web Presence

There are different things you can do to make your web profile better. Your company usually only has the time or money to invest in some of them. Making a budget and considering how each plan might work can help you focus on the important things.

To start making a budget, determine the cost or requirements of different strategies. For example, how much should a company set aside for SEO, or how much will it cost to remake its site?

It’s easy to get answers because we’ve made price guides for almost every way to build an online presence:

  • How Much Does Digital Marketing Cost?
  • Price Guide for SEO
  • Price Guide for Website Redesign
  • How Much Does Content Marketing Cost?
  • How Much Does Social Media Cost?

5. Google your local directory profile.

You should claim (or create) pages on local listings even if your business operates outside the area. If your business is listed in local listings, people can find out about it without going to your website. Even though you’d like people to visit your site, they only sometimes do that.

There’s a better way for someone looking for a new restaurant to find and compare restaurants than to go back and forth between each one’s websites. They’ll probably use Google’s local list, Google Business Profile.

Local directories are significant because they help you improve your online visibility and backup tactics that aim to do that. For example, you can use local listings to help with SEO and review handling.

6. Examine Your Rivals’ Strategies.

You don’t have to develop new ways to improve your online profile every time. You can get ideas from competitors and even companies in different fields. Even if it doesn’t give you any ideas, it’s helpful to know what your rivals are doing to make themselves more visible online.

When you do a rival study, you should look into the following:

  • Rankings of search results
  • Internet sites
  • Ads that cost money
  • Profiles for local directories
  • Campaigns for email marketing

While it does take some time to do a rival study, the following tools can help:

  • Ahrefs, to look into how your competitors are doing in search results
  • SEMrush, to look into the paid ads of your competitors
  • GeoRanker, to look at the local business listings of your competitors

Signing up for a competitor’s email marketing campaigns is the best way to discover their efforts. For example, if your rival is Bose, you could sign up for their email list to get news about new products, deals, etc.

7. Advertise Your Products and Services Online

At the beginning of your small business, hoping people will use a search engine to find your website won’t help you get very far. Even search engine optimization (SEO) plans can take months to work fully.

Because of this, many people who run online businesses use pay-per-click ads to reach people who might buy their products. For example, let’s say your company sells sportswear. A small banner ad will appear on the search results page when someone types the word “athletic wear” into a search engine. One benefit is that your ads will only show to people interested in the keywords you use for site optimization.

8. Business Networking

It’s better to be strong in groups. Share material with other businesses in your area to get more people to see yours.

For example, if you are a screenwriter, you could write a guest post for a web development company’s blog about how your two fields overlap. You can use outside links to send people back to your site or landing page if you get permission.

This method can be tricky because you want to avoid working with neighborhood companies that are your rivals. You and the other small business owner must agree on your target market and ensure that your “brand voice,” or the way you talk to your customers and users, is the same.

9. Set up Top Social Media Accounts

More than half of people who shop online study social media before they buy something. This means that your business needs to be on social media. You don’t need to create a page on every site, but you should have one on the ones your audience uses the most.

Most of the time, your business will need an account on these social media sites:

  • Friends On Facebook
  • Connect with LinkedIn
  • Talking on Twitter

Before you start selling and advertising on social media, you should still learn more about your audience and the social media sites they like to use. For example, if you know that the people you want to reach use Instagram more than Facebook, that will probably change where you advertise.

10. Regularly Create Helpful Content

More than half of people who shop online study social media before they buy something. This means that your business needs to be on social media. You don’t need to create a page on every site, but you should have one on the ones your audience uses the most.

Most of the time, your business will need an account on these social media sites:

  • Friends On Facebook
  • Connect with LinkedIn
  • Talking on Twitter

Before you start selling and advertising on social media, you should still learn more about your audience and the social media sites they like to use. For example, if you know that the people you want to reach use Instagram more than Facebook, that will probably change where you advertise.

11. Content Marketing

Businesses need to make money. That’s why companies often try to reach people at the bottom of the funnel—those ready to buy your goods or contact your company. The trouble with this strategy is that it leaves out a big part of the market.

That’s why businesses that want to improve their online presence and make more money should spend on strategies (like content marketing) that bring in people from the top and middle of the sales funnel. Even though these people have yet to be ready to buy, they might become customers in the future.

If you’re still not sure about this method or content marketing in general, read these results:

  • 80% of business leaders want stories, not ads, to help them choose.
  • 70% of users would read articles about a business rather than see ads.
  • 60% of people say that the material made by the company helped them decide to buy.
  • The effects of content promotion are also excellent.

How do you start making material for people at the top and middle of the funnel? Here are some ways:

  • Find out what your audience wants to know by looking at search trends and keyword data.
  • Pick a type of information, like a blog post or a guide.
  • Figure out how often you’ll add new content, like once a month for two blog posts.
  • Figure out who will develop content ideas and write, edit, and share the content.

Are You Ready to Make Your Web Profile Better? Make it Easy With Edgy Biz.

It would help if you had a web profile whether your business is online or offline. Learning how to improve your online profile and which techniques will help your business the most is essential. This guide showed you 20 different ways to make your website more visible, but there are many more.

If you want to learn more about an expert planner and get personalized advice for your business, you can talk to them online.