There has been a lot of debate over the last decade or two about the importance of online spaces for businesses. With some companies saying that it's the wave of the future and should be embraced while other's claim that it's a fad that's never going to replace tried and true, brick and mortar businesses. It's pretty safe to say that that debate has been well and truly settled now that the internet has become a truly indispensable element of just about all of our lives. People spend hours online every day to the point where many of us simply wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if we suddenly found ourselves without an internet connection for any reason. This has become even more pronounced since the surge in popularity of smartphones. People now have an incredibly powerful computer that is constantly online in their pockets at all times. And yet, despite this, there are many businesses that struggle to bring in the kinds of online traffic that they would like. Fortunately, there are plenty of things that you can do in order to connect with your customers online and start bringing in more online traffic. Here are just a few simple ways that you can make the most of your business's online presence.
SEO
Search engine optimization (or SEO for short) has been one of the cornerstones of digital marketing since the moment that search engines like Google became a universal standard. If people want to find your business, then it's likely that they're going to do one thing before anything else, they're going to search for it on Google. They might simply be looking for a particular product or service, and this presents the opportunity for your business to present itself. The only way it's going to be able to do that is by creating content on your website that's going to put you at the top of Google's search results. There was a time when, in order to climb the ranks of many search engines, businesses would simply overload their website with keywords and phrases without thinking about how it impacted the content of their site. It's hardly surprising that the algorithms for many search engines have been much more advanced and now actively blacklist sites that use this technique. The key is to create a balance between the relevant, searchable keywords and content that is actually interesting and engaging to a reader. If you can integrate your SEO effectively, then that's going to have a much more positive impact on your search engine rankings that mountains of keywords.
PPC Marketing
While sometimes seen as an alternative to SEO, pay per click marketing actually works best when combined with SEO to maximize the volume of traffic that you're bringing in online. PPC marketing is essentially the methods of paying a fee every time that your ad is clicked, working to bypass the ranks that SEO is meant to help you climb. The simple way to think about PPC marketing is that it, functionally speaking, you are buying visits to your site. Search engine advertising and social media ads are both incredibly popular and efficient forms of pay per click marketing. There are plenty of companies out there who can help you maximize how you use your PPC marketing through techniques like remarketing, which allows you to reconnect with customers who may have already engaged with your business in the past, and combining PPC with SEO in order to get the most out of search engines like Google.
Content Updates
Once again, there is some crossover between this and your SEO, but it's not the same thing. One of the most common mistakes that people make when it comes to their online marketing is that they assume that the internet is little more than a new delivery method for traditional marketing techniques. On the contrary, the internet is a space with its own vernacular and culture, and because of this, techniques that might have worked for TV and print simply won't have the same effect online. Rather than focussing on more traditional advertising, one of the best places to focus your energy is through content based marketing. Things like blog posts, online video, and viral marketing are all content based. They essentially function in a way that's the reverse of more traditional marketing techniques. Rather than showing a product and trying to convince customers why it's something worth buying, content marketing is designed to create an emotional connection with a customer before ever making any attempts at selling a product or service. In fact, some of the most successful content marketing methods are designed to seem as unlike advertising as possible. By creating content that connects with people, rather than just focussing on advertising your product, you make something that they are more interested in sharing. Word of mouth is one of the best marketing techniques available to businesses online. Create something that your customers will want to share, and suddenly you're going to be able to reach millions of customers without having to lift a finger!
Spread Your Business Across The Internet
There was a time when your website was the only thing that you needed regarding an online presence. Now, having a website is something closer to the bare minimum that your business needs in order to be competitive in a modern marketplace. As well as your website, you should make sure that your business is spread across as much of the internet as possible. This means that you should have social media profiles set up on sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as other social networks. As well as making sure that your business appears on aggregate sites like Yelp. By spreading your business over as much of the internet as possible, you massively increase the chances of customers finding it. Not only that but it allows you to offer multiple channels through which your customers can find content from your business. This way you can give your customers a reason to keep coming back to your various online platforms time and time again.
