All business owners have come to understand the challenges that come with running a business, especially early on. Learning about their consumer’s wants and needs and how to best serve these needs, while meeting their own business demands, takes time. In addition to navigating the day-to-day decision-making, other potential threats pose challenges to every business.
Today’s business environment requires that all business owners understand what potential threats may limit their business success, including the importance of strong online presence.
What is strong online presence?
Online presence has to do with getting the business effectively presented online in order to be seen by the greatest number of potential customers.
Why is it important to get your business seen online?
Even if customers plan to buy local, they often turn to the internet first, before product shopping.
Many customers spend time researching products and services online, and reading reviews in order to learn from other customer experiences.
A report conducted by, The ROBO Economy (Research Online Buy Offline), reveals 82% of smartphone users consult their phones on purchases they are about to make in-store and 45% read reviews before making a purchase. As customers turn to the internet to search for products and services in your industry, it is vital that your business shows up on page one of Google.
The truth is:
getting your business seen by customers online isn’t easy.
Why is getting your business seen by more customers online is increasingly difficult? In today’s market, multiple barriers exist. Unless understood well, these barriers may prevent your business from getting found by potential customers online.
The most significant barriers include: online competition and poor website ranking.
At
Salt Creative , we work with our clients to help overcome these barriers. We spend time working with clients to optimize their online presence. We teach our clients to learn how to attract and engage customers with a holistic approach to marketing online. In addition, we teach how to rank high in Google, the best way to optimize your online presence, how
SEO (search engine optimization ) is changing, and more.
In this article, we cover a few barriers we identify as potential threats to getting your business seen by potential customers online.
For businesses today, simply having a website is no longer just a priority. In today’s market, the businesses that invest in modern websites that outrank the competition succeed above the competition. When customers turn to the internet to search for products and services, the websites ranked strongest in Google, rise to the top and get seen by customers. A good website allows a company to connect directly with its customers, providing an easy method of communication and source of information and, for many businesses, a primary sales portal (2019, Expert Panel, Forbes Agency Council). Having a modern website that also ranks well, in order to stand out among the competition, is vital. It is no longer considered relevant to have a great looking website if it doesn’t get found by potential customers. A great looking website that isn’t seen by potential customers doesn’t help your marketing efforts. Your site may benefit current customers by providing information. Your website will not help you attract new business. Those customers searching your business URL directly will follow the link. Other customers will likely not find the website by a basic Google search.
When considering your online presence, it's important to benchmark your progress against your competitors. Why? Because there is a very good chance that your competition is. Stronger online presence results in more customers. As consumers search online, they will either find your website or your competitors website. This equates to click through traffic going to either your site or your competitors. Why does this happen? Your competitors websites are outranking you.
Websites ranking on page two or further, is considered a waste of resources from any marketing perspective. Websites ranked number one received an average click-through rate (CTR) of 36.4 % (Goodwin, 2018).
This leads to the second potential barrier: Google Ranking.
