There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about- Oscar Wilde
Today, everyone wants to make business decision quickly without needing to have meetings or walk into your store, as meetings and traffic are time consuming. The place where the majority of people will learn about you and/or your business will be online.
This is a positive direction.
Why?
Because if someone can find everything they need about you that gives them the confidence to purchase a product or set a meeting, the faster the decision comes to actually hit the Purchase, Submit or Email button. This happens before ever stepping foot in your building or meeting space. This is why it is important to care about your online presence.
Stop reading and take a few minutes to type your name or business name in Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. search box. What links show up on pages on 1- 5? Are you even a result within the first 5 pages?
Yes?
Great! Are they links that help you sell or build trust with customers to buy/do business with you.Today you can no longer just have a website. People need 5-10 trusted sources before deciding to buy or schedule a meeting. They want to see your reviews on Glassdoor, Google, Yelp, Facebook, or even BBB. They will look at your customer’s comments and reviews. They want to see that you are covered in key media outlets as a leader in the industry and much more.
So now—go back to those first 5 pages of search. Do they include links to your LinkedIn company page, an article in a trade journal, videos, trade shows, associations….? If not, you have a lot work to do.
Now many marketing firms will tell you to run ads to increase your SEO. But ask yourself before you do—when is the last time you really wanted to click on one of those paid ads? You might have clicked only because you needed information right away. But if you had other choices on page 1 to get the info, you will more than likely skip the ad.
We have nothing against running ads but you also have to do the hard stuff. Realistically to get great links on pages 1-5, you may need to hire a person or an agency to help you reach your goal of good organic results within a short time frame.
Here are 5 key items that you can do to help you improve your online presence quickly:
1- Hire someone to write content for your website, social media and trade media.
2- Hire someone to take photographs— because you are going to need a lot of them.
3- Think about topics for videos for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. Then get someone to create at least one a month for the next 6 months or so.
4- Get someone to send press release, product info, photos, videos, etc. to key media to earn high quality backlinks.
5- Make sure your website is current, looks clean and attractive, is mobile friendly, easy to use and is on the right server platform. – NSG uses AWS
There are always more things that you can do to improve your online presence. But if you do at least some basics task’s you will be much further ahead than your competition.
We know that your first meetings/engagements with potential partners/customers will be more successful when you are able to build trust from your online presence and you can show them that you are a company they want to do business with or even to buy a single product from.