We all know that having an online presence for your business is the key to a more successful business career nowadays. But not all business enthusiasts are aware about the success of having a business online that’s why I created this article for you.
So, if you want to be successful in your business career, then the best thing to do is to build an internet business presence by following the steps below.
How to Start an Online Business?
Secure a Domain Name
The first thing you need to do when starting an online business is of course setting up your own domain name.
What is domain name?
According to About.com, Domain Name System, or DNS, is the most recognised system for assigning addresses to Internet web servers (aka “Internet hosts”). Somewhat like international phone numbers, the domain name system helps to give every Internet server a memorable and easy-to-spell address. Simultaneously, the domain names keep the really technical IP address invisible for most viewers.
A domain name that is unique should have a direct relation to your business that can easily be remembered by your visitors as well as grab their attention.For example: www.mbapparel.com or www.chicfashion.com.
Having a unique domain name helps search engines especially Google to make it easier for them to understand what your website is all about.
Make Your Own Professional Website
After securing or creating your domain name, the second step that you need to do is to develop a professional good looking website to get the attention of your visitors. Take note that “first impression last forever”.
Things that you need to consider when starting up your website based on Google Webmaster Guidelines:
- Create a website that has professional and attractive design so that you will stand out from your competitors and more people will want to visit and enjoy your website.
- Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
- Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map has an extremely large number of links, you may want to break the site map into multiple pages.
- Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number. Continue reading here..
Implement SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
What is SEO by the way?… SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a process of optimising a website on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. to gain organic free traffic.
Now that you are done creating your website, the next step you need to do is optimise your website on Search Engines as I have mentioned above.
There are actually 2 SEO Factors:
- On Page SEOA process of optimizing a website’s content, title tags, internal links, header tags etc…
A perfect example for On Page SEO is to create a built-in blog page to feed your visitors needs.
Having a blog page in your website is necessary because it can provide continued value to your visitors as well as search engines. Share something new and informative in your industry or niche by creating a blog post that would help your readers/visitors solve their problems and keep them coming back for more!
Content is really important when building an online business presence, as I said earlier “create a blog post that will help your visitors solve their problems”. This means that more people will want to visit your website if you can give them helpful and comprehensive information that would answer their queries especially evergreen content. Also, it would help your website’s credibility and authority if you have a valuable blog that you can offer to your readers/visitors.
Hire some professional content writers if you can’t write on your own because you are busy or simply because you might not be confident or very good atwriting articles.
If you don’t know the importance of quality content yet, then you must start setting up your blog page and hire professional writers and start creating articles to successful results.
- Off Page – SEOA process of building links outside your website from relevant resources to help improve your website’s search engine rankings as well as the authority of your website. Such as, Guest blogging, Business Directories, Forums/Community websites and more.
Take Advantage of the Power of Social Media
Let’s admit that having an internet presence for your business is not that easy. So aside from SEO the best way you can do it is to socialise. We all know that social media is widespread especially Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media platforms. This would also help build your business reputation and it is now part of SEO as a ranking factor as well.
So take advantage of it, start by building your companies profile or personal profile and then join communities that share the same interests in your industry and start building relationships with other members of that specific community. You can start by commenting on another member’s posts and join the conversation by adding relevant and useful comments. Through this process you can gain trust from other members because of the valuable insights and knowledge that you are sharing with them.
Promote Your Business using Promotional Products..
If you don’t know much about branded items yet, here is a short introduction on it. This technique is used as a marketing and communications strategy. Giving away free stuff with your company logo on it is a great way of making a first impression and getting potential customers to remember your business’ name! Plus everybody loves a freebie!
Promotional goodies are actually part of an internet presence for your business especially if you also imprint your website’s URL and social media profiles onto the product as well. There are different varieties of promotional materials like Printed Mugs, Branded USB Sticks, Branded Sweets, Promotional Umbrellas, Lanyards and many more..
It’s not easy to build your business online presence but if you will just follow the steps above then you’ll be on the right track and you can look forward to great results!