There are a few simple common-sense tips to help your business be successful online. With more and more people looking online for everything from new products to comparisons of existing services, the internet offers an almost limitless vehicle for extending the reach of a company.

First of all, ensure that your online presence is attractive and eye-catching. Make use of professional quality photographs, maintain links well and update the information on the site regularly. Make sure your website is packed with interesting and informative content; the more relevant keywords in a piece of text on the site, the more likely it is that the big search engines will find your website and present it to a searcher. However, do ensure that your written information is ultimately aimed at a person, not only do potential customers become disheartened when they click hopefully on a link, only to be met with streams of irrelevant keywords and partial phrases but no actual information pertaining to their search, but the bigger search engines have now begun to ‘prune’ this sort of gibberish off the search results with new and improved search algorithms.

When using keywords make sure you include local search optimisation techniques, particularly if the service or products you offer are geographically bound to a particular area. This is not too important for services that can be performed anywhere in the world, but is vital for locally sourced products.

Do not be tempted to copy or paraphrase a much bigger and better known competitor; all you will be doing is highlighting the differences between the two companies and a smaller, newer company is not likely to fare so well against a more established competitor. Rather, choose to highlight the differences, the places where you excel against the competition and, in this way, develop a unique voice, a distinguishing characteristic to set you apart from similar companies.

Customer satisfaction must be taken into account. Just as a shop display is set out to attract potential customers into the store, and the products then lead them in such a manner as to ensure the entire product base is seen and appreciated before the customer is guided subtly to the tills, a website must catch a browser’s attention, offer something that they are interested in, then clinch the deal with a good offer that they feel they cannot miss out on. A site that is difficult to navigate will quickly be exited from, so do ensure that links are easy to see and follow. Always add a little human interest to the ‘about us’ section of a website. If people know a little about the people or history of a company, they feel ‘introduced’ which will tempt them into spending their money with the site.

If possible, invest in managed web hosting. This guarantees greater availability of the site, and generally comes with a support package included, which can ensure your site is available to potential customers around the clock. The greater search speeds that a domain host can offer will also help with ratings on search results – the faster a site responds, the better the rating. Web hosts can help to maintain the webpage in good condition, keeping it up-to-date and fresh so customers are aware that the company is there, flourishing and ready to serve their needs.

Finally, keep your customers safe. If you will be setting up protocols to allow payments to be made to you through your site, absolutely invest in security software and maintain it stringently. Nothing can be worse than a string of comments about fraudulent activity on a customer’s card after using it on a particular site, or about viruses and malware attaching themselves to downloadable brochures and leaflets. It is well worth investing a decent tariff to keep your site and your customer’s information and details safe and secure.

The internet is a magnificent tool for ensuring your company thrives in the new technological age. Following these tips and hints are an excellent start to ensuring your business grows safely and securely.

 

Sources: cmsteachings.com; toprankblog.com; smartbloggerz.com; blog.crowdspring.com

This is a post on behalf Transport Innovation, the taxi freephone specialists that specialise in marketing local taxi firms both online and offline throughout the UK.