Is your business set up for success online? A strong profile could be the difference between success and failure.

Many companies completely miss out on huge opportunities simply because they are portraying themselves poorly online. How many times have you visited a company’s website only to be severely underwhelmed? In today’s business market, having a strong online profile is more important than ever. In this article we will cover 5 simple steps to solidifying your company’s impression to the general public. First, it’s important to know that 81% of consumers conduct online research of products and services before buying. Here are 5 steps you can follow to solidify your profile and impress your visitors.

1. Have a beautiful website – This is listed first because it is the most important. Every other step will revolve around this one. Your website is the online face of your business. Knowing that 81% of people will look here first before doing business with you should stress this importance.  Giving your company’s website a modern and clean look says everything. Your customers should leave this site feeling excited about what they read and saw.  A good website will increase the trust and reliability of your brand and increase your sales.   Unless you have a background in web design, don’t try to do this yourself. Look for a web design company with a solid background and reputation to take the reigns on this one.
2. Create social media pages for your business – We run a web design business here in Phoenix. Our company has social media accounts with Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Yelp, Instagram and Pintrest.  Use all avenues at your disposal to promote views of your website. If step one was completed properly, social media will be promoting sales for your business.  A good web design firm will also tie all of these social media accounts into your website.  Therefore you could post a blog on your site and hit all of these avenues at the same time. Be sure to post company news, success stories and high quality imagery of jobs that you have done and are proud of.  The more likes, shares and clicks you get, the more relevant your website becomes as a trusted source to the major search engines and the more popular your site becomes.
3. Have strong SEO – What good is a beautiful website that no one can find? Now if step 1 and 2 are complete, they should both be assisting with this step. A good web design company will also excel at search engine optimization. On-site optimization requires that all the content on your site be organized in a specific manner to be considered optimized by all major search engines. There are also many other factors to consider when doing good SEO work such as adding fresh content to your site and tenure (how long you’ve been online). Sometimes there is no substitute for strong tenure. Putting a huge emphasis on content will always get you on the fast track. Adding fresh content to your website each week makes it a relevant resource for the subject matter of your business. If you are a considered a trusted resource to major search engines, they will list you ahead of the pack.
4. Show up on local search – Local search is a powerful tool. If someone is looking for an electrician within a certain radius of the GPS on their phone, it is very important that your electrician business be on that list.   Again, a good web design company can take care of this for you but you can also strengthen your position by creating citations with links to your site. Go list your business with every major business-listing group out there. Yes, this may involve you getting some sales calls that your not crazy about but you will also have more impressions of your address online and increase your relevance for local searches.
5. Increase your conversions – Now that steps 1-4 are in order, it is important to capture the traffic that your awesome website attracts. How do you do that? Of course, your web design team should specialize in this as well. Visitors to your website should find it very simple and easy to send you their information or call you. They shouldn’t need to go look for a pen to write down a number, they should click a button that alerts your office. Increasing your conversion rate on visitors is a major factor in the success of your website.

Having the right partnerships in the process is key.  If your business needs this kind of help, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

All the best.