The Ultimate Guide To Success With Your Online Business

Aside from the fact that your online business is set up solely to further sell your product or service, you need to make sure that your business is running smoothly from the technical side of things too. It’s all well and good having a website but if it’s not been set up correctly, or you’re not using the right tools so that your website can be found, you’re going to struggle with sales and visitors. This is your ultimate guide to success with your online business.

Website

When it comes to running a website, there are four main areas that you need to concentrate on so that your pages make sense to your visitors. These are:

Layout

Make sure that the layout of your website is easy to look at for your customers. While there are millions of different layouts and themes that you can have for your website, some of them are simply too much for people to handle. Keep it fairly simple and you will keep people on your website long enough to make a purchase or contact you. Have it too complicated, and people will be likely to click away to find a website that they can locate what they were looking for more easily.

Design

The design of your website matters too. Briefly mentioned in the last point, although there are endless amounts of themes to choose from for you website, make sure that the colors and logos match up nicely. Try not to have too many bright colors together because they clash, and generally tend to look tacky. Keeping the design of your website elegant and smooth will keep those visitors coming back for more.

Navigation

Similar to the layout of your site, you must make sure that your website is easy to navigate around. For example, having pages that are hidden or difficult to find will put people off using your service. If they can’t see how to find your prices they will likely click away and find an easier to navigate website.

Contact

One major thing that many websites fail to easily provide, is contact information. Display as many forms of contact as possible so that potential customers can contact you with ease for whatever reason. A good idea is to list your social media links on your contact page too, so that customers can get hold of you that way if they prefer. If you have an address they can visit, display that on your website too.

When it all comes down to it, keeping your customers happy is the most important thing you need to think about with your business. Try and design your website from the point of view of a potential customer and it should be nice and easy.

Social Media

It’s a well known fact that if social media is used correctly, that it can be a very powerful tool for any business. Each platform is different and need to be used at the correct time and with the correct content according to the algorithm of the particular platform. Here is what you should be taking into consideration:

Posting Times

With each social media platform, there are specific times that are better to post to each of them. Facebook is a well rounded social media platform and usually it doesn’t matter when you post, but with the sheer amount of people that use the platform, it’s wise to post regularly so that your post doesn’t get lost on people’s feeds. Check out this article about social media algorithms to find out when you should be posting and how often.

The Content You’re Posting

You can’t just be posting any random content to your social media accounts either. It needs to make sense to your target audience. Make sure that you’ve got in mind who you’re aiming your content at so that you can tailor it to their needs.

Another important thing to remember when posting to your social media, is that interaction will really help your business. Make sure that you’re asking questions and encouraging your fans to interact with posts that you’re uploading. A great way of kicking this off is to offer a giveaway on your social media accounts. You can send them directly to your website to enter the giveaway and encourage them to read what you’re about.

Hashtags

Hashtags are more than just annoying additions to regular posts, especially on platforms like Instagram and Twitter. They make it easier to find people that are interested in what you like to look at. For example, if your company is to do with selling cars, using hashtags that relate to all things car will bring customers to you, and also allow you to see what your potential customers are after. Use hashtags whenever you can and reap the benefits from being able to easily find out what your customers want. Once you’ve chosen keywords to form your hashtag, make sure you monitor how and where it’s being used with a hashtag tracker.

Pictures

The pictures you’re uploading are also very important to bringing people in to see what your business is about. Take the time to make the pictures you’re uploading look professional, and make sure they have a purpose. For example, upload a picture of what your business is doing behind the scenes that day, and also add your company logo (which will imprint in people’s minds) and contact details, including your website. Doing this will make your pictures stand out from the array of other pictures your customers have likely seen while browsing that day.

Platform

Not all platforms suit each business. Some of them won’t be relevant to what you’re trying to sell. Take the time to learn what each social media platform can do for your business and concentrate on the ones that bring you the most traffic on your website. That’s not to say that the others will be completely useless either, just make sure that your time is spent on making sure the main big sellers are posted to more regularly.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is one of the most important things that anyone can apply to their website, business, and social media. This is because having good SEO means you will show higher in search engine ranks, and that’s why it’s so important for any business. Here’s how you can achieve good SEO:

Articles On Website

Any articles or content that you upload to your website should be SEO proof. If you’re using a platform like WordPress, you can add a plugin called Yoast to help you out with your SEO techniques. If you’re building the website yourself, make sure that your meta description, slug, title, and article contain the keyword for that particular article. Choose at least one for each article to concentrate on. You can find the best keywords to use very easily these days, and another thing you should try and do is use different keywords for each article you’re uploading. This is because no matter what form of the word your customers will search for, it will ensure that at least one of your articles shows up in their searches.

Social Media Posts

Believe it or not, making sure that your posts on social media are SEO friendly is important too. This ties in well with hashtags as it allows people to find the content that they are looking for more easily. For example, if you want your social media post about your giveaway to be found, make sure that you’re using all variations of the word without sounding spammy. You could use words like ‘competition,’ ‘giveaway,’ ‘freebie,’ and many more.

Using Features Offered By Your Domain Host

When you buy your domain, you will often be offered packages from your domain host to add onto your purchase. A popular one is improving your SEO rank for a small price each month. If you’re able to, purchase this as an addition to your domain name each month and let your host help you into achieving success with your business.

Making sure that you’re being SEO savvy will help people find your business website much more easily, and it will also drive them to your social media accounts if you use it on there too, alongside hashtags. More traffic to your website likely equals to more sales.

The Final Say

As you can see, there is a lot to think about when it comes to your online business. However, if you nail all of this on the head and make sure that the product or service that you’re offering is top notch, you should see sales increase and popularity unfold almost immediately. While some of these steps might cost you a small amount of money, it will be worth it in the long run for your business. Use the internet to it’s full potential and try these steps today to enjoy your new found success!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

About Dequiana Jackson

Dequiana Jackson, Founder of Inspired Marketing, Inc., helps overachieving women entrepreneurs conquer limiting beliefs and create marketing plans that grow their businesses. This includes one-on-one marketing plan development, digital product creation, web design and content marketing. Dequiana is the author of Know Your Business: How to Attract Ideal Clients & Sell More and runs the award-winning blog, Entrepreneur-Resources.net.

Check Also

Seasonal SEO Secrets: 8 Tips to Improve Your Holiday Search Rankings

Photo: Ben White / Unsplash As the holiday season approaches, marketers and business owners scramble …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge