What is your business lacking? Are you not getting as many visitors as you thought? Have you ever posted something super cool on IG or FB that you were proud of only to have about 3 engagements or less? I'll tell you right now the small, no so secret. It's that you aren't putting enough time and effort in creating an online presence. Hey that's our speciality :).
SEO
Google takes a ton of hidden things into consideration when ranking your business on searches. The algorithm is forever changing so that marketers won't find exploits and abuse the algo. This is smart by Google in that it can controls the market. Meaning you have to pay to be seen. Sad but true. However there is some small, long term tweaks you can do right now to get you ranked higher and seen by people who need your services.
- Make sure each of your pages has a proper page title and description so that Google may crawl your site and find it for people are searching. They may then place it first on the search depending on the specificity of the search.
- Images. The most important part of this whole expedition. Gee, I should make this the title. Ton's of sites are bloated with large image sizes that need to be compressed. Most people aren't Web Devs so this slips through every business owners minds. It is very important to have your site load fast. The faster the better and Google loves speed. I, myself, take speed as priority for my sites. Check out TinyJPG for optimizing your images free without losing the quality of the image.
- Image alt tags for accessibility and for Google to crawl your site. Alt tags help users who use screen readers know what your image is. Google will also crawl your site and find the alt text and take it under consideration for rank.
- Lastly, make sure your titles and important content is on your site. The titles on your page should be something that you want users to search for. Might seem basic but you'd be amazed on how many companies don't use titles or content on their pages.
This social media site has moved from saying hi to your fellow classmates in college or checking out what you relative and friends are doing into a global business tool. One of, if not, the most important Marketing tool out there. Use it to create inexpensive ad's and experiment with winning campaigns to get you the most engagement. More engagement leads to more visits to your site which leads to more of a chance at conversions. What's conversions? Well it's when a user does something on your site that you want them to do. I.e You want someone to email you? A conversion is someone that emails you.
A ton of potential visitors will find your Facebook page first or look at your page for validation so it is very important that it is setup correctly.
Photography/Videography
Having professional photography or videography is essential in standing out in today's market. Seriously. I know most small businesses start off with a small budget but it is very important to develop trust with a potential customer. A basic photo taking from an iPhone isn't going to cut it in the long run. It is a great idea to have several very high quality photo's of your team, product etc.
Drone videos or well produced cinematography is a huge trend right now. Check out all those super cool IG or FB video ad's you click on. They are engaging, lovely and aesthetically pleasing when browsing. In fact, according to Facebook, they are the most clicked on. Not many companies have a well produced video right now so if you really want to stand out, get one!
Website?
This should be a no brainer, however a TON of small business only have a Facebook page. Sad stuff. It's free and popular. I get it. But that's free money to Facebook and Google. A complimenting site that leads to your Facebook or Social Media is definitely the number one thing you can do. Think about it. You're hanging out at home thanks to covid and you want some food.
You search for local foods and only see facebook pages or yelp reviews. Ad's galore and it's hard to find the menu. People will trust a website more then a yelp review with ad's site. Having to search through FB is a mess. Having a speeding site that's easy to navigate is going to 100% put you ahead of the game.
Last but not least. You need a well crafted Instagram page. It's sad that most businesses don't want to engage with their customers. Engaging with them brings them back for more. Look at the top companies today and see how their social media presence keeps customers engaged and returning for more.
Image sitting at a restaurant or looking for one and want to see more pictures of the food. Well, if the business has an IG page then boom you can see all of them in their glory. Having an Instagram is great so people can post their pics and post them on your behalf without you even needing to do much. It also keeps the product images fresh without having to update the website every so often. The more times you post, the better, and of course, the higher the quality, the better.
I hope these short but sweet tips have given you something to think about when growing your small business. It's tough, I get it, but it's how it is now-in-days. I see it everyday when I look for small business. I can be searching for local landscaping services and can't find them because they aren't creating an online presence. This post isn't about selling my business but lucky for you, I offer those services! I want to take this difficulty away from small business owners. I love local, I search for local products only when I look for services so I built this brand to help them be see. Thanks for reading.