Web exclusive: Three Ways to Help Build Your Business Online
September 16, 2013 | By Brad Edwards
The internet is the future. We have seen it grow by leaps and bounds over the last two decades and there is no sign of it slowing down. With this growth comes huge opportunities for businesses of all kinds, even for plumbing and HVAC professionals! But it can be confusing. It is a full-time job just keeping up with all the latest developments and best practices out there, and you are already working all day on your own business.
Here are a few important tips to help you make the best of your online marketing efforts.
1. Build a strong website!
Sure, anyone can make a website for free. You can toss one online in half an hour. But will that make you look like a professional who delivers high quality service? Just having any old website won’t help you. Whether it is plumbing, HVAC, or something else entirely, in today’s market there are already some high quality websites at the top of Google in your niche. And if your website is done for free or cheap, it won’t get you anywhere. A website is a lot like a storefront. If it looks old, run down and unappealing, you will be hard pressed to get people to stop by for long.
2. Pay attention to SEO!
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. It is the process of boosting your website in the search engines. So if someone searches for “plumbers in Toronto” for example, whoever has the most optimized website will come up first. Statistically, people click on the top three results in Google more often than every other result combined. So if you are in one of these coveted positions, you have the potential for a lot more business than your competitors.
3. Put a blog on your website!
In today’s day and age, everyone has some sort of degree, diploma, or accreditation. These things are great, don’t get me wrong, but if you really want to set yourself apart from you competition you will need a little more. When you have a regularly updated blog on your site with valuable and useful content, people will see you as someone who knows what they are talking about. It is a great way to build your social cred online and keep your brand in peoples’ minds. When people see that you know what you are talking about, they will be more likely to want to do business with you.
These tips just scratch the surface of what can be done online. The world of internet marketing is a wide open field and it is important to stake your claim now before the competition gets too intense. But with a solid, well-designed and planned web presence, you can get out there in front of more people, bring in more of the clients you are looking for, and grow your business by leaps and bounds.
That is the power of the internet.
Brad Edwards is an internet marketing professional. His business, Cloud Surfing Media, is a digital marketing agency which focuses on helping local businesses overcome marketing obstacles online. Learn more at www.cloudsurfingmedia.com.
