Every business needs online visibility to grow. Whether you sell products exclusively online or operate a brick-and-mortar storefront, having an online presence can be a significant asset for both direct purchasing and as a referral source.

Once you have your website in place, your next step is to direct people toward it. What good is having a website if you’re not getting any traffic or leads?

Here are 5 simple tips to increase the online visibility of your business.

1. Optimise your website for search engines

Even if you don’t have the first idea about website design or marketing, you’ve more than likely heard of SEO. It’s been a big buzzword since the late 90’s when people realised certain actions would help them rank higher on search engines.

If you are serious about improving your online visibility, it’s vital you take an active interest in SEO best practices to stay ahead of your competitors. Take a look at these on-page SEO tips as a starting point and try to keep abreast of the latest algorithms Google releases. The digital world is a fast-paced environment that is constantly being updated, so it’s important to keep learning when it comes to the requirements search engines have.

2. Be mobile friendly

Speaking of search engine requirements, having a mobile responsive website has become the norm after Google revealed back in 2015 that sites that are not mobile-friendly will rank even lower than before.

As smartphones and other mobile devices are fast becoming the preferred method of browsing the internet; if you haven’t already got a mobile website, you need to get one soon. If you continue to run a website that isn’t mobile friendly, you’re likely to see a significant decrease in mobile traffic from Google Search. This is because it will directly affect your ranking but also because people are no longer willing to squint at their screen to try and read text that doesn’t automatically adjust for being viewed on a mobile phone or tablet.

3. Fast loading pages

How often have you visited a slow website and given up before the page fully loads? We expect websites to load instantly and refuse to wait for longer than necessary – the same goes for your website.

Whether it’s down to a bad hosting provider, poor code or too many unoptimised images, there are many reasons why your website may be running slowly. Whatever the reason for a sluggish site, it’s important to get to the bottom of it to improve your user experience and ensure you’re not deterring traffic to your site.

Not only does a faster website lead to a greater user experience, it also helps to ensure your business maintains a high search engine ranking. Google’s search algorithm to determine how well websites rank includes page load times so be sure to regularly test and monitor yours.

You can test the current page loading times of your site here.

4. Strong social media presence

Having a social media presence is another way to boost your online visibility. The population of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter continues to grow making it a useful tool for businesses to take advantage of.

Maintaining a consistent social media presence should become a priority. You don’t need to master every single platform, instead focus on the ones that your target audience are more likely to use and do it well.

Having a strong social media presence is an efficient way to build your company’s reputation and create a loyal community of prospects. It can also boost your website traffic and improve your search engine rankings – which, in turn, will lead to more traffic and more visibility. 

5. Keep your website secure with HTTPS

Security is a top priority when it comes to your online presence. A lack of trust can compromise your reputation and cause clients to do business with your competitors instead.

In most cases, we trust that our data will be protected through a secure connection and those of us who are savvy enough to understand the difference between HTTP and HTTPS will only do business with companies who use the latter.

As consumers trust sites which utilise HTTPS and are more likely to buy from them – it is worth investing in making the switch.

Google has also started using HTTPS as a ranking signal which means your website will rank better if it uses the protocol. Over time it is thought Google will place higher importance on this as a ranking factor to ensure all websites have made the switch.

At WP Tech Support, we can help improve your online visibility through our WordPress support and maintenance monthly plans. We will review your site’s performance, SEO and security to ensure you’re doing everything you can to stay visible to prospects and search engines – plus you can save 50% off your first month by using the coupon code: WPTECH50. Sign up today to see continuous improvements to your WordPress site.