Recently my clients and I have noticed an influx of online listings. Running a small business means you have a lot of different pieces of business ownership to juggle at any given time. It’s hard to figure out what you need to sign up for, and what is junk. Here’s 3 things I think are important to increase your online presence. It can only help right?- Claim Yourself – If you want to be you online you need to make sure that you are who you say you are. This means that if a website asks “is this your business?” Claim it! Say yes, the last thing you want is someone else claiming it as their business. If you aren’t sure where to start, I often suggest Microsoft’s Brandify program. There’s a 20 day trial where you should be able to get everything up to speed.
- Be Consistent– Your name, address, and phone number (NAP) need to be consistent across the board. Your message should also be consistent online. Hopefully you have a boiler plate message for your business that you can easily copy and paste. When you are consistent it confirms to search engines that you are who you say you are and makes you more legit. Moz has a great local tool that can help you with consistency.
- Mobile Friendly– like it or not your website needs to be mobile friendly. How often are you searching for a business on your phone or tablet while watching TV in the evening? Or in your car trying to find a spot to eat? How often do you leave a website because you can’t find an address or phone number when you’re on your phone? We’ve all done it. Google has a handy tool that will tell you if you’re set or not. If you’re not, your web developer can help.
There are a LOT of pieces that go into your online presence and SEO that I won’t even begin to discuss. But consistently with my small business clients these are the top 3 things you need to do to get your business up and running online.
