How to Create an Online Presence for Your Business

    How visible are you online? If we do a Google search for your business name, will it appear among the top 5 results? If your name does not appear on the first page of the search, it means you don’t have a strong online presence. Any business that wants to thrive in this present age should have a strong online visibility. Don’t be a local champion; spread your tentacles beyond borders. The internet affords one the opportunity to do so. Through the internet, a business in Nigeria can be heard of in Ghana, China and the ends of the world. So what efforts have you made lately to boost your availability on cyberspace? Do you have a Facebook page for your business? Do you have a blog or website? Are you on Twitter and Linkedin? Do you have a short video about your business on YouTube? What other social networking sites do you leverage? Mind you, it costs almost nothing to have your business on these platforms. It is not impossible. You already have your business on the internet. Don’t leave it at that. You need to go an extra mile to attract visitors. If you put together a glamorous event at a posh hotel for example, and at the end of the day no one is in attendance, the aim of that event would have been defeated. The same thing applies to running your business online; you have to intentionally drive traffic to it. The time you spend broadcasting breaking news and gossip via your mobile device can be used to broadcast your business instead. Now, let’s take it a step further. You need to have keywords about your business optimized. This process enhances the visibility of your website or web page in a search engine’s top results. The clue is to ask yourself, “what will people looking for my products or services search for?” That means if you are in the business of selling cars or phones, your optimized keywords may include: “affordable cars in Lagos,” “buy a car now and pay later,” “free delivery of phones in Nigeria,” “discount on all smart phones” etc. In addition, find out other websites and blogs that your target audience visit and place adverts there. When visitors click on such adverts, they are redirected to your website. The whole idea is to drive traffic to your business. Increased traffic translates to increased sales and increased profit. About the author; Charles Okoh is a writer and compere. He’s the author of a fast-selling book titled Ideas are Money, and tweets via @greatcharles.