Top 5 Reasons You Have to Change Your Online Business Strategy

By Steven Mehler

I don’t have to tell you how important online is. You could go so far as to say that in many businesses, if you don’t have an online presence you might as well not exist, for it is there that people check up on you and decide if you’re trustworthy.

For that reason, it’s vital that your online presence is in tip top shape. Here are five things that you might be doing that can endanger your online presence and your whole business as a result. If you’re doing any of these, it’s time to do an online overhaul!

1. You haven’t updated your search optimization strategy in a while

If you think that the strategy you had a year ago or six months ago still works today, then you’re in for a surprise. There have been several updates at Google and the other search engines and they’ve dramatically changed the game.

For example, are you still trying to get as many links up on other sites as possible, without considering their value? Then I’ve got news for you: That strategy is old hat. Google now cares far more about where the links come from. In fact, one or two high-value links are far more valuable than a dozen low-quality ones.

2. You’re not on social media

A report last year revealed that 31% of referral traffic comes from social media. A year is a long time in the online world, so you can be sure it’s a lot more now. And if you’re not on social media and you’re not working to grow your online audience, then you’re missing out on that.

To make matters worse, Google now cares about social media as well. That’s right, your ranking on Google depends in part on how well you’re ranking on the social media platforms. And so, if you’re not sharing your content and building an audience, then the rest of your marketing campaign is going to have to pull a heck of a lot more weight in order for you to rank well.

So boost your social media. This doesn’t mean you immediately have to embrace content marketing. You can also choose to share content that other websites are providing. Just as long as you’re sharing something that will build your audience.

3. Your content is mediocre

Ass the internet becomes more valuable, people are looking at it ever more to decide what they think is worth their time and who they believe they can trust. This they largely decide based on the quality of your content.

For that reason, if your content isn’t top notch there’s a good chance a lot of visitors are opting for the competition as they like what they’re reading better and feel that it inspires them with so much more trust.

And that while there are so many tools online to help you with your content! For example, did you know about these mostly free tools?

• - Hemingway App. This website is fantastic. Just plug in your text and it will tell you how easy it is to read and where the problems lie. Then you can figure out what sentences can be shortened, what adjectives you can do without and how to make it easier for people to read your content.
• - Grammarly. There is no better way to lose your customers than to have a page full of grammar and spelling mistakes. And that while there are programs like ‘grammarly’ online that will point out mistakes and errors in your browser for you even as you’re typing. The best part? It too is free.
• - Inspectlet. Do you know what your users are doing on your web page? Do you know where they’re clicking and where they’re struggling? If you don’t, then give Inspectlet a try. It will give you a play by play as to how people are using your website so that you can change things around to better suit their needs.
• - Ratedbystudents.com. Sure, sometimes an app will suffice. Not always. Sometimes you need a set of human eyes and hands to tell you what works and what doesn’t. In that case, check out the service where for low rates you can hire editors, writers and other professionals to help you with your website.
• - Optimizely. Want to know what color to use, what logo works better or which headlines are the best suited for your audience? Then you need to do some A/B testing. This will give you some deep insights into the what, why and wherefore of how to improve your content.

4. You’re not connecting

The advice used to be that you were supposed to be an expert and in that way draw in your audience. The problem is, everybody is trying to be an expert, which means that you’re getting drowned out in the cacophony that is the online marketplace.

And that while expertise only gets you so far. What gets you far further is likability. And the only thing that will make you likable is being able to connect and be human. After all, we evolved to like each other, not abstract logos on a web page.

So if you’re not working on establishing a connection with your customers, then it’s time to reimagine your strategy and create a human connection.

5. You only care about new customers

Did you know that return customers spend more on average than new customers? How about the fact that the dollar cost of a marketing campaign to bring in new customers is much higher than to make customers come back?

If you didn’t and you’ve been focusing your entire strategy on bringing in new customers, then it’s seriously time to reimagine your business career. The right strategy is to focus on making the customers you have as happy as they can be. Then your return customers will focus on bringing you new customers.

Last words

As the online marketplace gets both more and more sophisticated and more and competitive, it’s vital that you keep changing and upgrading your strategy, for it’s much harder to win market share than it is to defend it.

So don’t neglect your online presence. The best advice I can give is to take your calendar and set a specific time and date – preferably each week, but at least once a month – to talk about your online options. That’s the only way you can be sure you’ll stay up to date and relevant in the online marketplace.

 

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