Web presence is a term used to describe the online representation of a person, business, or organization. Today, having a solid web presence is essential for success, as it is the first point of contact for many people when searching for information about a company or individual. Thus, it is crucial to understand web presence, its relevance, and how to establish and grow it.
What is Web Presence?
Quite simply, it is the sum of a person's or company's online presence, including but not limited to their website, social media profiles, online reviews, and so on. What you leave behind online reflects who you are and what you do, which can significantly affect how others see you.
You can't take for granted the significance of having an online presence. In today's competitive environment, a company's brand, reach, and exposure can all benefit from a robust online presence. People can use it to build their brand, connect with others in their field, and land jobs.
How to Create an Online Presence
The first step is to choose a domain name and website builder. Your domain name should be memorable and relevant to your brand, and your website should be professional, user-friendly, and easy to navigate. It is also essential to establish a strong brand identity, which includes creating a consistent logo, color scheme, and tone of voice. Lastly, your website should be loaded with valuable information that is both interesting and informative for visitors.
Now that you have a website, it's time to focus on increasing your web presence. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial in knowing how to increase web presence, as it helps improve your website's ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). In turn, it makes it easier for people to find your website when searching for information related to your brand. Social media marketing is another critical tool in increasing your web presence, as it allows you to connect with a broader audience and engage with them more personally. Influencer marketing, paid advertising, and networking with other businesses are also effective ways to increase your web presence.
Let's discuss these strategies in detail below to know how to create an online presence:
- Choosing a domain name and website builder
One of the first steps in creating an online presence is choosing a domain name and website builder. Your domain name should be easy to remember and relevant to your brand.
Image taken from Strikingly Domain registration page
For example, if you're a local bakery, you may want to choose a domain name such as "SweetBakedGoods.com". When selecting a website builder, it's essential to consider cost, ease of use, and customization options.
- Creating a website with a professional look and user-friendly navigation
After settling on a domain name and a web host, you can begin creating your site. Your website must have a polished, professional design that does your brand justice. Maintaining a unified brand identity requires employing a uniform color palette, typeface, and logo. Site users shouldn't work too hard to obtain the information they need; thus, navigation must be clear and straightforward. A website's design can make or break its ability to convert visitors into customers, so it's crucial to put in the time and effort required to develop a site that does your brand justice.
- Establishing a solid brand identity
Establishing a powerful brand identity is fundamental to creating an online presence. Creating a consistent logo, color scheme, and tone of voice is needed. Your brand identity should match your beliefs and mission across all online platforms, including your website and social media accounts. This consistency will strengthen your brand and improve your web presence.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website Woody
- Creating high-quality and engaging content
To create an online presence, it's pivotal to have high-quality and engaging content on your website: blogging, infographic making, video uploading, and multimedia sharing all fall under this category. For better search engine optimization, you should generate material that is useful to your target demographic and friendly to crawling robots. Successful content marketing can help you build your brand's authority and spread your message to a larger audience. Making oneself known as an expert in your subject online is possible by producing high-quality, interesting material.
Increasing Your Web Presence Strategies
1. Setting goals and objectives
Before increasing your web presence, it's imperative to set clear goals and objectives. It will guide you in figuring out your online goals and developing a strategy to attain them.
For example, your goal might be to increase your website's traffic by 20% over the next six months. A clear understanding of your goals and objectives makes it painless for you to create a web presence strategy tailored to your needs.
2. Conducting market research
Conducting market research is an integral part of creating a web presence strategy. Studying your potential customers, rival businesses, and market tendencies is mandatory because insights like this can guide strategic decisions on how to expand your online presence best. It is possible to better serve your target audience by adjusting your online presence strategy in light of the results of market research into their desires and needs.
3. Evaluating your current web presence
Knowing where your current web presence stands is essential in creating a web presence strategy. It's crucial to assess your online presence, which includes your website, social media pages, and any other channels you use. To succeed in the digital world, you must constantly evaluate your current efforts and find places to make changes. You can use this data to determine what steps to take next to enhance your online visibility.
4. Creating a plan of action to increase web presence
To improve your online visibility, you should examine your current status and investigate your target audience. You should detail the steps you will take to accomplish your objectives here. For instance, your strategy may involve launching a blog, beefing up your social media profiles, and SEO-ing your website. Making a plan allows you to put your time and energy into improving your online visibility the most. By laying out your goals and objectives in advance, you will increase your web presence and move closer to them.
5. Social media marketing
Social media marketing is another powerful way to increase your web presence. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer a way to connect with your target audience and build a following. By posting regular updates and engaging with your followers, you can create a community around your brand and increase your visibility online. Social media marketing also provides an opportunity to reach a large and diverse audience, and it can help you build relationships with potential customers and influencers.
6. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing involves partnering with influential individuals in your industry to promote your brand and increase your web presence. Influencers have a large following and can help you reach a new audience and lend credibility and trust to your brand. By working with influencers, you can tap into their existing networks and reach a wider audience, helping you to increase your web presence and achieve your goals and objectives.
8. Paid advertising
Paid online advertising can be found on search engines, social media sites, and other websites. One quick and clear-cut approach to boost your online visibility is to invest in paid advertising, which can help you reach a wider audience and attract more visitors to your website. However, paid advertising can be costly and isn't necessarily the most efficient approach to reach your target demographic, so it's vital to think carefully about both before investing.
9. Networking and collaborating with other businesses
Networking and collaborating with different companies can also help you increase your web presence. By forming partnerships and collaborations, you can reach a new audience and leverage your partners' visibility and credibility.
For example, you could collaborate with a complementary business to offer a joint promotion or participate in an industry event to build relationships with potential customers and partners. Networking and collaborating with other companies can help you increase your web presence, and it can also help you build relationships and gain credibility in your industry.
Ultimately, expanding your brand's online visibility is essential to its success. You can expand your reach, develop your brand, and accomplish your goals and objectives through a blend of search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), influencer marketing (IM), paid-to-advertise (PA), and networking with other businesses (C2B). You can boost your company's online profile and gain access to a broader audience by allocating resources to your website.
How to Increase Your Web Presence with Strikingly
Establishing a robust, strong web presence is essential for any business, and many tools and platforms can help you achieve your goals. One of these platforms is Strikingly, a website builder that makes it easy to create a professional-looking website. Take a look at the tips and tricks we have in store for you to increase your web presence:
Write a Descriptive Title - Your website title is the first impression that your online visitors will see. It appears in the tab at the top of your browser, address bar, search engine results, and social shares. It is like the front door to your website, and you want it to be attractive! A descriptive title like "Johnny's Bakery - Freshly Baked every day in San Francisco" is much better than a generic title like "Johnny's Shop". Make sure to read more about creating descriptive page titles on Google.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website The Project Nomad
- Add Site and Page Meta Descriptions - Meta descriptions are the snippets that summarize your website's content on the search engine results page. Adding a meta description to your site and every page is crucial for improving your website's search engine ranking. However, be careful not to stuff your descriptions with keywords to increase your ranking. A good meta description should provide a brief and precise summary of what your website is all about, like "Johnny's Bakery is a gourmet bakery and confectionery based in the Mission in San Francisco. We started in 1965, and we've been offering delightful bread, cakes, pies, and cookies to happy customers ever since!"
- Add Keywords to Your Headings - Headings are the big text boxes on your site. They are important for SEO because search engines give additional weight to the heading text. Therefore, adding descriptive text to your headings is necessary, like "About Johnny's Bakery" instead of "About".
- Produce High-Quality Content - Content is king! Doing keyword research and writing valuable, relevant, and helpful content for your visitors will improve your website's search engine ranking. Adding a blog to your site and regularly updating it with high-quality content can benefit your SEO, attract more visitors, and build your brand. Make sure to invest in producing excellent content for your website.
- Add Descriptions to All Images - Search engines can't understand images, so they look for image descriptions. Adding a description to your photos will help search engines index your site. To improve the performance of your website, keep your image sizes under 200KB. The best size for website images (desktop and laptop) is around 50 KB.
- Connect a Domain to Your Website - Connecting yourname.com or yourcompany.com to your website strengthens your brand and makes it easier for potential visitors to find your site. If you are using Strikingly's free URL, your https://xxx.mystrikingly.com URL has good SEO and loads quickly! To learn more about connecting a domain to your website, visit our website.
Image taken from Strikingly
- Actively Share Your Site on Other Websites - A large part of your website's search engine ranking comes from backlinks and traffic. The more sites that link to your site, and the higher the quality of those sites, the better your search engine ranking will be. Start posting your site on blogs, forums, and social media. Include your URL in your LinkedIn profile, email signature, and other networks. Share your website with people who are interested in what you do.
- Verify Your Site with Google Search Console - Google Search Console is a free service that helps your site be found on Google faster! To learn more about verifying Google Search Console and submitting your sitemap, take a look at this guide.
- Use Strikingly Built-In Analytics - Track your website's performance by checking which pages are getting you traffic, where your visitors are coming from, and more.
Thriving in today's digital age requires a robust online presence. Many people turn to it when looking for information about a business or person, and it often serves as the first impression. Choosing a domain name and website builder is just the beginning; you'll also need to develop a memorable brand name and populate your site with exciting and useful information if you want to succeed online. It would be great if you had a plan to juice the most out of your online presence and make sure it fits your larger business objectives. Always remember that what people see when they search for your name online reflects who you are and what you do.
