How To Grow Your Site, Traffic, And Revenue
Small business owners and entrepreneurs everywhere have concerns about being able to grow their businesses and increase profits steadily. No entrepreneur chases dreams of struggle and financial instability; all have that hope of reaching financial independence while overseeing a successful and thriving empire. For many, there is a disconnect between the exciting period of starting with a seed idea and turning it into a financially stable source of income. We find ourselves asking these two essential questions as we navigate the waters of small business ownership:
How do we grow and expand our business consistently and profitably?
Are there steps we can take to ensure survivability in a competitive market?
With these two questions answered, we can confidently navigate our way through the steps to owning a successful business. Here are some things to consider when turning your startup into a “scale-up”.
You Need A Strong Website To Improve Your Business Presence
Even if you have a thriving physical location, you need - need - need a website and an online presence to expand your business. If you can conceptualise a product for the market, it can be sold or at least promoted online. In addition to being able to offer to purchase to potential clients and customers via the internet, a website is going to allow people to learn more about who you are and what you do.
"Like it or not, you are who the internet says you are! Nothing? Then to 7.5 billion people on planet earth -- you don't exist." - Mark Skovron, PhD
Now before you go sign up with a free website creation medium, think carefully. With over one billion websites in cyberspace up and running, a competitive edge is needed in that enormous marketplace to get noticed. Investing in a professionally created site, filled with the proper keywords, and designed by a Web-Graphics-SEO team will ensure to give you an advantage over other competitors in your field.
Internet searches are the number one way that customers search for products and information before buying, and if your website attracts the attention of those seeking your products and services, you are more likely to make a sale.
One of the advantages of the internet especially given recent changes by Google to the way they return queries provides small business owners with a level playing field between you and the “big boys” of business. When looking at a website, it is often hard to determine whether the business operation retains 50 employees or 5,000, so it is essential that you invest some time and money into this aspect of your business.
A well-designed site communicates to your potential clients that you know what you are doing and that you can handle their demands. Conversely, if a site creation is inferior in quality, or it is hard to navigate, no matter how successful the company, it is likely to lose business because of the image that it projects.
No matter what size your business currently is, you owe it to yourself to invest in a professionally designed, professionally managed SEO built website with relevant and engaging content. All companies benefit from strong internet presence.
You Need To Be Able To Drive Traffic To Your Website Now that your amazing website is up and running, how do you generate traffic to your site and get people to notice you? There are many ways to increase traffic to your site; some of them cost little or nothing, while others will be investments of time and money to make them happen. A successful entrepreneur uses a variety of these techniques to leverage their time, money and resources when advertising:
Social Media Exposure--Using the power of “word of mouth” advertising via the internet is free and relatively easy to do. Using social channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are ways to put your product out into cyberspace and promote your content. People talk via cybersocial channels now more than ever, and by capitalizing on all of this chatter, you will increase your exposure and generate additional traffic. You should be aware, however, that as "Google giveth, Google also takes away". That is to say that from a pure SEO return perspective, social media is one of the lowest ranking factors these days. To put it in the bluntest of terms, having some social sites connected is better than not having any. That's it. Meh. And so very many prospects say, “But I have a Facebook page,” in answer to a question about websites, text marketing, SEO or other proven techniques…sorry mate, computer says no.
Mix Up Your Website Content--No two customers are the same; providing all kinds of content such as graphics, written descriptions, and video are all ways to hook different readers and entice them to start forming a business relationship with you. Just remember that the scary little Google bots or spiders as they are referred to do not search content inside of images. Also make sure that your homepage has a minimum of 2,000+ words of the best, most professionally written, authentic, interesting and exciting content ever written since the invention of language. Your homepage can lift you up high, or you can be DOA the moment the Google spider jumps on your page. If you have read this far, you deserve this most true insider tip: skip some dinners out, skip cable TV, skip a few bottles of wine, but the sake of Hemingway -- hire a professional to write ALL the content on your site! And sit down for this -- but if you are getting it created for less than 25 cents per word -- you heard me -- you hired the wrong source!
Pay Attention To Search Engine Optimisation--Customers cannot purchase from you if they cannot find you. In the sea of websites and online businesses that exist, it can be hard to stand out from the competition unless you know how to go about getting noticed. Investing in search engine optimisation techniques is a way to move higher up in search rankings. When customers search for products and information, more than 90 percent of transactions take place on the first page of search results; you owe it to yourself to invest money in a company that knows how to put together an effective internet marketing strategy for your business.
When Hiring An SEO Company -- Don't spend a dime unless the SEO company fulfills ALL of the following:
They do NOT promise to get you #1 on the first page of Google
They set the correct expectation levels -- SEO takes time -- relax
They provide you with a written plan of what they will do and when
Their Agreement is month-to-month only (or what are they afraid of)
Their Agreement has some portion of a money-back guarantee
They provide monthly reporting that YOU can understand
They address the 2,000-word minimum on your homepage
They insist - INSIST that you have an active blog with min 2 entries per month
They discuss the Super Forty Citation Sites immediately
They can create professional press releases about you
They guarantee in writing, and they can get your business published on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, and many more -- and then they prove it...
The above list is not complete, but is enough if followed to weed out the 95% of SEO companies that are unethical and are willing to take your money because they understand that you don't understand SEO -- that IS their advantage!
You see, it’s a catch-twenty-two. SEO is definitely necessary. But most SEO companies don’t know what they are doing, or are doing nothing at all.
In any case, I am quite satisfied having just infuriated the 95%+ SEO companies that:
pretend they are doing anything constructive for your site
spend 2 hours on it the first month only to not touch it again
charge enormous amounts of money, do nothing except keep you in the dark
SEO Charlatans -- you may direct all your hate mail to me personally: Mark@MaxGroupBusiness.com Starting A Blog, and Guest Blogging On Another Site--We already covered this, but you must have a blog that serves as a resource- centre for your prospective clients.
Google now values UE, or User Experience at 80-90% of rank. Did you get that? The perceived value of your site, based on content in all forms and how exciting and useful it might be to the reader is what Google uses to determine if your site should matter! That is excellent freaking news!
Now you do not have to wait for years, or pay your dues, or be a part of some internet based hierarchy, or use black-hat techniques to rank on Google and be returned to a searcher when they, well, "Google" a question.
But you better damn well have authentic, compelling, accurate, usable, exciting, well-written content and other resources on your site that a read likes -- because that is who Google's customer is -- the user -- not you (the business)!
Guest blogging on another webpage will allow you to use already existing web traffic and drive it to your site. After you start your blog, you can get customers to subscribe to your website for more information, additional products, and other exciting offers. All of this information is designed to get your customers to keep coming back for more after their initial purchases. Word of mouth travels fast; satisfied and interested customers will talk to friends and family members, and this also has the potential to increase your traffic.
Make Sure Your Web Content Is Mobile Friendly--Gone are the days when internet searching was done exclusively using a computer. With our fast and furious mobile technology becoming increasingly sophisticated, it is necessary to have a website that can be converted to mobile format as well. Your customers are now on the go more than ever before, and it is essential that we can reach them at all times and in all places. It is not an overstatement to say that if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you are dead in the water regarding Google.
Increasing Your Revenue, Building Your Business Once you have found ways to improve your web presence and increase your traffic, then building a steady stream of revenue is relatively simple. Simply put, you need to balance a combination of keeping existing customers satisfied while looking for additional customers to impress. All business revenue generated is the result of:
Increasing the number of customers you serve
Increasing the frequency of transactions each customer makes
Increasing the size of each sale made
Offering new products and services to existing customers
Raising your prices on products and services sold
Retention -- keeping clients is the "new increasing your revenue"
While it would not be wise to raise your rates significantly when your business is still young, building your brand awareness, bringing in new customers, and generating additional sales with new and improved products and services are all excellent ways to ensure steady growth in your market.
Lather, rinse, repeat--the formulas sound simple enough, don’t they? Being able to navigate the ebbs and flows of supply and demand while balancing revenue with expenditures is the key to long-term success and steady growth. Now if you’re sitting there thinking, “I don’t know anything about internet sales and website creation”, we have a solution for you.
How Can I Get Noticed On The World Wide Web? How Do I Start? First impressions are hard if not impossible to change, and marketing is all about making an impact in the mind of the customer. If your brand comes across as vague or unprofessional, or if it doesn’t stand out in the distinctive way that you want it to, potential customers will move on and purchase from competitors. Attempting to promote yourself is an unpredictable and precarious undertaking; as a new business owner, do you have time to research internet marketing trends and customer preferences?
Investing in yourself and your business with MaxGroup Business Solutions is a simple solution to your marketing needs. At MaxGroup, our professionals dedicate hours to crafting individualised internet marketing plans for your business. We employ the latest techniques of SEO, mobile and text friendly marketing, social media advertising and international press syndication to get you noticed.
A high profile business attracts high profile traffic, and this is where we stand out head and shoulders above the rest. Contact the professionals at MaxGroup today to find out how we can get you noticed. Visit www.maxgroupbusiness.com for more information or call (888) 670-7771 or Email us at Support@MaxGroupBusiness.com.
We create success stories -- we hope yours will be next!