Astute business owners who network and rely on word of mouth for new opportunities, also understand the importance of a strong digital or internet footprint. New clients will check out a referral or a recommendation made online, before reaching out. In many cases, a new client will be 70% of the way to making a decision by the time you first talk to them.
Improving a businesses digital footprint involves a little bit of time and effort each month. Business owners have the choice to do this themselves or to ask for some help if they don’t feel able to commit to it. Here is some good advice if you’re just starting out.
- Know your Moz Domain Authority score and that of your local competition. If you’ve ever wondered why other businesses do better in search results, it might be because their website’s overall have a greater authority. You need to work towards a DA score that is equal to your most respected competitor. A number over 20 (out of 100) is normally heading towards respectability.
- There are still thousands of websites that are not mobile responsive and therefore being penalised in search results. Unsure if you’re site is mobile responsive or not, click to find out.
- Is your website connected to Google so that its ‘bots’ can crawl and index your site? To see if your pages are already indexed, search for your site in Google with a query: site:example.com Substitute your own site for “example.com”. If your site doesn’t show up, you can verify ownership of your website in Google Search Console and then submit your pages to Google .
- Is the Yoast SEO plug-in installed on your WordPress website? This tool helps to curate each page on your website in a way that makes is easy for crawler bots to understand the content and award it the most suitable ranking.
- Muster your business owner network and ask if they can find their way to setting up a link from their own website to yours. The more inbound links, the better your website’s authority will become. Inbound links from more authoratitive sites are the most valuable. With this in mind, a link from the business team at the council or Chamber of Commerce are worth pursuing
- A website acquires authority over time, not over night. You need to make a commitment to invest in growing your website a little each month. In this regard:
- Adding two Google Client Reviews a month is a good habit to get into. It’s simple to do when you know how, just follow this Google Review Guidance note.
- Generate new content for your website regularly. Dynamic business owners will have something to say about what is going on in their area of professional expertise. Add your thoughts and insight to your website in either a written or video blog. Don’t forget to share content across your social media channels with a links back into the website.
- Register with Google My Business, a free tool to help business owners to create further traction for their business on Google. You can add contact information, images, content, events and offers here.
- Make sure your business details are logged with the country’s leading business listings website. Creating a listing is free, although you might need to bat way a few sales calls. It’s worth the hassle to get 10 new listing sites linking to yours. We’ve made it simple by creating the list for you.
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Make a diary note to check your Moz Domain Authority score at the same time each month. You should see it grow if you are following these steps. For further questions or to know more about successful digital marketing strategies, call 01252 213131 or email hello@sixthsensemarketing.co.uk
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