-
-
Published on
15/10/2019
by Any Business.Com.Au
How do I create an online presence?
To stand out from the growing number of online businesses, you'll need to find a way to make yours unique. Even if your product or service isn't a one-off, try to think of an approach that will make it stand out. This could be a custom-designed website, or the way your goods are delivered.
The kind of website you create will vary from business to business. In fact, you may not even make a 'traditional' website – instead, you might like to use a host website or service to create an online shop, or a blog.
Whichever option you choose for your business is known as your 'online presence'. You can even use multiple options to create your online presence, through cross-promotion and content sharing.
What is a blog?
A blog is an internet site, or an added extension into your existing business website, where you 'post' entries (also known as 'blog posts').
Benefits of blogging for business
Some benefits of blogging can include:
- marketing and promoting your business through your blog community
- reaching new customers
- providing updates through written content, videos, photographs and audio
- improving your SEO through regular updates of new content
- sharing new and relevant information
- gathering customer feedback, reviews and testimonials to help you improve and make sales.
- engaging with customers though comments and sharing.
Tips when blogging
Simple tips to get started in blogging for your business:
- Complete a blogging plan which will help outline what you want your blog to achieve for your business.
- Decide if you want to use a third party blog hosting platform, or host your blog on your own website.
- Choose whether to use a template or a customised design for your blog.
- Practice writing blog posts.
Improve your search ranking
Building and improving on your website ranking in search engines is an essential part of running an online business. It should also be considered an objective in your overall marketing strategy.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can help you design a website that meets the needs of your customers and improve the chances of them finding you online.
What is SEO?
SEO is a set of web best practice techniques that allows the information you publish on your website (web content) to be discovered and understood. It is then ranked against similar websites on search engines like Google, Bing etc.
SEO is about understanding how people use search engines so that your website is front and centre when they search for your product or service. It's also about understanding how search engines interact with your website and what they look for when ranking websites.
It's useful to remember that search engines apply rankings to web pages by matching the relevance of the web page to the search term used. By making your web content more relevant to your customer's needs compared to other websites, you'll have a better chance of appearing at the top.
When setting up your website, consider the following points to ensure your website has the best chance of ranking well.
Understand your online customers
Much like traditional marketing, improving your search rankings starts with an understanding of your customer's behaviour. For example, consider how a person's search behaviour changes during the buying cycle:
- Awareness: the customer is aware of a problem that needs fixing, and begins searching for potential solutions using broad search terms. For example, 'leaking tap'.
- Consideration: the customer understands their problem and is now searching for solutions that best meet their needs. They will typically start using search keywords that include a location, product feature or product type. For example, 'plumber in Townsville'.
- Purchase: the customer is ready to buy, and generally knows who they will buy from. They will often search directly for the service provider. For example, 'ABC Plumbing'.
Use keywords on your website
Keywords are the words or phrases a customer uses when they perform a search. For example, 'flowers online' and 'where do I buy flowers online' are both considered to be keywords.
Matching the keywords used on your website with the words used by customers when they search for you is an important part of SEO. Add popular keywords or phrases to your website. These words can be used in places such as page titles, in content or even as the name of the image file you're using.
Use keywords that are relevant to your business, services or location – anything that a customer would use in a search engine can be considered a keyword or phrase.
Refresh your page content often
Add new content to your website weekly and update content on your pages at least once every six months. This could be information about a new product or service you're selling, a customer story, new images or removing content that is no longer relevant.
Refreshing your content encourages search engines to visit your website more often. The more frequently they visit, the faster they're able to discover new content on your website.
Related articles
-
17/09/2025 by AnyBusiness.com.auOwning a small business in Australia has always been a big part of the national story. From family-run cafés on coastal strips to boutique retailers in bustling inner-city lanew... Read more -
02/09/2025 by AnyBusiness.com.auFor small business owners, marketing can feel like a never-ending task. From managing social media posts to writing email campaigns and creating website content, there's a const... Read more -
21/08/2025 by AnyBusiness.com.auIf you've ever dreamed of running your own business, chances are you've faced the age-old question: should I buy an existing business, or start one from scratch?It's not an easy... Read more