Your Online Busines May Not Be Online After All. Here's Why

Every business wants more traffic, more leads, and more sales. The whole point of launching our businesses online is to be visible to the bigger audience. We all want to reach those people who might otherwise not know we exist. Thanks to technology. 

When it comes to launching a business online, however, it takes more than just being there. If the only way people can find you online is by you sharing a link directly to them, then you’re not really online. You need to be found organically.

Here are the reasons that can make your business not visible online;

You’re not recognized by search engines 

If your website is not indexed by search engines like Google and Bing, then you are on the dark side of the web. People are always searching for a service related to yours but they can’t find you on search results. While it takes time to gain visibility and ranking on search engines you can improve it by having a dedicated ongoing SEO strategy.

Other media don’t know you exist 

Have you ever been featured by media like top bloggers and influencers? If no, then you have a long way to go. Your credibility online depends on how many other websites are linking to you (backlinks). You can use paid media to have a sponsored article about you written by mainstream media.

You don’t know your audience 

If your business is for everyone, then it is for nobody. Without knowing your customers, you will be shooting in the dark. You’ll not know how to optimize your content for a targeted audience and you’ll end up getting followers who will not convert into buying customers. 

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Website content is poor 

Without content, you are lost online. Focus on good quality content and you will be rewarded. Create content that is not only about your services and products but content that builds trust and establishes you as an authority in that industry. If you copied content from somewhere else and paste it on your website, then you’re only putting yourself behind. 

No conversion goals

Today’s websites are not like static brochures stuffed with About, Mission and Vision statements. Today’s websites are meant to convert people with clear calls to action. You can achieve conversion goals such as getting new subscribers to your newsletter, have people perform actions like filling a form or buying directly from your website. Without these efforts, you are just as good as being offline.

No one is talking about you online 

Being online means joining conversations about your industry and empower your audience to do the marketing for you. This is called earned media and it comprises things like comments, share,s and blog articles from other people talking about your services. It is important because it builds trust and credibility. It can’t be only you talking about you. Encourage your customers to leave online reviews and comments about your service

Abandoned social media accounts 

This is a bad idea. An abandoned social media channel sends two messages to your followers; that something is stirring up at your company or they wonder if you are still in business anymore. Instead of opening many accounts, you can stick to a few that you’ll be active. Or you can save yourself the embarrassment of abandoning social media channels by hiring a freelancer to take care of your online presence while you handle other things of your business. 

Your website or app takes an eternity to load

People’s attention is short. They have so many interesting things on their gadgets. They are impatient to wait for another second for your site to load unless it’s a job application. Make sure your website doesn’t contain unnecessary things that make it heavy.

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You’re not leveraging local SEO

If your business is getting more local customers who speak Swahili and you are using only English, then you’re missing out on potential customers. Those people are searching for a service like yours but they cannot find you because their search terms are in Swahili. Like I did on my website, you can attract local customers by creating a separate page on your website written in your customer's local language. Or you can add your business to local listing directories like Google My Business.

Not mobile-friendly 

If your website looks another way on desktop and completely another thing on mobile, then you are not really controlling the online experience. Your mobile app or a website needs to be designed with its users in mind. Your target audience uses different devices with different browsers. Make sure the experience is the same and perfect on everyone’s favorite screen. 

You’re not using Facebook Ads

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t like organic results. If you didn’t know, now you know. As people’s feeds got crowded, Facebook reduced to show company updates. In fact, it rarely exists these days. The only way left for company pages to survive on Facebook is to use paid ads. But the good thing is, Facebook ads work perfectly well.

Your business might have sold in the past years using traditional marketing strategies, but things have changed. The internet has changed the game. You can’t do business depending on word of mouth referrals in the world where people pay much attention to their gadgets.

I hope this piece will help you review your digital strategy.

This article first appeared on Tanzlite, where I enthusiastically share ideas about digital marketing. Read all the 13 reasons why your online business is not online.