For many businesses, whether you’re functioning strictly online or have a brick and mortar store, having a strong online presence can only prove to be beneficial for you and your bottom line. But with all the other businesses looking to make a splash with online audiences, it can be difficult to know what you should be doing to make it easier for customers to find you via the Internet. To help businesses who may be struggling with being accessible on the web, here are three ways you can help get your business and website seen by more people online.

Get Your SEO On Point

When you’re wanting to get found via search engines like Google or Bing, you have to have your SEO on point. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the strategy of setting up the pages and coding of your website so as to ascribe by a search engine’s guidelines for getting found and fulfilling user intent.

When you’re able to successfully do this, Natalie Line of The Guardian shares that your website will appear higher up on a search results page, leading more traffic to your website and giving you more business. However, keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing project, not a “one and done” task, so you’ll need both long-term and short-term SEO plans in order to have an effective SEO strategy.

Solidify Your Local Listings and Citations

If you’re a business that has a physical location, one of the most important aspects of your online presence that will help you get customers to your store or office is your local listings and citations. According to Moz.com, local listings and citations include information such as a consistent business name or title, links or other mentions of your business online, reviews, contact information like address, phone number and store hours and much more. When all this information is readily available and consistent throughout your business information online, it will make it so much easier for you to show up in local searches and for clients and customers to find you.

Use Social Media Wisely and Often

Social media may be the best way for some businesses to get seen by their target market, especially if that target market is one that uses a lot of social media platforms. However, using social media for a business is a bit different than using it for personal reasons. According to Neil Patel in an article for Social Media Examiner, businesses can most effectively use social media to become more accessible by advertising products or services, becoming a trustworthy resource in your industry, and providing quality customer service. By tackling these objectives wisely and often in your business’s social media strategy, you’ll have more success with your online presence and accessibility.

If you’ve had difficulties with your ability to be found online or make an impressive impact with online audiences, consider using some of the strategies mentioned above to emerge out of the shadows of the Internet and take your place center stage.

By Kar

Dr. Kar works in the interface of digital transformation and data science. Professionally a professor in one of the top B-Schools of Asia and an alumni of XLRI, he has extensive experience in teaching, training, consultancy and research in reputed institutes. He is a regular contributor of Business Fundas and a frequent author in research platforms. He is widely cited as a researcher. Note: The articles authored in this blog are his personal views and does not reflect that of his affiliations.