Online businesses are on the rise lately, especially now since the global pandemic is slowly shaping our world into a digital one. And, this doesn’t only apply to businesses that are meant to be operated through the internet. Nowadays even workshops and other similar “offline” startups and enterprises that never benefited from a website will gain a lot of exposure by creating one. However, this is slightly more difficult than it sounds. Even though the “gains” are promising, there are things that you need to know how to do properly to see those benefits.
But, before we get into that, we need to first identify these five signs that point out what you’re already doing is wrong. Don’t know where to start? Feel free to read on as we’ll explain it all in this article. Let’s take a look.
1. Other similar businesses are getting more customers
If you have a business let’s say in the IT field for example, and there is some competition, which is pretty normal in larger cities, you shouldn’t be below that competition. Now, it’s pretty understandable to share some of the customers with them, as it’s difficult to be the best amongst so many similar companies, but if you notice the other businesses are stealing more than 90% of all customers in your area, then it means you have to step up.
Some things you can do is focus on your local search engine optimization, as well as provide some type of discount to customers that make orders through your website. This will re-direct some of the local traffic to your business instead. After all, the corporate world is cruel so beating your competition is the end game goal for most businesses.
2. You get constant phone calls from customers asking for basic information
Not only that phone calls are not appealing in 2024, but they also cost money, and they take a lot more time. Sometimes some customers don’t even feel like calling because of things such as phone anxiety or simply lack of time. No matter what the reason is, it’s so much better to allow them to option to book, schedule, order, or contact you through a website.
Imagine having to answer hundreds of phone calls daily, which is a good thing because that means you have a lot of customers, but it’s impossible to make it happen and you’ll eventually lose your mind. Answering the same question all the time such as where your location is or how much a certain service cost is pretty annoying. Get rid of all this by creating a website and then displaying all crucial info on it. This will grow your business more than you think. The best thing you can do for your business makes it feel as accessible and open to different types of customers, even those who prefer getting informed without having actual human communication.
3. Should you consider Backlinks?
Providing backlinks and receiving backlinks from other reputable websites is a great way to build your network and increase your Domain Authority Score (DA). Most of your customers don’t care about the reputation of their website as long as it gets the job done, but when it comes to finding investors or forming partnerships (which is important for long-term business health), it makes a lot of difference.
This is especially true if your business is focused on digital marketing or another similar field. Getting a backlink from a huge website will indeed skyrocket your popularity and boost search results. For more information, you can check semify.com
Backlinks cost money, but it’s a great investment when it comes to growing bigger online. It’s one of the best investments. This is a tool that most elite marketing agents always have in their arsenal.
4. Website views and visits are not increasing in number
Another sign that you are not growing your business properly on the internet is low website views and visits. This is why we mentioned backlinks earlier as they can help a ton with this. When you see your website views stagnating multiple months in a row, it’s time to switch things up. Hiring a marketing agency is one option, or taking things into your own hands is another one, but requires more time on your hands. Not only that, but not everybody knows how to do proper advertising, and in this particular sphere, doing more doesn’t always equal better results.
Learning about Search Engine Optimization will help you the most with this, but as I said above, it takes time and patience, as well as good resources that you can learn from. Thankfully, there’s a lot of free content available on YouTube.
5. Whenever someone Googles your business’ sphere, other results come up
The final and biggest sign that you are not doing something right in terms of online presence can be found by Googling your brand and seeing what comes up first. If you own a barbershop, you want your customers to get your shop as the first result whenever they type this in the search bar. According to some of the researches for customer behavior when searching, about ninety percent of them will click on the first result without even bothering to search for more. If your competition has better search engine optimization, it means they’ll steal a huge portion of the clients, and that’s never good for a business.
Conclusion
It’s important to grow any business online in a time when everyone has a smartphone in their pocket. Neglecting the importance of the internet is no longer doable, and reaching first place on the Google search results is the number one goal for any type of business. In today’s article, we listed the five most important signs you need to notice when you’re trying to figure out whether the online growth of your business is good or not. If you notice any of the things we listed above, it means that you need to work on your marketing a little bit more.
