The internet allows companies to reach billions of potential customers. But running an online business isn’t easy. You’re competing in a global marketplace, so getting people to choose your products or services can be a challenge. To help you out, we’ve put together a series of tips on how to grow your business online.
Website Growth Tips
The best way to grow your business online is through your business website by developing your online offering, optimising your content and using digital marketing strategies.
Improve Your Online Products or Services
Start by looking at what you actually sell online. Are you running an ecommerce store, or are you promoting a service? Maybe you’re selling a digital product, like software? Whatever you offer online, it’s vital that it’s high quality, correctly priced and well presented.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Ask yourself how customers find your website. Most people use Google to search for products or local services. By optimising your content, you’ll have the best chance of showing up higher in the results pages. A higher search position will make it more likely that customers will visit your business’ website – not your competitors’!
Search engine optimisation isn’t easy – but there are plenty of great SEO guides available.
Use Social Media Marketing
There are hundreds of digital marketing strategies to grow an online business. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is one of the best. Using platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is a powerful way to reach a new audience. If you don’t already have accounts for your business, then set them up today!
Top tip: Choose account names linked to your website’s domain name.
How to Measure Website Growth
You’ll need to measure the growth of your website to know whether your online marketing is working. There are four main ways of measuring website growth:
Track Your Website Traffic
The amount of traffic (or visits) your website receives is important. Having more visitors could increase your sales, or the leads you get from your site. We recently wrote a guide on increasing your website traffic – which includes tips on measuring that traffic.
Track Your Online Sales
Ultimately, a business website is only successful if it sells! Tracking your online sales is easy if you sell a product online. You’ll just need to look back over your orders. An increasing order volume is the best sign of a growing online business.
If you offer a service, things can be more complex. Try asking clients who call or email you where they heard about your business. Are they responding to your website, or your offline marketing? Better still, include a contact form on your website – that way, you can track where client communication comes from.
Measure Your Website’s Conversions
If you’re getting a lot of traffic to your website, then you should be getting plenty of sales – right? Actually, it’s not always that simple. High traffic but low order numbers could be a sign that your website isn’t converting. That might be the result of poor design, a confusing layout or unappealing sales copy.
Check Backlinks to Your Site
Backlinks are hyperlinks placed on other websites that lead back to your own site. People usually create backlinks to sites they like and trust, so they offer a great sign that your website is growing in popularity. Backlinks can also help your website to rank higher in the search results.
Google’s Search Console provides basic backlink data. Paid SEO tools offer a more complete picture.
The Benefits of Growing Your Business Online
Website growth benefits businesses in dozens of ways. Here are three of the key advantages you could see:
Reach a Global Marketplace
If your business has a limited online presence, then you’re losing market share to your competitors. Growing your business online will allow you to market your products or services globally.
Future-Proof Your Business
Customers expect modern businesses to be online. Having a strong digital presence will enhance your brand and build trust in your company. It will also shield you from the global slowdown starting to affect ‘bricks-and-mortar’ businesses in sectors like retail.
Build a Scalable Online Business
Scaling up a business can be challenging and expensive. But growing an online business is often easier. After all, it’s easier to add extra pages to a website than extra floorspace to an office!
Remember to check your website’s hosting plan when you scale up your business. The best website hosting plans come with unlimited storage and bandwidth. Both will be vital if you grow your business online rapidly.
