These are 6 inevitable critical mistakes every company should be wary of making

Building an online presence is an essential step for virtually any company to reach its fullest potential.

Keep reading to find out what are those mistakes are and how to avoid them.

Mistake 1: not owning your space online

If you neglect to claim your business’s space online, you’ll be missing out on several benefits and potentially opening yourself up for trouble.

As soon as you can, set up your business’s website and social media accounts. Also be sure to claim your business’s Google listing, which, according to Brian Edmundson at The Balance, will improve your website’s visibility in searches.

Not claiming your space early on will make your business harder to find. It can also cause other problems; for example, dragging your feet on registering a domain name may allow cybersquatters to claim the name before you can.

Another example of not claiming your space online could be the lack of skills when it comes to website building.

Also Read: 5 ways to monetise social media technology for startup success

But, with the latest platform such as Weebly and popular platforms like Wix, everyone can build a professional-looking website easily.

Mistake 2: overlooking your website’s user experience

Have you ever given up on making a purchase from a website because it was hard to find what you were looking for, frustrating to check out, or simply because the website didn’t look trustworthy?

If so, that business lost money because they gave you bad user experience.

According to the Interaction Design Foundation, there are several key considerations to keep in mind regarding your website’s user experience. Here they are framed as questions that you can ask yourself while assessing your website:

Is your website usable? Users shouldn’t have difficulty using your site, either as a first-time visitor or a regular guest.

Is your website useful? Your website should fulfil a customer’s need. It should allow them to access your product or service easily.

Is your website influential? It should prod users toward making a purchase. This requires being both trustworthy and persuasive.

Is your website functional? This means your website doesn’t include frustrations like dead links or bugs.

Is your website’s visual design attractive? This is perhaps the most subjective of the categories, but features like overwhelming, auto-playing videos may make the site very difficult for a user to look at.

Keep these factors in mind while building and updating your website.

Also be sure to test your website on multiple platforms because according to statistic, 59 per cent of smartphone users favour businesses with mobile sites that enable them to make purchases easily and quickly.

So, the website that looks great on desktop computers may still need improvements to work well on mobile platforms, and vice versa. You can make use of Google Mobile-Friendly Test to make sure your website content fits perfectly on mobile devices.

Mistake 3: not tailoring ads to devices

Like websites, ads must be tweaked so that they work on multiple platforms. According to Statista.com, 52.2 per cent of all web traffic in 2018 was from mobile devices, and that percentage has been climbing for years.

Also Read: Social media isnt childs play, its a vital marketing tool

That means if your ads are only tailored for desktop computers, the majority of viewers will receive a subpar experience.

Take the time to make sure your ads function well for both types of users, even if it means making two separate styles of an ad for each campaign.

Mistake 4: neglecting SEO

Your business may have a great product, an awesome-looking website, and a lively social media presence, but if you neglect search engine optimization (SEO), you’ll be missing out on countless potential customers.

While choosing the right web host for your website can be the first step towards establishing a good SEO foundation, it involves many components.

In a nutshell, SEO boils down to improving your website’s visibility in search results. Emma Knightley, writing for the Digital Marketing Institute, highlights these as critical areas of SEO:

Keywords are how customers will find your website. Using keywords well can make it much more likely your business will show up in search results.
Content is necessary for both getting eyeballs on your website and keeping customers engaged. The more engaging and shareable your content is, the better.
Backlinking is a method to improve your SEO by linking to external sites.
Local SEO makes people in your business’s area more likely to find it when they search for businesses like yours nearby.
Search engine marketing involves the use of paid ads to boost your website’s visibility.
Increase the page load speed to reduce your bounce rate and encourage your visitors to stay longer on your site.

While many companies employ people who focus almost entirely on SEO, you don’t need to be an expert to make use of SEO’s basic principles.

Keeping SEO in mind as you build your online presence will go a long way toward attracting customers.

Mistake 5: not synchronising messages across platforms

If your company says one thing on Twitter, another thing on Facebook, and the third thing on its website, potential customers will be confused at best.

At worst, they will abandon your company for one with consistent messaging.

It’s relatively simple to keep your messaging consistent if you’re the only person running all of the platforms. Just, double check your content before posting anything.

Also Read: Despite challenges, there is an untapped opportunity in Southeast Asias social media markets

However, if different employees are in charge of different platforms, make sure they’re on the same page about what information to release.

Mistake 6: having angry interactions

As your company becomes more active online, you may come across unhappy customers in the form of negative reviews or comments.

It’s a mistake to engage them, according to Social Media Today angrily, as that can damage your business’s reputation even more. Instead, try to remain calm and do what you can to appease the customer.

There is a chance you’ll win them back over, and either way, your business will come out looking better than it would from a shouting match.

Conclusions

It doesn’t matter if you want to start a dropshipping business or planning to immerse yourself in the affiliate marketing business. Having an online presence is the first step you should act on.

Avoid these mistakes, and you’ll be well on your way to building a strong online presence!

–

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Will Francis

The post The 6 mistakes often made when creating an online presence appeared first on e27.