5 Ways to Improve Your Startup’s Online Visibility

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One of the biggest tasks facing a startup business is to establish an effective online presence. When people are searching the Internet for a product or service, they will rarely look further than the first page of the results pages. If your website or social media accounts do not appear in the top results, you will struggle to attract visitors and will lose customers to competitors who do appear early on. This is why having a search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing strategy is essential. This guide introduces five ways to improve your startup’s online visibility.

1. Ensure your website is mobile friendly

More people than ever are using their tablets and smartphones to browse the Internet, rather than a desktop or laptop computer. Websites that are only designed for desktop viewing do not look or function the same way on a mobile screen, which can be very frustrating for users. If a website is not designed to adapt to the user’s device screen, they will become frustrated and go elsewhere. Search engines can recognize when a website is mobile friendly and may prioritize it in search results due to its superior usability. A website design and digital marketing company like Operation Technology can help you to optimize your site for mobile devices.

2. Include a blog in your website

When a website is rarely updated, this sends a signal to search engines that the information on it may be out of date or irrelevant, and the website may be penalized. To ensure your website is regularly updated with fresh content, include a blog where you can share useful information and tips about your products, services, brand, or the wider industry. This will also give you a reason for users to visit more often and stay on your website for longer to read the blog, both of which are positive ranking factors.

3. Make sure your website is secure

The security of a website is incredibly important because an insecure website is open to a cyberattack. Cyberattacks can compromise not only your company’s sensitive and financial data, but also that of your customers. For this reason, search engines will favor websites that are secured with Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), rather than HTTP. This involves the installation of an SSL certificate which encrypts and protects data.

4. Research and use relevant keywords

To understand exactly what your website is about and whether it is relevant to a user’s search query, search engines look for keywords in your content. The search engine indexes your pages so that it can return them when they are the best match for a search query. For example, if you owned a company in Hawaii thatsells surf boards, you would want your website to appear when people look up ‘surf boards Hawaii’, so should include these words in your content.

5. Build a backlink profile

A backlink is in the name. It is a link that comes from another website back to yours. Generally speaking, the more websites that link to your website, the more your website will appear to be authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy. However, it is important to note that search engines assess not only how many websites link to you, but also the quality of those websites.