Whether you’re an individual or a business, it’s very important for you to have an online presence if you want to be known. With global e-retail sales coming to around 2.8 trillion dollars in 2018 alone, there’s no doubt that it’s more important to have an online presence than to put your name about physically nowadays. With that in mind, if you’re just setting out on a new business venture – or you’ve already got a business and you want to increase your traffic – we’ve got you covered. Here are just a few ways you can boost your online presence.

Build a new website

If you’re not attracting a lot of online traffic, it could be because your website isn’t up to scratch. Building a new site can be a great way to attract new visitors. Of course, it won’t do the work alone, but combined with strong word-of-mouth and some of the other tips on this list, a new website can be a real boon. It will give your business a professional vibe, meaning that potential clients and customers will feel safer and more secure in the knowledge you’re a legitimate and professional organization.

Create a social media strategy

Social media is key to creating a strong business presence online. A huge amount of users check their social media feeds every day, so being visible on those feeds means you’ll be visible to more potential customers. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all important keystones in this strategy, but as the up-and-coming emergent social network, having a TikTok strategy is also vital. If you want to know how you can shore up TikTok followers – it’s not easy, after all – visit this site. It’ll point you in the right direction.

Get in touch with influencers

Your social media strategy doesn’t necessarily all have to be about you and your content. Networking with influencers can reinforce your brand without you needing to generate content yourself. Make sure the influencers are in the right area for you; it’s no good trying to reach out to a demographic that won’t ever be interested in your products, after all. If you have the right influencers on your side, your business will benefit hugely from their input and their promotion.

Engage with communities

This kind of strategy takes work to get right, but if you can pitch your tone correctly then you could gain a lot of organic, interactive engagement. Inserting yourself into a community isn’t easy; there’s a lot of distrust among organically built-up communities surrounding corporations or businesses. Still, if you’ve got the right register to appeal to a forum demographic, this can be an excellent way to boost your online presence and raise awareness of your brand.

Try directories

You might think that in this age of Google, directories aren’t a good idea. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Directories can be a great way for people to find your site if they’re not sure exactly what they’re looking for but they know they want to find “something”. Not all directories are created equal, though, so finding the right one is critical. You’d be surprised how quickly your traffic can be boosted by listing yourself in a web directory. It might be a good idea to opt for one edited by humans, too, rather than AI.

Pay for ads

Don’t think that paying for ads – especially on social media platforms – is an underhanded way to increase traffic. Whether you’re boosting your Google results or having your content appear on people’s social media feeds, this can be a good way to cut through the noise and make people aware of your brand. After all, if people don’t know where to find your content, they won’t be able to consume it and thus use your services. Paid advertising can pay dividends for you in the long run.

Analyse your stats

Each time you post a piece of content to your blog or social media page, you should be analysing it to ensure you know what works and what doesn’t. Using tools like Google Analytics, you can see which content is performing best, as well as a range of other stats. You shouldn’t simply be throwing content out randomly; you should be trying to tailor your approach to ensure maximum engagement, as this will ensure people will see your content exactly when and where they should.

Use email

Include an email signup field on your website so that visitors can enter their address for a mailing list. If you do this, you’ll be able to keep those who’ve signed up abreast of your business or brand’s developments and they’ll be alerted when new content appears. This can increase traffic in a number of ways, but perhaps one of the most powerful and underrated effects it has is word-of-mouth; those who sign up may recommend your content to others if they’re seeing it more regularly, after all.