The online market is very likely the most important business marketplace on the planet. Just about every company has an online presence with many based solely on doing business on the internet. Making sure that your business is performing at a high enough standard online is fast becoming a central focus for many business owners. The internet is a fast-paced and competitive environment. The last thing you want is to fall behind. Companies that aren’t able to keep up with the demands of working online tend to see that bleeding into every aspect of their business. With that in mind, here are some things you need to focus on so that your business can perform online to the highest possible standard.
SEO
Most business owners have at least a decent idea of SEO right? Keywords and phrases, making your business searchable, pretty simple right? Well, that might have been true once upon a time, but things change fast in the digital landscape. Nowadays SEO is far more complicated than that. Google and other search engines now have algorithms that are more advanced than you would believe. Google blacklists sites that simply fill their pages with keywords and phrases. The key to strong search engine optimization is integrating your keywords seamlessly into your site’s content. Providing high quality, readable material for customers online actually affects your site’s optimization.
Time To First Byte
Not only is your business’s online presence affected by the content your customer’s experience. But the actual performance of your site can affect it too. Websites that perform poorly don’t offer a strong user experience and customers aren’t going to put up with that. Customers immediately leaving your site because of its performance will have a knock on effect. Your search rankings will fall, and it will become harder for customers to find you. That’s where time to first byte comes in. Time To First Byte is the time it takes for a server to receive the first byte of response from a website. Put simply, a long ttfb, a less responsive site. A less responsive site, lower customer satisfaction, and less overall online traffic. Make sure that your website is designed and optimised properly to reduce ttfb as much as possible.
Poor website design
As well as the performance of your website, the quality of the site itself is a huge factor. Customers are no longer interested in flashy graphics or overly complicated design. Take Apple for instance. They’ve built their entire brand on simplicity and elegance. Customers want simple. They want to be able to find the information they need quickly and easily. Look at your website and ask yourself: “Does this represent my business? Is this easy and enjoyable to use? Can my customers find what they’re looking for without having any problems?” If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it’s time to make some changes. Look at the sites of your competitors and of better-performing businesses. Try to see what they have in common and what elements you can adopt for your own business’s online presence.
The truth is that the internet never stops moving and if you really want to keep up then you need to make sure that your business is always pushing forward and innovating. Otherwise, you’re pretty much doomed to end up getting left behind by the competition.
