The most effective way to promote your business online is to have a website and engage on social media. The six step in our online presence building, optimization and management system OPBOM is the design or redesign of the website.

A website is one of the best tools to grow our business. And nowadays, it’s even easier to create than most people might think. While a social media presence can be a great asset, it doesn’t provide the same level of marketing opportunities or credibility that a website does. In fact, 92 percent of consumers prefer to get information from a business’s website rather than their social media page, and 77 percent of consumers believe a website makes a business appear more credible.

Seventy-seven percent of small businesses say websites are an effective online marketing tool for both attracting new customers and engaging existing customers.

In today’s business environment, our website can either make or break a sale. When visiting our website, prospects make snap decisions regarding our competence, and, if our site lack key content, these new sales opportunities will flee elsewhere.

Today, new factors determine a website’s success:

Great Content
Strong performance
Mobile optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO)
SSL security enabled

Great Content
Good content is what sets your website apart from the masses and delivers the right message into the hearts and minds of your customers. The success of your website is determined primarily by its content.

Strong Performance
Performance means how quickly a website loads content for each visitor. Many websites have factors which slow them down.

Speed to load is the key performance component for websites today. All websites should aim to load in 3 seconds or less. Speed is important because studies indicate that 40% web users expect a load time of 3 seconds or less. Otherwise they’ll abandon a site completely.

Consumers who stick around end up developing a negative brand perception for businesses with slow websites: “79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with website performance are less likely to buy from the same site again”.

Mobile Readiness
Being mobile ready is extremely important today. Google looks for mobile responsiveness or a dedicated mobile site in their search algorithms. Mobile readiness relates to how well a website loads and performs on a range of mobile devices.

All businesses should focus on ensuring their websites are mobile ready. Google recommends the responsive design methodology above setting up a separate mobile site.

According to Neustar, 80% of mobile phone searches lead to a purchase or another action within a few hours. If your website is not optimized and showing up in mobile search results, you could be losing potential customers.”

Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is nowadays more important than ever and it is necessary for every company to understand the true meaning of SEO as well as the potential it creates for every business. Search engines serve millions of users per day looking for answers to their questions or for solutions to their problems.

The majority of search engines users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the results pages (SERPS). In addition, it is a great way to increase the quality of their web sites by making them user- friendly, faster and easier to navigate.

SSL security enabled
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) creates a secure tunnel between a visitor’s browser and a website’s web server. The information that is sent over the tunnel is protected, so that a third party can’t peer into the data. It protects the exchange data between the two endpoints, such as a visitor’s username, login password, email address or the personalized cookies that the website sends to the visitor.

Since Google’s recent announcement that SSL will be a ranking factor in search results, all businesses must start prioritizing the security of their sites. In fact, one of Google’s Webmaster Trends Analysts said that HTTPS can be a ranking tie-breaker between two otherwise equal sites. So SSL doesn’t just keep your visitor’s connection to your website secure, it also has a strong SEO implications.

Unlock exponential growth in your business, sales and revenue with an effective digital marketing strategy & system.

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