Although most small business owners realize the importance of maintaining a website, they may not realize that their visibility to customers is extremely low. Once a business establishes a website, they need to work to make sure that customers can find them. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of making a website achieve a higher ranking on search engine results. Any business can buy an advertisement, but business owners are also gearing their websites toward customer usability and social media connectedness in a bid to rank toward the top of organic search results. Search engine optimization companies can assist small business owners who want to raise their online presence.

In general, websites should have a clear organizational structure. Search engine optimization basics are: original content and user-friendly website structure. Users should have an easy time navigating between pages: studies show that users will click through to another website if a page is slow to load. If you find that you have a high degree of purchase abandonment, the culprit could be your website’s loading speed. Web design for mobile customers should also emphasize page load times: new mobile search algorithms will not list companies that do not have a mobile-friendly version of their website. If you do not create a mobile-friendly, user-friendly website, you could be ruining your chances at becoming visible to new customers.

Companies that maintain a dynamic presence on social media channels also have a better chance of capturing customer interest. Social media marketing companies can help small businesses with outreach and marketing efforts. Right now, studies show that companies that maintain blogs generate 60% more user interest. You can look at social media as a preliminary sales funnel that gets your customers intrigued or ready to buy. Just be careful with email lists and follow-up texts: customers consistently report that they do not want to receive emails from companies more than a few times per week. Companies that “spam” customers daily with unwanted emails could be doing more to damage their sales than they realize. Marketing and advertising is, at base, the psychology of customer choices. Heavy-handed marketing efforts can often fall flat.

In general, social media marketing companies can help new and established businesses get a foothold in the world of social media. You don’t have to post new content every day: social media marketing companies can keep two lists for your business. One list will hold new content like coupons, reminders, and interesting links for your customers to read, while the other list will contain “evergreen” content that you can use and reuse every few weeks. You want to strike a balance between overt calls to action and entertainment: customers identify with brand’s stories very strongly and want to buy from companies with strong commitments to recycling and to social awareness.

Too often, companies get their advertising and marketing strategies from the past: social media marketing companies can help businesses of any size make the transition to a new model of advertising. Customers do not want to be pressured, and one of the best aspects of the new digital retail model is that businesses can reach customers around the world with little effort: customers who have had a positive buying experience can share your website and reach thousands of people with a single click. The potential for passive marketing has never been higher. Search engine optimization and social media marketing seem complex, and there are a lot of moving parts, but contracting with established web design services and digital marketing companies can help small businesses navigate a rapidly shifting retail environment.