Everything is connected to the internet these days. Your TV, your phone, your fridge, your thermostat and just about any other electronic item. Everything seems to have the “smart” moniker in front. Technology: How To Transform Your House Into A Smart Home

So, what can you do to make your business “smart”? Getting online and following sound practices is a great way to expand your business and bring in more customers.

If you’re looking to grow your business online, have a look at these suggestions below.

Make a Website

This one should be an obvious suggestion, don’t you think? The best way to grow your business online is to well, make sure you’re online in the first place. It might surprise you to know that around 50% of businesses don’t have a website. Crazy, right?

Making and designing a website doesn’t have to be a complicated ordeal. It may seem intimidating to build something made for the internet, but it’s not as crazy as you might think. Plus, your website doesn’t have to be one that will wow rocket scientists. If you’re running a bakery, you can get away with contact information, a menu, some photos and maybe a small “about us” section.

If you’re planning on making an online store or something similar, then you might want to look into hiring a web designer to help you control your page. There are a few easy, but important things you can do on your own and that is set up a domain that will resonate with your audience and choose a hosting provider.

But the most important thing is to get online today!

Don’t Forget About Social Media

Even though social media seems to be home to lots of fake news, it doesn’t mean you should be ignoring it altogether. In fact, you should be embracing it.

About half of the world’s population has some form of social media, which means there are millions of people constantly scrolling through their feeds at any given moment. If you’re on social media, it’s a form of free marketing. Whereas you’ll be paying for your domain name and maybe someone to keep your website up to date, there is no charge for making a Facebook page.

Of course, you’ll want to keep those social media pages updated to make sure your visitors remember who you are. Which brings us to our next point…

Regular Content

Content can be anything for your business. It can be a blog post, photos from your store, information on sales or promotions, etc. The point is you need to have a regularly scheduled content coming out.

This doesn’t mean post something every weekday at exactly 5 P.M., but make sure you’re keeping people interested and excited. People don’t have super long attention spans and if they miss seeing what you’re doing for weeks at a time, they’re bound to forget you at some point.

Online Payment

Money can often be a form of stress and anxiety for many people, One of the ways to make that easier on yourself and your business is to set up some form of online payment system.

This is where you’ll likely have to outsource someone so you can make sure and set up everything perfectly. Not only is an online payment system easier, but it’s also a way to keep track of your payments instead of writing everything down to good old pen and paper.

Remember, people like easy.

If you don’t have something you could sell online, you could still use the internet for reservations, like at a hair salon, or placing orders for a cake shop. If someone can easily make an appointment with a few clicks instead of having to call constantly, they’ll be more likely to keep using your business.

Practice Good SEO

SEO, one of those fancy new internet acronyms, stands for search engine optimization. In short, it’s a way to organically drive people to your website. There are countless ways to improve your website’s SEO, too many to list here, but there are lots of courses online that you can research and dive into.

Don’t be frustrated though, SEO usually takes a long time to truly understand and get the hang of. But practising the basics is a good way to make sure your website shows up first on the list of Google results instead of wallowing away on page two or beyond.

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