Make Your Business Visible On The Web With Online Business Directory

No matter how small or large an organization is, it always tries to gain exposure for its targeted clients. And with the advent of the internet, the World Wide Web has become one of the major platforms for such businesses to gain visibility. When a business wants to become visible on the web effectively, then one of the most tested ways is to get registered on an online business directory. All the major search engines give a lot of importance to these business directories and hence, posting your business in such directories will definitely attract more customers towards your products and services.
Features of an Online Business Directory
An online business directory is not the only place where people can locate your business, however, it is one of the most popular places for people to view different businesses. It actually has overshadowed the offline directories which were very common few years back. These online directories have a lot of features and let us now see what they are:
Customer Friendly: These online directories are user-friendly than the offline ones. Any person can easily go through it online and with the help of its self-help guide, finding out the desired information is not at all a tough job.Huge Date Classification: The offline directories have the limitations of the number of pages, however, there is nothing of that sort in the online directories. All the data can be organized easily on the web pages.Easy to Add/Remove Data: If you have already published your business on the online directory, you can always add or remove any particular feature of your products or services. You can make the updates on a daily basis and this is what is more interesting about these online directories.

When you opt for online directories, you will not have to pay for any publishing or distribution costs. Hence, this is indeed a cost effective option for all the business owners.
Eco-Friendly: When we use any kind of book, it means that each and every page is the result of deforestation. However, the online directories are eco-friendly. No tree is being cut in order to make these directories.Easy Promotion: You can always add your company’s website with your business listing on the online directories. This way, the views can directly jump to your website to get a detailed knowledge about your services or products. This means that you will be able to promote your business in a much easier manner.Apart from all the above listed features, you can also enjoy a much higher SEO rank if you include your business in these online directories. The search engines give a lot of priority to these listing sites than any business website. So, you should no more think any further and add you business to these online directories. This way, you will easily be able to attract probable customers towards your products and make profit.

How Unethical SEO Service Providers Bad-Name Professional SEO

I remember back in 2009 when I was learning Search Engine Optimization, our trainer said that SEO has already started to become a field that everyone thinks he/she can do it. Just like we used to have so many (self-proclaimed) web/graphics designers, now you can see hundreds; even thousands of individuals claiming that they know SEO better than experts out there.I do not have any problem with that. Not as long as these SEO spammers do not bad-name and rob SEO clients. I can list a number of reasons why Search Engine Optimization is not for everyone. And believe me, I can prove it.

1. Starting From The Basics, They Don’t Have Any Base

That’s right. The majority of these SEO gurus have not ‘learned’ Search Engine Optimization the proper way. In fact, they have just ‘studied’ it as a topic and they got this crazy idea that anyone can do it. Of course SEO is not that hard or confusing that only selected people can do, but the key point here is to study and learn things the right way; from the basics.

Simply by reading couple of articles on the Internet and participating in couple of Internet Marketing blogs or forums can not make anyone a SEO specialist or a guru at all.

2. False Guarantees, Short-Term SEO Results, Spammy Techniques And Other Lies

When these low profile SEO’s have no clue about how to compile an SEO strategy or how to execute website optimization process, they will do what is obvious—they will mess things up for their clients; bit time. And that’s not all what they do. They lie almost about everything to their clients. They lie about ranking techniques they will be using, they lie about the results a client is expecting to see, they even lie about ranking their websites in a short span of time. Now ethically it is very wrong to misguide and make false commitments with clients for the results they will never see; at least not soon enough.

If I like Google even a little, it’s because of their constant search engine algorithm updates. Such updates have made it easy to track shady and spam SEO practices. Of course spammers can get short-term SEO results and rankings in Google using various Black Hat optimization techniques, but eventually they will be tracked and penalized by the big old G (Google).

How These People Negatively Affect To Authentic And Professional SEO Community

Just like in any other profession or business, people with unethical practices also bring in doubt the good ones. Same thing happens when clients are approached by legitimate SEO service providers. The businesses are more concerned about their online business and they are extra careful in selecting the right SEO company for their website marketing project.

But fortunately there are authentic ways an ethical SEO company can prove to be the right provider for the client. Most businesses ask for references and past SEO projects a company or a service provider has worked on. This minimizes the risk of becoming a victim of any shady search optimization company and it results in client satisfaction as well as winning the project.

What You Need To Do (As A Professional SEO Specialist)

Stay firm. Don’t let these spammers walk on your line. Keep learning and moving forward with latest SEO trends and marketing techniques. I can tell you one thing that identifying a fake SEO is very easy in today’s world as you can instantly tell by the way they talk about SEO and link building techniques. So be happy that you are different and far better than them.

As far as SEO projects and clients are concerned, the business community is now also mature enough to trace if they are being conned or scammed by a fake SEO service provider. Eventually you will see improved number of clients as long as your SEO techniques are not shady and obsolete.

To those who are new to the Internet Marketing world and want to learn things the proper way, there are lots of free and trusted resources out there and you can definitely learn a lot from these sites. Sites like WarriorForum and WickedFire should be your top learning platform when it comes to learning SEO.
If you have anything to add or share your experience about something relevant to this post, please leave your comment below.

Keep It Real

This is yet another essential aspect of running an online business successfully. Do everything ethically and by the rules. Developing trust of customers is vital and it pays well in the long run. Stay legit and professional. Just because you are a new business should not mean that you will not attract customers successfully. Yes, it requires very hard work in the beginning to find customers but it is possible. Never give up hope and strive on offering quality to your customers.
Remember, this is just a single aspect of starting an online business from scratch. There are many other metrics you should consider before launching your online venture. Things like, business name, domain, trademarks, policies and etc. are just a few of them. So it would be better to do your research from the ‘legal side’ as well. Just stay away from using trademarked business names and domain names, and always use original and unique content for your website and marketing campaigns.

Having a successful online business not only gives you piece of mind but it also has so many additional opportunities to dive into. Like I mentioned above that you can simply start anything, an eCommerce store, mobile application development company, search engine marketing agency, become a professional writer, proofreader, and the list goes on and on.Stay focused and firm. Do not hard work stop you from achieving your goals.

Writing Professional Website Copy Content

From the perspective of sales and business, it is important to present your website content in a distinguished way to your visitors. Remember, after seeing your website, it is your content that can either attract or irritate your visitors, and you don’t want to do the latter one; right!
Following are few key factors that every online business owner must adhere to while writing website content:

– Do Not Sell Directly

The first thing you do not want from your website is to wear-off your visitors by throwing your products or services directly on their faces. It is a fact that no one likes to be sold to. Don’t you hate salesmen when they knock at your door to sell you a vacuum cleaner? So play by the visitors’ rules and provide them a platform (your website) where they can comfortably browse things they are looking for.

– Show Customers How You Value Them

The most important thing is that customers are attracted towards the value they will receive from a certain business; in the service they receive from them. So use your website content to ensure your potential customers that you are one of the best solution providers and that you guarantee professional services or quality products.

You can do that in a variety of ways using your site content. Show them your skills, share personal experience of your projects you have recently done, add positive testimonials and reviews of your previous customers on your site, offer discounts and competitive pricing and etc. To simplify the above-mentioned, you can write blog about your business so that your audience can stay up-to-date about your business.

It may feel a tricky part if you are starting a business from scratch, but never compromise on quality factors. Starting a website business is typical but not that hard, so always focus on providing quality services to your audience and ensure them your reputability.

– Communicate With Your Audience

Engage them in your content in a way that they find it interesting to read. Tell them about your company and services/products you have and how these can be used for their benefit. Ask for their suggestions on how you can improve your website and services.It is crucial to have an option where you and your customers can communicate. It would minimize the gap between the buyer and the seller and would also answer various questions of the customer upfront.

How To Represent Your Internet-Based Business

When you are done researching about how to get started, then would be the time to move on to another important factor. And it is how you should present your business to your target audience.

1. Having A Beautiful Website

It is crucial to have an attractive and user-friendly website to receive attention from your target audience. Many business owners neglect this part in their online marketing strategy and they later face losses or low return on investment (ROI) from their online venture. Remember, your website is the first thing that visitors will see and it should have all the important features to offer a friendly visitor experience to your audience.

So how can you get a website with a good-looking design and how do you know if it is best for the business you are going start.

Normally there are ways you can identify how to go about when it comes to having a business website designed. The first thing to get started is to see other websites in similar businesses. See how their sites are designed and what features these sites are using. Explore how the site is presenting the information and how it engages with its audience. You can do these simply by using following websites:

1. Archive: You can see the history of websites and when the site was first launched and when it was redesigned. This will help you to observe what the site used to look before and what changes the new site has.

2. Alexa: See what traffic rank the sites have . AlexaRank of less than 100,000 is considered a good traffic rank and it defines that the site has probably thousands of visitors a month. Results may vary though from site to site. This is only to get the basic idea of how much traffic the site receives.

3. Google Mobile-Friendly Test: Having a mobile-friendly (or responsive) website is important these days as the majority of traffic now comes through mobile and other portable devices. This online tool will tell you whether the site has mobile-friendly layout or not.

4. Website Speed Test: Check load times of sites and how long they take to load properly. You can also use this tool to test your own website. A good load time is somewhere from 3-5 seconds. So make sure your web pages are not heavily crafted.

5. Content and Code Ratio Tool: Although this tool is somewhat necessary for SEO testing, but I am mentioning it here also. The tool lets you know the ratio of your on-page content and the actual code behind the page(HTML/backend coding.) It will also tell you what ratio is good for content and code.

Starting An Online Business — What To Do

There are several business opportunities available online and anyone with proper knowledge and understanding can join in. The key factor to consider here is to start with something you are personally interested about. It can be anything—gardening, baking, decoration, website design & marketing, and so on.

I, for example, started my first online business by offering professional website design services. Why? Because that is something I was passionate and (somewhat) skilled about. I have to admit though that I am limited with the skills when it comes to designing big websites, but whenever I required any help in the development of such sites (database-driven or CMS websites) I always knew where and how I can get the tasks done.

The point here is to offer something what you can do well; professionally. So you can not rely on anyone else to complete a task or a service you offer on your website. But that is only for new starters.

For professional online marketers, they know how to get things done even if they are not a professional in that specific field. That’s right. They identify profitable online business options and outsource that task to someone who is skilled in that field. This leaves these online marketers a handful of commission on every sale they make.

So one can also own an online business in any profitable industry but the trick here is to understand the basics of that specific industry. Remember, Internet marketing is mostly about researching things and learning them. And the best thing about starting an online business is that it has so many opportunities for everyone.It does not matter if you are an expert in anything or not, but you can do just whatever is profitable in the online world. And no, I am not exaggerating when I say that one can just do anything on the Internet.However, this does not mean I am encouraging people to become ‘Jack of All Trades’ or a ‘One Man Show’. It is important to first gain deep knowledge and skills of any business you are willing to start and once you are confident, move forward with it.

The Misconceptions And Confusions Of Working Online

From my experience, I have seen and heard about people who think that working online means doing no work at all. Many people who are new to the Internet world get the idea that all they have to do is to switch on their computer and the money will start rolling in. WRONG. That is the No. #1 misconception about working online.

Just like any other traditional offline business it requires knowledge, skills, time and a little investment to get started. Making money online is easy but it absolutely does not mean that one has to do nothing to earn it.

Another misconception about starting an online business is that people think it mostly works on auto pilot and no effort is required after setting it up initially; means no regular work is required for the maintenance of the business. WRONG AGAIN.

The truth is that once a business starts rolling, it increases the responsibility of the owner to offer more trusted and reliable services/products to their audience. Not only that, more work is essentially required to compete against other online businesses (competitors) to make sure you stay on top of your game.

Then there are people who think that online business can make them millionaires in no time. Just kidding. But the misconception is that many people think that by having an online business, they can become rich very fast. I hate to burst the bubble but this is; WRONG WRONG WRONG.

The reality is that just like every offline business needs a set of skills, work, maintenance, ideas, marketing, capital and etc. to keep it going, same things applies in the online business world. However the plus side of starting a business on the Internet is that it takes less resources and low capital upfront to get started. But that does not mean that the business will grow itself and can make anyone rich in no time.

Yes there are examples where newly launched online businesses were able to mark their success in lesser time and became billion dollar companies. But it goes without saying that those companies have ideas, innovation, and hard work behind their success.

The truth is that running a business online is different in a variety of ways than having a traditional business, and it pays well in return as long as it has been managed seriously and adequately. For example, you require less amount of upfront investment as well as low (to no) manpower to start with.

Focus that you are starting to offer a product or a service to your audience and that it will be your source of income, without focusing too much on various factors of how different online businesses are. Stay positive and work on the development of your online business rather than wasting time thinking about baseless things.Remember, it may sound confusing in the start but when you do your research and learning properly, I am confident that you will know about Internet business in a matter of days.