Make The Most of Your Online Space - Part 1

The internet is the number one place people go to for information.  In most cases, it is the only place the go for information.  When it comes to your business, or your brand, it is important to take steps to allow it to be quickly and easily found online, and that all information that you want your potential audience to know is readily available for them to find!  This not only helps you advertise yourself, and potentially gain new clients, but also gives you a higher chance of being seen before your competitors.
​
As mentioned in our last blog post , it is important for us at Wright Way Design, to know how to achieve this and what steps to take to make this happen for you. It is also important for you to know a few ways your business or brand can make an impact in its own little space on the internet - that's what this post is all about!  Keep reading to find out more about how to make the most of your online space, and due to the length of this post in its draft form, I have decided to split it into a three-part special.

Own a Domain Name
I am covering this first, as this is by far the topic I get the most questions about - "What is a domain name?"
In its simplest form, a domain is just like an internet phone number.  Just like your phone number gets pointed to your SIM card that you have in your mobile phone, a domain name can be pointed to the place on the internet where your website lives.
​
Let's use our domain name as and example.  Our domain name is "wrightwaydesign.co.nz".  This is pointed to the IP address of the server our website lives on.  So when you type our web address www.wrightwaydesign.co.nz into your web browser, this gets translated to the IP address which brings up our website.

We also have our domain pointed to our mail server.  This allows us to have professional email addresses such as our main contact - [email protected].  When you send us an email to this address, our domain tells it exactly where to go in order to reach us.

Having a domain name is a pretty simple way to gain a professional online appearance.  Just like having sign writing on your car attaches your business to your vehicle, having a domain name attaches your business to your online space.
​

Be Found in a Google Search
The next subject that I get a tonne of questions about from my clients is - "how do we get to the top of the search results in Google?"
I will be completely transparent about this, it is not easy to get a brand new website to the very top of the search results, but there are some tricks that will give your brand a higher result.

The simplest way to have a better presence on Google is to create a Google Business listing.  This is fairly simple to do yourself, especially if you already have a Google account.  Everything you need to create a listing can be found on the Google Business website. 

Once signed in with your Google account, you will be given the chance to enter a few details about your business such as it's name, address, phone number, and web address.  Once this is all done, you will then be given an opportunity to verify your business. 

​The easiest way to verify is to choose the option to have a postcard mailed to your physical address from the team at Google.  This postcard takes around 15 days to arrive, and contains a code that you need to enter into the Google Business site in order to verify that your business exists.  

Once that is all done, you will find that when your business name is searched, you will now have a neat little side bar showing all of your business information!  There is also an area for your potential clients to ask you questions and leave reviews - these will be emailed to you when they come in, so make sure when you set up your Google account, that you use an email address that you check often.

Another effective way to get a higher result in search results is to have custom SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) settings built into your website.  This is a little harder to do yourself and is best left to your web designer.  It is their job to add keywords to the back end of your website and images that will help tell Google all about your site and what it contains. 
​
It is important to remember that it is not just your business name that your potential viewers will search for, they will use other terms relating to what you do.  This is why we need to let Google know what keywords your viewers will use when looking for your type of business, so that when those keywords are searched, Google will know to display your site as an option in the search results.

DID YOU KNOW?
Our design management packages include a full stat report every month, detailing how you are being found online!

Your designer should also have direct access to Google, which will enable them to provide additional information to help Google learn more about your website, such alternative web addresses that point to your site, and providing a "site map" which shows exactly how your website and all of its pages are organised.

​Giving Google as much information as possible gives your business a higher chance of being seen in the early days.  Once you are established, and your business is being found and clicked on frequently, you will start showing up higher and higher in the search results.

Next Week...
Check back next week when we dig deep into the world of social media and provide tips on how to streamline your social accounts!  

If you have any questions on any of the topics covered in this blog post, or think you might need some help setting any of this up for your brand, make sure to reach out and contact us here for some free advice!