How To Turn A Successful Brick-And-Mortar Into A Thriving Web Presence?
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The COVID-19 pandemic was the last nail in the coffin for many successful brick-and-mortar establishments, and with work-from-home continuing to persist, and high streets and malls still striking a deserted look, these legacy sectors are set for a reckoning. If they fail to embrace the new economy and build a robust web presence, they are likely to see the world pass them by in the coming years.
With a wide range of tools, services, and solutions, taking a brick-and-mortar business online has gotten all the easier in recent years. A CMS platform such as WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace, can allow anyone to intuitively create an ecommerce presence, without writing a single line of code.
That being said, however, turning just about any website into a thriving web presence is a whole other matter.
Choose The Right CMS How to Start an MBA Course at Your Dream College
Build A Social Media Presence
Don’t Skimp On SEO
Find A Cheap & Reliable Web Hosting
A CMS, or content management system is a solution that allows for the easy creation and modification of digital content. For ecommerce sites, there are a number of options such as Shopify, Zencart, BigCommerce, and even WordPress, when used in conjunction with WooCommerce, and its various themes, plugins, and extensions.
These solutions are not all the same, and it is absolutely pertinent that you make the right choice here, given that they each have a set of plugins, themes, templates, and features that can give rise to a host of different capabilities. You should ideally have a clear end game in mind, regarding how you’d like your online store front to look and feel, which should ultimately guide your decisions pertaining to the CMS.
Most ecommerce entrepreneurs underestimate the potential of a social media presence, as it may not add value right away, in terms of leads or sales, but in order to build a robust brand online, it is absolutely essential to building a profile on at least Facebook and Twitter, with regular content and updates.
Even if the social media pages themselves don’t lead to any traffic or sales, they provide strong signals that leave an impact on search engine rankings.
Beyond the direct value of a social media presence, having a strong profile on these sites stands to provide trust, authority, and authenticity. These are crucial for businesses that are yet to establish a brand, or a track record online.
Speaking of search engine rankings, when doing business in the competitive hellscape of the broader internet, you have to be found in search engines in order to stand a chance.
Optimizing your website for a wide range of relevant keywords, and getting it to rank for the same often requires extensive link building, social signals, and perfect on-site optimization, which is often best left to the professionals.
eCommerce entrepreneurs often make the mistake of trying to go it on their own in this regard, only to end up wasting precious time and opportunities. If you go with the right service provider and the right strategy, every dollar spent on SEO can yield 2x to 4x in returns fairly quickly.
This is so obvious that it might almost seem cliché, however, up-and-coming players in this segment continue to underestimate the role of a reliable web hosting service provider when it comes to factors such as SEO, and website authority.
A cheap shared hosting plan means that your site will share the same server as many other sites, becoming vulnerable to reputational damage, if Google ever considers the sites on the server to be toxic, or spammy.
A cheap shared hosting plan means that your site will share the same server as many other sites, becoming vulnerable to reputational damage, if Google ever considers the sites on the server to be toxic, or spammy.
Beyond this, it is also essential to choose an affordable host, as you have no idea how long it might take to generate even the first dollar in revenue from your site. Luckily, there is no shortage of guides in this regard, with the likes of Hosting Advice price comparison list helping buyers choose from a wide range of options, across different price scales.
Final Words
It seems increasingly evident that a web presence is absolutely critical for all businesses that want to continue as a going concern over the next few years.
The last two years will long be known for the substantial upheavals caused to society, however, the pandemic, if it ever had to come, couldn’t have come at a better time. After all, imagine the havoc it could have wreaked in the early-2000s, when ecommerce, and the internet were still in nascent stages.
While all of this might seem like a hassle for small business owners, in the end, it stands to add substantial value to entrepreneurs, consumers, and the broader economy alike. Those who stand to reap the value from this transition, are those who move the fastest and establish their presence in the digital realm the quickest.
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