1st Steps when Launching a New Business

A strong web presence is crucial for businesses in the digital age, as it serves as the focal point for brand visibility, getting customers, and growth. In today’s fast-paced, interconnected world, consumers increasingly rely on the internet for information, purchasing decisions, and seamless transactions. An effective web presence allows businesses to showcase their products and services, while simultaneously building relationships with customers, gaining trust and credibility. It also helps businesses tap into a global market, expanding their reach beyond geographical boundaries, thus increasing their potential for revenue generation. With the ubiquity of mobile devices and digital platforms, businesses that establish a strong online presence can successfully harness the power of the digital landscape, catering to the evolving needs and expectations of their target audience, and positioning themselves for long-term success.

Getting found on the Internet is what it’s all about. Here is a series of steps to help you start to get that presence. The list isn’t exhaustive, and there are a wide range of other steps you might want to take, some of which are dependent on the type of business you have and are looking to promote. But in a nutshell, not getting your new business indexed and ranked by Google, means that it’s going to be hard for your customers to find you.

Step 1

The following are a list of the steps to take to ensure that you get listed on Google, quickly. The list below is a starting point. There are many more steps including the listing of local directories, opening a Bing Webmasters account and more, but these are the most important and should be the top of your priority list.

• Launch your website, we recommend a self-hosted WordPress as the best starting point – read why you shouldn’t rely on Instagram or WhatsApp alone to find and communicate with your customers.
• Create a Gmail address – this will be used to sign up for the following Google services
• Create a Google Analytics account, and add the tracking code to your website
• Create a Google Search Console account and get your domain verified
• Link both the above together through Google Marketing Platform.
• If you are planning to advertise on Google, then you’ll need a Google Adwords account. Use the same Gmail address for this. Later you can link all these together through Google.
• Your business needs to be found locally, so you’ll want to set up Google My Business
• If you are selling online, then separately a Google Merchant account will help push images, prices and short descriptions of your products
• Lastly, Google Tag Manager, is needed for more complex projects
• Use an email service like MailChimp or SendinBlue.com to build your email list.

Step 2

Now that your site is listed and showing, and you’ve signed up to Google for all the above, it is time to get your Social Media accounts all linked together. Depending on what you’re business is, the most obvious is a Facebook Page and Instagram. If your business has a lot of video, then YouTube should be a priority. After Google, YouTube is the second biggest search engine. You’ll need to set up each with the same username across each. Instagram and Facebook Page should be linked, and to do this you’ll need to set up the Instagram account as a business profile. This is easy to switch to, from a personal account, and you can do this within the Instagram app. Now add all your new Social Media Channels to your website as links in the footer.

Step 3

Your new website is going to need regular posts and so you should be thinking of a calendar of posts that is sustainable throughout the year. Look for a minimum of 12 posts, but ideally for a new website, you would be posting once a week. A good post is 300-500 words, but at least monthly, a long form post would be a good suggestion. This post would be 1000-1500 words. In these posts would be your main keywords and details about the products or services you sell.

If you are not a writer, or find it difficult to take the time out to write, then this can be subbed out to an agency, but be prepared for costs and poorly written copy. Since, really no one will know your product or service as well as you do. Therefore, make use of tools like Grammarly, that can help you develop your writing and make it more readable and more engaging. There are AI tools our there to help you. Read our post about how Chat GPT can boost your website.

Step 4

You’ll need images to go with these new posts. Canva is the best tool out there to do that. You should aim to create multiple image sizes, one for Facebook and your blog and the other for Instagram. There are templates and tons of ideas, fonts and suggestions to help you get started. Images are a must on every post. With each post you write, you’ll have an image to go with it, and a post ready to go to your social channels.

Step 5

The next step is to focus on building your email list. You should have a sign up form on your website, which acts as a lead magnet. Visitors who like your posts are more likely to engage with you again, and having a sign up form enables them to easily sign up and stay in touch. MailChimp has simple templates that you can start out with and not worry about charges, since the first 2,000 users that sign up are free. MailChimp will start to charge fees once you go above this, but for starting out, MailChimp is a very good email software. But there are others out there, for example SendinBlue.com, which is what we use.

Step 6

Rinse and repeat. You will build a following if you regularly post stories about your business or industry and post these with interesting and eye-catching images. You will be emailing on a regular basis, i.e., monthly at the same date each month. You might have an email segment that has a more frequent email, e.g., a weekly email that goes out with each new post you write. You can see that having a schedule and sticking to it is really important. It’s all about getting your flywheel spinning, and once you’ve started to spin it, the key thing is to continue the momentum.

These are just some of the basic steps in setting up a website to promote your new business. We think the most important thing is to have your own website, which gives you the chance to promote your products or services in the best way possible. Giving you complete control of your brand. Talk to us today to see how we can help you get started.