Why Every Business Needs Online Visibility

It’s no secret that the majority of us are now living in a digital world. It’s thought that 82% of UK households made an online purchase in 2019, and online sales accounted for 19% of all retail sales in that year. Whether we’re shopping, catching up on the news or chatting with friends, many of us engage with the world online just as much as we do off the web.

With so much now happening online, it’s no longer possible for businesses to excel if they’re solely relying on traditional methods of selling and doing business. If we look at some major retailers that collapsed during the last decade (such as Woolworths, BHS, and Toys-R-Us), we can see that their reasons for falling into administration can be partly attributed to failing to innovate and adapt to the rapidly changing world of retail. 

In other words: they failed to invest in their online visibility. With that in mind, let’s take a look at just some of the reasons why it’s so important for businesses to have online visibility.

The Market Is Huge

We touched on this already in the introduction, but the size of the online market cannot be overstated. In 2017, the UK alone spent over £137billion on online shopping, compared to £66billion in 2012. Of course, not every market will have the same demand, however even businesses in smaller markets will have significantly more customers at their fingertips after building their online visibility.

Furthermore, being highly visible online does not restrict you to your local area. Without being easily located on the internet, how can someone at the other end of the country do business with you if you’re only advertising in the local newspaper or radio? Online, you can reach customers all over the country (and the world), which, of course, massively increases your potential customer base.

Online Visibility = Cost Effective Marketing 

Not only does boosting online visibility increase the amount of potential customers, but it’s also one of the most cost effective ways of doing so. Social media alone is an extremely powerful tool to reach new and existing customers, and it’s totally free.

Setting up and optimising social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc) is free and not particularly time consuming. From here you can experiment with different types of posts and target various demographics without spending a penny. You can, of course, boost posts, and the benefits of doing so can be great, but that’s still many many times cheaper than an ad in the paper or 30 seconds on the radio.

You will most likely need to pay for a professional to build your website, but that’s essential for any business. It’s also permanent, unlike many traditional ads that will only run for a limited time. Building a website is an investment in your business’ future, and when done properly, it will most likely pay for itself in the long run.

That’s really the key to why building online visibility is the most cost effective way to market a business. Your online visibility is permanent, and will always outlast the traditional forms of offline marketing.

Online Visibility Is Essential For SEO

It’s simple really – the larger presence your brand has online, the more suited it is to performing well on Google. While there are many factors at play that will impact your website’s performance, it’s safe to say that online visibility is pretty weighty?

Why? It’s all about authority. When Google sees consistent depictions of your brand across the web, whether that be on social media, Google My Business, online directories or regularly updated blogs, it looks on that brand favourably. It shows Google that you mean business and you can be trusted.

That’s why our growth strategies always begin by spreading the tendrils of the brand as far and wide as possible, because the more they spread, the more likely Google is to notice (and the more likely the customers are to grab them).

Active Internet Marketing (UK)

Here at Active Internet Marketing, we’re experts on SEO and boosting online visibility for businesses. We work with businesses both large and small, across a vast variety of sectors, to help them succeed and grow. Just take a look at some of our recent case studies to see how effective our marketing strategies truly are.

If you’d like to find out more about what we do and how we could start helping you today, please get in touch on 01604 765 796 to speak with one of our friendly team. Alternatively, you can fill in our handy contact form and somebody will be in touch when best it suits you.