In today's competitive marketplace, trying to get the word out about your business can be a hard nut to crack. A staggering amount of 97% consumers are turning to the internet to find businesses online. 

Since your consumers are online, you should be too - become visible! 

A business that maintains a website is more likely to receive traffic by simply just being there. Aside from basic maintenance of your website, improving your visibility and online presence plays a large role in increasing your leads - create great content that people want to link to, curate content and improve your search engine rankings - the higher your website ranks in search results, the better. 

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE AN ONLINE PRESENCE? 

1. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY -  Imagine this: you popped back into the city and want to go have lunch at this magnificent restaurant you were taken to by a friend, but you can't remember even the first letter of the name and neither can you get a hold of your friend! What are you most likely to do? 3 out of 4 people will turn to search engines to search for businesses online. So make sure you have an online presence for people to find you.

2. BRAND BUILDING - As industries grow more and more competitive, one of the biggest challenges businesses face is building their brand. Bragging about their businesses products or services becomes nothing but fluff to consumers, they want to believe that they're investing and can only do this through a solid brand identity. 

3. MARKETING POSSIBILITIES - Online marketing is important because it aligns with the way consumers make buying decisions. Studies indicate that increasing numbers of consumers use social media and online research to carry out preliminary product and price research before making final decisions. Online marketing enables you to build relations, reflecting the move away from mass marketing.

4. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER - With social media tools available, locating your customers and engaging with them at a deep level becomes much easier.  

5. MEASURABILITY - The final of the 5 benefits is not only the ability to achieve the other 5 benefits but also to measure them. In this way make decisions about your business based on real numbers, not just assumptions, giving you accuracy. 

Creating an online presence can be challenging but there are basic guidelines one can proceed through to successfully achieve an efficient and presentable overall online presence.