Launching your web presence

When you talk about promoting your business online, just like a slew of other fields and businesses, one of the most difficult things to do is take those initial first steps. While you may have built a beautiful website, which is also customer-centric and focuses on enhancing user shopping experience, you have to worry about promoting your web presence on a search engine. You do want people to see you and reach you, right? You need to build a steady flow of traffic and start hitting your bottom line.

And that can take a lot of time and effort, especially if you don?t know what you are doing. Fortunately for you, this comprehensive guide covers just exactly you are going to bring in traffic and successfully launch your online business.

One of the toughest challenges in establishing a significant online presence is the fact that well, the website is so new and practically nobody knows anything about it ? yet. It isn’t that simple to shine a light on your brand or business that you have just given birth to on the World Wide Web.

Sure there are quicker ways of handling the situation ? which is to pretty much outsource everything to a third-party expert. But that can be too expensive. So, what we?re going to be focusing on is building a good reputation online and discovering a niche.

First things first, you need to build and launch your website. Here are some options for getting started quickly:

Self-Hosted or Hosted Platforms?

Hosted Platforms

Imagine paying for a turnkey package that can get you up and running in a matter of 30 minutes. That is exactly what hosted platforms are. With hosted website management, the website is simple to set up, you?ll get great support staff (depending on which platform you choose) and you don?t have to have a technical background. You can set it up yourself.

While they sound great, hosted platforms do come with some limitations. For instance, you don?t get code-level access, they often are not as good for SEO, and while they come with a great variety of templates, customization can be limited in comparison to self-hosted platforms.

Self-Hosted Platforms

However, a self-hosted platform is the other side of the coin, and you should consider opting for it too, if you have the resources to get it up and running. A self-hosted platform means just that, you will have to set up your website into a hosting environment of your own. It requires a bit more technical know-how, but comes with much greater customization capabilities and technical flexibility. With WordPress, the undisputed king of self-hosted platforms, you get code-level access, full customization capabilities, and complete control over every aspect of your website. It does require a bit more technical experience, so if you can?t do it all yourself you may need to hire a WordPress developer to assist.

A Brief Review of The Best Hosted Platforms

Squarespace

There is no question that Squarespace has become one of the trendiest webhosting platforms around. Plus, it?s fun; do-it-yourself site builder tool is a pretty unique and simple to use. The interface is very stylish and inspires creativity and trust. Not to mention it has a diverse portfolio of amazing integrations, web tools and capabilities that can really help transcend your website far into the future.

Plus, with its newly added Apply Pay as well as free Secure Socket Layer (SSL) offering, there is no reason to be surprised that the platform has millions upon millions of users worldwide. However, it is still not simpler than another webhosting frontrunner ? Wix.

Sure, Squarespace is indeed a powerful platform ? and one of the earliest, it has no long-term free account offering unlike Weebly or Wix. You can test a Squarespace account for a couple of weeks, but you won?t be able do all the testing on your live site ? you?d have to pay for an account to do that.

All in all, Squarespace has a beautiful user interface, thousands of templates and has made it easy for users to design responsive websites. The platform also offers deep selling options, which primarily includes DDs or Digital Downloads.

Wix

Wix is a fairly new entrant in the webhosting realm, but has grown at an exponential rate, offering users a wide range of web-building tools and integrations at unmatched prices. Thanks to their clever marketing campaigns that feature the likes of Gal Gadot and Heidi Klum, they were able to sweep thousands of customers off their feet.

When it comes to simplicity, it is our belief that no modern and up to date webhosting platform can beat them ? not even Squarespace. Plus, you can directly embed their web builder tool on your web browser for added convenience.

Another reason why millions of user flock to Wix is the fact that they offer their accounts for free and you can use them for as long as you desire. However, if you wish to integrate professional web tools and features or have your own domain name and streamlined customer and tech support ? you?ve got to pay like the rest. But the most affordable packages they have start at $10 per month. Furthermore, Wix also offers third-party software, more so than Squarespace.

Weebly

Weebly is also a fast growing hosting provider and has garnered considerable reputation in the website-building realm. With powerful, intuitive features and integrations along with a cutting-edge website builder tool, Weebly makes it incredibly easy to edit awesome looking websites without the headache of learning a new design code or language ? it has a zero learning curve. With newsletter campaign features, a brilliant editor interface and brand new themes that come integrated with video backgrounds ? Weebly has become a top contender in the hosting world.

However, this hosting provider has a lower number of templates you can use ? forty-eight, compared it competitors Wix and Squarespace, which are more robust. But Weebly does have some beautiful templates that can be edited and you can even switch to another theme whenever you like without having to rebuild the entire website.

A Brief Review of the Best Self-Hosted Platform

When it comes to self-hosting websites and tools ? there is absolutely nothing that can beat the power and convenience of a CMS such as:

WordPress

One of the best things about WordPress is the fact that it is an open source platform ? which means it is free and each and every single WordPress code is accessible to all designers, entrepreneurs and developers in the WP community. They can use the code to create unique themes, plugins and a slew of other programs, which in turn they often offer to other users for free.

This is one of the most critical reasons why WordPress has a community spanning 75 million websites as per a report published in 2014. And according to other research in 2015, it was identified that more than 23% of all websites on the Internet were WordPress integrated.

If you are going to go with WordPress, which we recommend (Startup Revival is hosted on WordPress!), then you are going to need a hosting solution to host your site. The very best hosting solution for WordPress is WP Engine. It is reliable, fast, secure and they manage all the updates on your behalf.

So, after you build your website, what next?

Promoting & Enhancing your Online Presence

Build a Streamlined Newsletter Campaign

Newsletters aren’t anything new, but they are just as necessary. They have been around since the very first days of the online world. Not to mention, the tool is still rampantly utilized today. Why? Well, that is simple; it is because newsletter campaigns work!

The spontaneous and unmediated reaction of precision-based content dropping right in the email inbox of your niche audience remains the most effective method of garnering interest and enhancing your click rates. However, this isn’t magic. It is vital that you create a relevant, quality and trust-inspiring email campaigns. You need to appeal and attract your user base. Or they?ll just move your email into the trash bin.

Have Your Website Optimized for Google or Other Search Engines

In an ideal situation, a fair amount of traffic that lands on your website is going to come through search engine results. It is a very high-quality source of web traffic that consistently and continuously widens your site?s reach.

To ensure important content from your website is significantly feature in search engine results, it is vital to incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. One of the best and most essential rules of thumb is to make search engine optimization a consistent part of your online presence. Use it frequently ? don?t just stop once your website successfully launches. Make it a part of your routine and content strategy.

Harness the Power of Social Media

There is absolutely no question that the power of social media has made it possible for startups and small business organizations, particularly brands that were unknown, to emerge and garner a large audience without having to splurge on advertising. Social media has enabled unsung businesses to organically attract their target audience ? competing toe to toe with their larger counterparts.

One of the best things about promoting your web presence on social media is that you can sporadically diversify your content on different social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

However, it is vital to create independent social media profiles for your site and business ? promoting content both professionally and personally ? depending on the type of social media platform it is. For example, Facebook is a far friendlier platform to engage with your target audience compared to LinkedIn, which is going to require a more professional business-minded approach.

Bottom Line

So there you go ? everything you need to know about how to quickly establish your online presence and the various platforms you can use to become a distinguished brand name on the web.

 

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
Bill Gates

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