Before You Start Marketing

Before you start driving traffic to your name online, whether that’s a Google search or your website, there are actually a couple of fundamental things you need to take care of first.

HTTPS and SEO

The first thing is website optimization. Do you have HTTPS? Is your URL secure? There are steps you can take through your web host or a web designer to make sure that your URL can be seen by everyone. As the algorithms continue to develop, Google doesn’t want to send people to sites that are not secure. So make sure your URL and your website are secure and make sure you’ve done some SEO work. If you don’t know what SEO is, find somebody who does know what that means, and then pay them a little bit of money to make sure that your website is going to attract the right people when they search your keywords and the things that you want to be known for on the internet.

Google Profile

The next thing is your Google profile. Have you claimed your Google profile? Search your name on Google, see what comes up. There’s a little question there and it says, “Is this your business?” Click on that, go through the process for Google to send you a little code. It’s usually just like five numbers. Sometimes it’s in the mail. Sometimes they’ll send you an email. When you respond to that, it unlocks all kinds of things that you need to have access to on your Google profile. For instance, are your hours on there? Is your address correct? Is the phone number your current phone number or maybe the one you used to have back when you had a landline? There’s a few things in that Google profile that are really important for you to have access to and to have the information be correct. So, make sure that you approve and claim your Google profile.

Respond to Reviews

Next up, do you respond to reviews? You probably have some reviews. Do you respond to them? Have you ever asked people to begin giving you reviews? That’s an important thing and it builds your credibility online.

Social Media Profile

And the last thing is, do you have social media profiles? Now, what I mean by this is not necessarily, do you have a Facebook page? What I mean is, do you have active, robust social media profiles in the places where your audience lives? It doesn’t do you any good at all to have a Facebook page right now if you’re trying to attract 18 year olds. If you’re looking for 35 plus year old people, Facebook might be the right place for you to be, but you also need to think about a LinkedIn presence. And you need to think about whether you need to be on Instagram or Snapchat or, God forbid, TikTok, one way or the other. There are different lanes and different demographics that each of the different social media profiles actually attract. So find the social media profile that your target audience exists in and make sure you have a very robust looking profile.

Call Us

Now, if you don’t know how to do any of these things and all the stuff I just said is really confusing, give us a call because we’ll take you through that process and make sure that you’ve got those boxes checked before you start pushing people to try to look you up and find you on the internet in order to do business with you. So there’s a few tips for you. I hope that this helps. And one way or the other, we’re just glad that you found us and hope that we can help you in any way.

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About the Author Brian Prawitz, owner of BP Media Solutions.

Brian’s passion for customer service led to the creation and launch of BP Media Solutions in May of 2015. “Going the extra mile, providing face-to-face accountability, and exceeding goals are all things I live for.” Brian spent 25 years in radio as an award-winning news and sports announcer in Seattle, Missoula, Montana, and Roseburg, Oregon. He spent 18 months in the Marketing Department at Seven Feathers Casino Resort before BP Media Solutions was born.

Brian and his wife Jannie were empty nesters for about three months before welcoming all three of their grown daughters and one son-in-law home from various colleges in 2020. They love camping, theater, Disneyland, and (Brian loves) golf.

To connect with Brian: bp@gobpmedia.com