One of the essential elements for modern startups is building a good online presence at the very beginning. Today, everyone is online, which is especially relevant for startups looking to innovate new technologies. 

Simply put, the internet is a place where you can find clients, establish your brand, but also find potential partners and investors. However, there are so many ways you can start your online presence, and not all of them will yield solid long-term results. However, just creating a website is no longer enough. 

Why? Every business today has a website, so differentiating your business online isn’t an easy thing to do. You need to have a strategic approach and know what you’re doing. That’s how you can lay the foundation for the digital side of your business and build on it. 

1. Create a Modern Site With Latest Digital Technologies 

Anyone can build a website today – there are even free website building platforms that are simple as drawing something in paint. However, you need to build a professional site with a team of developers that know what they are doing. 

First of all, your site needs to be unique, customized, and reflect your brand. You need to buy a domain name that reflects your brand and own it in full. Your site needs to have relevant information to your potential customers, structure, great load speed, quality design, branded visuals, images, call-to-action-buttons, newsletter, fantastic user experience, and so much more. 

There are so many things that need to be considered when it comes to online business. Things also change quickly, so you need to make sure that you establish a site that’s relevant to the current trends. 

2. PPC & SEO: Which & When? 

After you’ve created a website that looks good, holds relevant information, and is functional, you need to start building traffic and exposure. A good website isn’t worth anything unless you start showing it to people. The two core approaches for startups in terms of marketing are PPC & SEO. 

  • Pay per click is a paid method where you display ads for your site or content that leads to your site. 
  • Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your site for relevant keywords to achieve a better ranking in search results. 

Working on your SEO 

SEO is an old marketing technique, but it’s still one of the most important ones. It gives your site exposure for a long time and brings in organic traffic, which yields the best results. SEO involves on-site optimization, keyword research, link-building, meta writing, producing content, and so on. 

However, SEO isn’t good for getting that initial boost your online presence needs. If done right, SEO can slowly improve your rankings and get you more traffic. It’s a long-term process that requires constant investment. Even though you need to do it, no quick-fix will let you rank #1 right away. 

Investing in PPC 

PPC advertising gives instant results. Most marketers can create a campaign that will provide you with lots of new visitors. If they are good at it, a good chunk of those visitors will also be interested in what you have to offer. 

It’s a good way to gain instant exposure and have others spread the word about your business – you might even land some of your first customers ever. When all is said and done, PPC is initially a good idea. Once you get things going, you can switch to SEO and boost specific events and campaigns with PPC. 

3. Take Full Control Over Your Online Presence 

As soon as you launch your online presence, you need to start being active. Talk to people in your niche, answer comments, engage with potential partners, discuss your customers’ pain spots, and so on. 

Track brand mentions online and look to answer every positive and negative comment about your brand. Reach out to influencers and try to establish contact with them. Be consistent and show that you are active, and at the same time, use social media to fuel your website and create more activity around your brand. First impressions matter, even online. 

Conclusion

We hope you’ve learned a thing or two on building an online presence, but remember that this helpful guide was only an introduction to a vast topic. Be sure to learn more about all these things and don’t leave anything to chance.