What do you type into the search bar if you're looking to buy something online?

It's usually the name of the item or the name of the item followed by the town, city, or even the state you're living in, right? 

This is how you find the closest company to you that's selling the service or product you're looking for.  But, how do companies get their website to the top of the search results? By crafting an outstanding online presence that speaks to their audience, of course. 

An online presence is much more than just your website. It's how you talk to your customers, how you engage with them on social media, and how you present your company to them. 

If you're ignoring your online presence instead of nourishing it, it could be costing you a lot of money. You could be losing out on potential clients or even damaging your reputation as a business. 

If you want to learn how to improve your online presence and start appearing in more relevant searches on Google, then ask yourself these five questions to see if you're neglecting your online presence:

1. Are you neglecting your Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profiles (GBP) is vital for your online presence. It's precisely what you need to reach your audience and get more potential clients lining up to purchase your products or avail of your services. 

What is Google Business Profile?

Previously known as Google My Business, Google Business Profile is a free online marketing tool that allows you to create a detailed profile for your business on Google. 

It lets you list your company name, your hours of operation, and it makes your business visible on Google Maps. 

But having a Google Business Profile on its own isn't enough. You need to keep it up to date and optimized for the search engines if you want it to help your online presence. 

If your GBP isn't optimized, it won't be first up on the results list when somebody searches for your products or services. 

90% of users don't leave the first page of Google when searching for something online. So, if your business is coming up near the bottom of the results, you're going to find it difficult to secure conversions. 

To catch every lead that visits your GBP, you should ensure your profile is up to date and optimized for Google. 

This means:

• Updating your contact information
• Uploading new, high-quality photos
• Gaining reviews and replying to them 
• Answering your FAQs 
• Adding a unique bio 
• Choosing your category and sub-category 
• Updating your opening and closing times 
• Checking to make sure your address is correct
• Linking your social media 

All of this will make your profile an attractive profile to display to users. Google wants to give searchers the most accurate results possible, and by filling in all of this, you'll be able to secure that top spot and keep hold of any potential clients. 

2. Do you have citations built up?

Citations are another essential aspect of improving your local SEO and enhancing your online presence. 

What are citations?

Citations are mentions of your business online. A citation usually includes your name, number, and business address. 

Typically, citations refer to when your business is listed on another site, like a business directory. When your website is listed in a business directory, you only have to supply the basic information, but filling out the form in its entirety can be incredibly beneficial to your company. 

Google Business Profile is an example of a citation, but some of the other business directories you can get listed on include:4

• Bing Maps
• Facebook
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages

Why do citations improve your online presence?

Citations are great for improving your online presence because they show Google that you're a genuine business that offers high-quality products or services to your audience. 

Citations allow you to:

• Improve your local ranking 
• Piggyback on the rankings of online directories 
• Make you look more trustworthy

If you don't have any citations built up, you're losing out on the opportunity to improve your online presence and enhance your profits. 

3. Are your social media accounts updated regularly?

With over three billion active users online, social media is an excellent tool you can use to enhance your online presence. If your profiles aren’t updated regularly, you'll end up damaging your image instead of gaining that impressive online presence you were looking for. 

A barren social media profile is worse than not having social media. It makes you look unprofessional and nobody's going to follow an empty social media account. 

Having an active social media presence will allow you to build your credibility and reputation online while also helping you showcase what you're offering.

Start making the most of your social media accounts by:

• Posting regularly
• Sharing videos of your work
• Updating your bio
• Adding links to your website 
• Uploading a high-quality profile photo 
• Engaging with your audience 
• Talking with industry experts
  
  

4. Have you gathered high-quality backlinks?

When we talk about backlinks, we're explicitly talking about high-quality backlinks, not links you can buy online for a ridiculously low price. Those cheap links will actually damage your website and cost you money in the long run. 

Google checks backlinks, and if your website has a lot of backlinks leading back to unprofessional, untrustworthy websites, then it's not going to put you anywhere near the front page. 

Not only this, but if Google deems you to be an untrustworthy website because of these backlinks, it might even blacklist you. Being blacklisted by Google will mark your website as not secure to visit. This will stop you from reaching any of your potential clients even if you pay out for advertising. 

So, when you're gathering backlinks for your website, get them from high-quality sources. Talk to other companies within the agricultural industry and ask if you can guest blog for them or if they could link to your website on a current blog post they have.

Getting a few backlinks from high-quality, trustworthy websites within your niche is much more valuable than hundreds of backlinks from untrustworthy websites. 

5. Do you update your blog with relevant & valuable content?

If you're not updating your blog regularly with high-quality, relevant, and valuable content, then you're missing out on a huge opportunity to improve your online presence. 

Your audience is on the internet looking for the answers to their questions and concerns. By writing detailed blogs about these issues, you can answer their questions, show them you're a knowledgeable industry leader, attract them to your services, and improve your conversions. 

Companies that have blogs on their website have an average of 67% more leads every month than companies that don't blog.

Not only does high-quality content benefit your potential customers, but it's also an incredibly attractive thing for search engines. 

Blogs and articles are full of relevant keywords, keyphrases, and links that Google looks for when it comes to a company. The more blogs full of original content you have, the more likely they're going to push you up the search results for specific keywords. 

Creating an online presence is difficult. It takes a lot of time and effort to write blog posts, improve your social media, and build high-quality backlinks and citations. 

Hiring a team of digital experts that know how to improve an agricultural company's online presence can help speed up the process and get you more leads in no time at all. 

Here at Agtivation, we love helping ag businesses grow their business online. Talk to us about how you can improve your online presence today by getting in touch with our team.