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Expert Answers to Biz Questions
Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.
5 Things You Didn't Realize Your Online Business Needed
Many people think that they can start an online business and start making money overnight. The truth is that, even if you’ve got an incredible service, digital expertise, commercial experience, and a whole lot of luck, this is rarely the case. An online business needs a business plan and strategy like any other business as well as several other things which you may not have considered. Here are five things you didn’t realize your online business needed.
- Insurance
Running an online business carries a high level of risk in terms of cybercrime. Without the right levels of protection and security procedures, the sensitive information of both the business and your customers could be compromised. This is why you need to ensure you protect your business with cyber insurance from a provider like Hiscox insurance.
- To comply with legal regulations
You are putting yourself at risk of high financial penalties and potentially even prosecution if you do not comply with certain legal regulations. From complying with Data Protection laws, displaying all the necessary policies and handling financial data to advertising compliance, you need to ensure you know the law inside and out. Click here for a full guide to eCommerce and the law.
- An SEO Strategy
The old phrase ‘build it, and they will come’ could not be more untrue in the world of online business. The internet is a crowded place, and simply creating a website and waiting for customers to find it is not enough. Successful online businesses are those who have a comprehensive SEO or Search Engine Optimization strategy which continues to evolve with the business and technology. Essentially, SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to increase the likelihood that it will be ranked highly in search engines such as Google and Bing. The websites which appear on the first page of results receive more visitors to their pages and if the website is of high quality and can convince the customer to purchase more sales.
- A Blog
Part of an effective SEO strategy may involve creating articles and blogs on your website, which are relevant to your product, service, or industry. If written in line with an SEO strategy, e.g., including relevant and popular keywords and answering common consumer queries, your blog post may be presented to the customer when they are searching for businesses like yours. Blogs are also a way to show website visitors that you are an expert in your field, to engage your customers, and to explore your product or service in a more detailed way.
- Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising
In addition to SEO and a blog, you may want to consider Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. You create an advert, which is a lot like a normal result but is labeled ‘ad’ and appears at the top of the search engine results when a customer searches for a specific keyword. When a user clicks on your advert, you pay a fee. This can increase traffic to your site, but you need to be careful you are not spending money on a lot of clicks which don’t convert into customers. This is where PPC targeting comes in as it can improve the quality of the clicks you get.
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