Building an online presence that truly reflect you and your business is an ongoing challenge. It’s tempting to try to take short cuts, but there are 4 easy mistakes to avoid, as shared by one of our contributors.
Easy Mistakes to make…
Whether you are starting an online side hustle as a blogger or are bringing your business online for expansion purposes, building a credible, successful, and long-lasting digital presence can be tricky.
Indeed, with over 1 billion websites in the world, it can be tough to get your presence noticed. For the record, over 10,000 new websites are created every hour. While they are not necessarily competing against your site, the abundance of digital noise can affect your audience’s attention span. So, of course, as a digital creator, you need to make sure you get seen and heard.
Yet, with limited budget and resources, you are more prone to making mistakes along the way. Let’s take a look at some mishaps that could damage your digital presence.
Free web templates are a false economy
We get it. When you’re launching your website, you may not be ready to invest much money into it. While free web-builder templates from platforms such as WordPress or Wix may seem convenient, they tend to make every website look the same. It is worth investing time in finding a web design agency to help you build a unique and remarkable online presence. Templated sites can also lack technical SEO factors, which can also affect your ranking.
Stop writing for search engines
As we just mentioned SEO above, it makes perfect sense to discuss search engine optimization strategies. Do you need an SEO advisor? Not necessarily, as there are plenty of educational resources online. You can also consider an audit of your presence for guidance. However, it can be helpful to define precisely your audience group and how they search for content. Keyword research is important to use the right search terms, so you can attract the right people. Creating content only for the purpose of placing keywords and boosting your ranking, though, can be less effective. Writing solely to improve search engine ranking is counterproductive, as the content will feel less natural and entertaining.
The trend that keeps on giving… not
Every now and then, a popular trend appears, and every relevant blogger wants a piece of the cake. Unfortunately, using a popular topic for your content strategy can be difficult. When everyone writes about the same subject, it’s tricky to stand out from the crowd or even bring something new to the debate. If you struggle to bring a new angle to a trend, it’s best to avoid discussing it. Nobody wants to read the same idea over and over again.
The eternal filter dilemma
When you don’t have a quality camera or a good photo editing tool, it is tempting to rely on photo filters instead. The problem with filters, especially those used on social media, is that they make everyone look the same. They can transform your skin tone, the shape of your face, your makeup — as in they add artificial makeup to the image —, the colour of your eyes and hair, etc. Think about it: The purpose of taking photos and posting them on social media is to attract the attention of your audience. You want to be unique, not look like everyone else.
Building a unique digital presence on a budget is challenging, and it requires hard work to create a unique voice and look that can differentiate you from other digital creators. More importantly, being unique and recognizable is an investment every day in your website, content, SEO strategy, and images.