With more and more customers using the internet to make choices about which businesses they will patronize and which products/services they purchase, you as a small business simply can’t afford to fall behind when it comes to your online presence. The first and key factor to a powerful and engaging online presence is your business profiles across all the pertinent review and citation sites.
A good online profile is one that is current, complete and reflects your business accurately. The consistency of your business presence across the internet is crucial to gaining customer confidence, bringing traffic to your website and ultimately, bringing you more customers. And perhaps most importantly, taking the time to ensure that your online profile is optimized will also help you attract the attention of search engines potentially boost your business.

Make sure you’ve covered the following steps for optimal online business profile:

Great photos: A picture is worth more than a thousand words – plus, it’s the first thing that a customer sees. The photos should reflect your personality business culture and be well positioned and of adequate size. They can be headshots or full-length photos, but they should be of high quality, preferable taken by a professional, so you may want to consider that investment.
Photos adds a “human” touch to your profile; when online customers can see who they will be doing business with or “put a face” to the business, they feel more comfortable.

Eye-catching logo: Logos have become standard for many small businesses that have created special brands. If you have a business logo, it should be creative and attention-grabbing. It should appear consistently in strategic places throughout your profile. The same applies to your branding.

Great Bio: You’d be surprised how many customers can be influenced by this. This should not bore the reader to tears but be informative and engaging. Wording is crucial so you may want to consider hiring a professional copywriter for this. Include when and how your business was established, important milestones or achievements and a little bit about yourself as the owner, your vision and your goals.

Don’t leave the customer guessing: Make sure you provide complete and relevant information about your business. Describe exactly what your business does, clearly list in bullet points the services it provides, any specific geographic areas you cover and why you are different from other businesses. Try to anticipate any questions a potential customer may have and make sure they are covered in your description.

Current/correct information: An outdated phone number or address will give the impression that you are sloppy, unprofessional or worse – that you have gone out of business. A potential customer will most likely go straight to a competitor who has taken the time to make sure their info is current.

1. Sell your services with credibility: In other words, don’t exaggerate and don’t be dishonest. Do not use vague statements about your services or products and make customers read between the lines. DO NOT under any circumstances list services/products you do not provide, even if you are planning to add them on in the future. When those services actually become available, you can update your profile accordingly.

2. Provide relevant links: In addition to providing a link to your website, you may want to include links to photos of your products to outstanding testimonials or reviews. Make sure your social media links are easily seen and accessible. You may also want to include links to your blog site if you have one and if it’s relevant to your business.

3. What are the potential gains to your business? Having an awesome online profile will show customers that you’re a true professional eager to do business with them. It drives more potential customers to your website, and if your website is as great as you profile, you will start getting more and more calls from clients. In other words, your business will be taken seriously.

Building a strong online presence does not happen overnight. It takes time and effort before you can get customers to trust and like your business and for search engines to put you in their higher rankings. But with more and more customers shopping for services and products online, it is well worth it. If you want to appear online as a trusted, reputable business, it all starts with an awesome business profile. Keep in mind also, once these profiles are optimized make sure you are using ReviewerPro.com to drive customers to them so they leave you more and more wonderful reviews – essentially taking care of all your online marketing concerns!