Peter Bubel on Digitally Tuning-Up Your Business for the New Year

As we roll into 2018, creating a vibrant and prominent online presence for your business is vital to its survival. If you haven't been going out of your way to keep up with digital trends these days, no worries - here’s a couple simple things you can do improve your business’s online footprint.

Update your local SEO

Especially for owners of smaller, single location businesses, whipping your local search engine optimization into shape for the new year is critical. These days, when people are in need of an unfamiliar good or service, they turn to search to get information and locate it. Savvy entrepreneurs are catching onto this and are beginning to put much more emphasis on local search, even shelling out big bucks to companies that promise to skyrocket them to the top of search result pages.

Fortunately for businesses that are strapped for cash, there are still ways they can improve their local SEO on the cheap or even for free. Here are a couple tips:

• Do an in-depth Google search for your business, or use an SEO tool like Moz Local Search, to find any duplicate or outdated results. That means old business names, phone numbers, email addresses or even brick and mortar store locations. These inaccuracies can harm your business online, so if you find any inaccuracies, make sure to call Google and get them taken care of.
• Make sure your Google MyBusiness page is up to date, looks professional and has been verified. Double check that the phone number, website URL, and addresses are all accurate.

Get serious about your social media strategy

Just a few years ago, the vast majority of businesses didn't take social media very seriously. They couldn't see any value in advertising their business to what they perceived to be teenagers and niche groups of adults mostly sharing cat photos.

Today, things have changed; more and more consumers are turning to a business's social media profile as an avenue to request support, express concerns and even demand refunds. Social media platforms like Facebook are now automatically rating metrics such as response time to customer inquiries and displaying this information publicly on your business profile. Therefore, timely, professional and to these types of inquiries can vastly sway your audience's perception of the integrity of your business itself.

Make sure your business is responding timely and professionally to any questions, and that the content you post is effectively engaging your audience.

Peter Bubel, who lives in Reading, Pennsylvania, founded his property management business, PANA Rentals, when he uncovered a need for local, affordable housing for students attending Penn State University's Berk's campus. Along with discovering ways to provide housing options that fit a variety of needs, Peter Bubel is also involved in a number of local initiatives to help make housing more accessible for those who need it most. Peter is an active member of the Reading community and is always striving to find new ways to support the local area.