Imagine this. You just heard about a great new restaurant opening up in town, so you Google them to take a look at their menu. But you can’t find them. There’s no website, no Facebook, no Google results.
No worries. It’s a small town. You’ll find them when you’re running your errands tomorrow. You drive around, check out the local shopping center, take a walk down Main Street—but they’re nowhere to be found.
It doesn’t matter how great your word of mouth is if your customers can’t find you.
Visibility is one of the most important factors to consider when growing your business. The more visible you are, the less you’ll have to spend on costly marketing tactics. Once people have found you, you’ve already won half the battle: now you just need to convince them to become customers.
There are a few things to consider when evaluating your visibility, whether you own a brick-and-mortar or an online business. Here’s what you should consider:
Physical visibility
For brick-and-mortars, your physical visibility is key. If you provide services or sell most of your products in-person, people need to find you before they can spend money at your business. There are a couple factors to consider when evaluating your physical visibility.
Location
Location is the number one most important consideration when it comes to visibility. Many factors—like price, availability, and size—go into choosing the right location for your business, but visibility should be a top concern.
Are you located on the busiest road in town? In a popular shopping mall? Right on Main Street? Great! You’re already a step ahead.
If you’re in an area with less foot or car traffic, or maybe in the back corner of a shopping center, you’ll have to work a little harder in the rest of the areas below to increase your visibility. And you may need to step up your marketing to help customers find out about you and seek you out.
Signage
Another key aspect of increasing your visibility is to ensure your signage is as conspicuous and plentiful as is allowed by your city and landlord. Make sure your primary signage is easily readable from key vantage points near your location, and that it is well-lit for nighttime.
Don’t discount other types of signage, either. Negotiate with your landlord to get a prime spot on the shopping center signage board. Don’t forget additions like an overhead hanging sign to attract people walking past. Add in window signage, sandwich boards/a-frames, and any other additional signage that can help your business stand out.
Learn more about how to leverage signage to increase your visibility.
Digital Visibility
Your digital presence is just as important as your physical location in today’s world. Make sure you can be found easily by anyone searching for your type of business online. Online visibility can be the difference between someone choosing you or your competitors.
Website
Your website is a critical piece of your online visibility. In fact, we consider it almost a non-negotiable nowadays. Do not cede share to your competitors simply because they have a website and you don’t. If a potential customer searches “hair salons near me,” you want to make sure your website pops up—not just every other hair salon in town.
It’s easier than ever today to build your own website—there are even completely free options out there for you. Of course, a paid website with a dedicated domain name will look more professional and improve your SEO (more on that later). But something is better than nothing.
Website builders like Web.com, Squarespace, and Wix make it easy for you to get started, no coding or design skills necessary.
Online Listings
Your online listings are another critical component of your online visibility. Think of online listings like virtual yellow pages. They’re where customers can find out basic information like your location, operating hours, and your business overview. They’re also a great place for you to link to your website and social media to really help customers learn what you do.
Google Business Profiles are the most important listings. When people search for your business name or for something like, “florists near me,” on Google, the top results are almost always Google Business Profiles.
Other listing sites that are important to consider are Yelp, Bing, Facebook. (Yes—Facebook is both a social media site AND an essential local listing for search results.) Industry-specific sites like Angi may also be critical for your business.
Social Media
Social media works in two ways to increase your online visibility. First, platforms like Facebook, in particular, serve as their own local listings. All the information you put on your Google Business Profile should also be included on your Facebook page. Facebook has a very powerful internal search engine of its own. It also has very strong SEO, so Facebook pages often show up very high in Google search results. That’s why we recommend that every small business has a Facebook page.
Social media is, of course, also great for its intended purpose. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok encourage users to endlessly scroll, and ultimately, discover new accounts and creators. If you post content that resonates, you can get a lot of eyes on your page and your business. Social media platforms also allow you to build online communities and showcase what makes your business special—ultimately helping you stand out even more.
If you’re comfortable on social media, leveraging these platforms can make a huge difference in increasing your business’s visibility. But there are potential downsides to social media, as well.
It can be very time-consuming to maintain active social media accounts, and it may not be worth it to spend too much time posting frequently for those who are less internet savvy. You also risk making a cultural faux pas or alienating customers by trying to follow trends. That’s why we only recommend diving deep into social media for those who are already comfortable with the platforms.
SEO
SEO isn’t a specific platform, but rather the driver behind how you’ll be found online. It stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it essentially determines how high up you’ll show in search results on sites like Google. Many factors go into SEO, but there are some basic tips you can follow to optimize it and ensure you show up higher in results—thus increasing your digital visibility.
First, is to follow the rest of the advice in this article, and make sure you have a website, local listings, and social media accounts. All of these should have matching, up-to-date information. This signals to search engines like Google that you’re a legitimate business that’s still in operation. It’s also why your Google Business profile is so important—Google of course trusts its own site the most and will look to your profile to check that your business is legit.
You should also ensure your website and listings make it clear where you’re located and what you do. One of the factors that Google considers when showing search results, is how close the searcher is to the place they’re looking for. When searching, “Italian restaurants near me” you only want results that are actually in your area, right?
To improve your Local SEO, use keywords that make it clear both what you offer and where you are. Your address should be clearly stated and you should even consider mentioning the area you serve in your “about” section.
Another factor that impacts your SEO is reviews. The more reviews you have, the more recent your reviews are, and the more responses you give to the reviews you receive, the better your SEO will be. It’s another factor that signals to Google that your business is active and real, so don’t forget about reviews when building your online presence. Not sure where to start? Learn everything small business owners need to know about online reviews.
Overcoming Low Visibility
Not every business will have the benefit of great physical or online visibility. When you’re new, rent at the best locations might be too expensive to make sense for your bottom line. And it takes time to build your digital presence and improve your SEO. You won’t show up at the top of search results right away.
As you build your visibility and brand awareness, you may need to put more time, money, and effort into your marketing to help customers find you. But if you stay consistent and build your digital presence, you’ll find that customers will start finding you with less and less effort on your part. And you might even find that your business will grow to the point that you need to move to a bigger location in the center of town.
Need help with your marketing to increase your business’s visibility? Check out these ideas to market your business for free.