A lot of businesses tend to rush into online growth because it seems like it’s the right thing to do, and it’s just what everyone does, not to mention the fact that customers are spending more time online than ever – it seems like the natural next step to take. But the truth is that growing online isn’t something you can rush into, and instead, you need to get the foundations right before you can build on top of them. 

Before you start posting everywhere, launching a load of expensive campaigns, or redesigning your website (again), it’s useful to take a step back and make sure you’ve got the essentials in place first because that’s how you’ll keep your brand safe, your customers happy, and your future growth much easier. With that in mind, keep reading to find out more. 

A Brand Identity That Can Grow With You 

Your brand isn’t just your logo or your colours you’ve chosen, it’s actually a lot more, and for customers, it’s the feeling they get when they interact with your business. If that feeling keeps changing because your messaging keeps changing, it’s hard for customers to really get to know you, and they might not even recognise you, which means you’re making it harder for them to return. So before you grow online, make sure the basics are in place, including what you stand for, who you serve, how you speak, and what makes you different. 

The point is, when you’ve made it clear what your identity is and it’s easy to understand, everything else becomes easier as well – your content can be much more consistent, for example, and your website can tell people what they really need to know. All of that means customers know what to expect from you, and when you grow, those things stay in place so you’ll find new customers but also keep the old ones. 

A Long Term Domain Strategy

Most business owners just buy the one domain they need and leave it there, but the fact is if you’re thinking about growing (as most business owners will be), you need to think bigger. It’s a good idea to secure variations of your name, common misspellings, and potential future sub-brands as well because that’s going to protect you from copycats and gives you room to expand without being forced into awkward names later. And it stops competitors or opportunists from buying up domains that should have been yours. 

This is where you can use tools that let you run a bulk domain search to make sure you get everything you need. That’s going to save you hours of typing possibilities one by one, and it’ll help you claim anything that might matter later on. The more your business grows, the more important this small step is going to be, so it’s worth making it one of your first priorities. 

Build Your Website For Real People 

There are lots of things you need to have on your website that are totally necessary – in fact, they’re non-negotiable. That includes your SEO, keywords, good images, working links, and so on. But the thing to remember is that you can put all that stuff in place, but it’s still not going to be all that helpful if the overall website doesn’t work for normal people who want to visit it and navigate it. People want things to be clear, and they want to know exactly what you do and how you can help them in seconds – and they definitely don’t want a website that feels overwhelming because they’ll click away fast and never come back. 

So before you start growing, make sure your site loads quickly, works beautifully on mobile, explains your business clearly, and guides visitors through the journey you want them to take. In the end, a simple, easy website is always going to be better than a complicated one, no matter how high up in the search engine rankings it appears. 

Be Trustworthy

Online growth really depends a lot on trust – remember, customers can’t see you in person, so they’ve got to rely on the clues you put in place to decide whether buying from you is a safe thing to do. Those clues are things like clear contact details, honest product descriptions, real customer reviews, security badges, visible returns policies, and transparent pricing. That all matters a huge amount, and can make the difference between growth or failure. 

You’ve got to make sure people are comfortable when it comes to buying from you – you need them to make a purchase, come back again when they need to, and tell their friends and family about you, so making sure you’re trustworthy is a wise choice to make from the start. 

Have Systems That Support Growth

The biggest mistake small businesses tend to make is trying to scale using the wrong systems, or using systems that work when you’re small but have real problems when you’re bigger. So before you even think about growing online, you need to make sure you’ve got processes that can expand with you, which means things like better inventory tools, better customer service support, automated order tracking, social media scheduling, and proper accounting software – although it’s going to depend on your business and what you do, so you’ll need to determine exactly what’s going to work for you. 

You don’t have to know everything you’re going to need from day one, but if you choose wisely at the beginning so you’ve got tools in place that you can grow or that can adapt as you do, that makes sense. And make sure that whatever it is you choose can be added to so things don’t have to change too much if you need to get additional tools down the road. 

A Consistent Content Plan 

Growing online is always going to be a lot easier when things are more predictable, and when you can depend on things and know what’s happening when – and your customers know the same thing. When it comes to your content, posting in frantic bursts and then disappearing for months just confuses the algorithm and your audience at the same time, which is never something you’ll want to happen. 

Instead, it’s a good idea to have a content plan in place that you can stick to – although it’s worth making it flexible because sometimes change is the best thing you can do.