To a brick-and-mortar business, location is everything. Opening your store in a place where lots of potential customers see you can provide a huge boost to the success of your business as it increases traffic and exposure. That said, today many businesses offer goods and services to people who’ve never set foot in their physical location, owing to an established online presence by means of a responsive website.

The Internet provides the potential for you to market to many millions of people by setting up an online store. However, it’s not possible to reach those customers in your desired audience if they don’t know you exist. Studies show that 70 to 80 percent of consumers research businesses online when deciding whether to buy their goods or services. If they search for your business and can’t find a website, it’s almost as if you don’t exist.

To summarize, the most important steps for the visibility of your business are:

Utilizing a website builder to establish your online presence as an e-commerce store
Applying SEO best practices to account for the ranking factor of your web page

One of the benefits of having a website is it gives you a platform to share your story, including how you got started, what you’re doing now and what you see for the future of the company.

Discussing your history lets the user know how long you’ve been part of your chosen industry as well as what contributions you’ve made. Even if you’re just starting out, there’s still a lot you can say about the road that led you to your current position within your chosen niche.

Your website also allows you to tell customers about upcoming products. Mention long-term goals for where you want your brand to be ten years from now. This approach shows confidence and ambition, and it lets customers know that you plan to be around for a long time

If you are attempting to establish yourself in an industry, no matter what it is, then you should assume that your biggest competitors already have a web presence. Take a moment — think of the biggest name in any given industry. Chances are, they have a website and so do their competitors.

Be sure to research your competitors online. What are they doing that you can do better in terms of web design, load time, search engine optimization? Which marketing methods are they not using? How much more attractive can you make your website compared to theirs so that your website performance will soar?

If your business doesn’t have a website, you’re operating at the back of the pack. However, simply building a website isn’t necessarily all it takes to make you competitive. You have to proactively design it to offer better content and convince customers that what you’re selling in your e-commerce store is infinitely better than other companies.