In a world seemingly saturated by product placement, market driven research, and flashy advertising, it is essential to remain competitive. The most ubiquitous of all these strategies, is a company’s website and online presence. Today clients can access a website from just about anywhere — from their phones, tablets, laptops, and even some cars. In light of this omnipresence, it is imperative that marketing and business executives alike remain competitive and forward thinking with regard to the design of their website, and to the marketing of that site.

Listed below are four strategies to ensure the continued vitality of a company’s online presence. Marketing departments lacking these key factors should consider a redesign, in order to retain their competitive edge:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

Online search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Baidu work on the premise of keywords. These companies employ hundreds of software engineers, specifically tasked with the job of ensuring that search keywords return pages of relevant listings for that user. The specific programming that works behind the scenes of these search providers is very complicated, but utilized correctly, has the potential to revamp your website, and connect you with clients and customers alike. If a website is not optimized appropriately for search engine usage, then the marketing efforts of that company will be substantially hindered.

Social Media Integration:

Social media is perhaps only second to SEO in terms of marketing efficiency. A website that properly incorporates social media will reach a far more substantial client base, allowing marketing executives to connect with their customers, and togauge their response to both products and content. Utilized correctly, it can be a fantastic tool for sourcing customer input and making decisions regarding the larger scope of a company’s marketing plan.

Mobile Access:

According to an article from May of 2015, “mobile devices are now the main source of Google search traffic”. Given Google’s status as the largest search engine on the internet, followed closely by fellow providers Baidu, Yahoo, and Bing, it is imperative that marketing executives and decision makers optimize their websites to ensure that users can access them from their mobile devices. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to access a site that has not been properly optimized for mobile web usage. And although a company may not choose to optimize the entirety of their site for mobile usage, optimizing it to provide the most relevant content to on-the-go and mobile users will inevitably drive traffic and business towards the full site, and the company in general.

Market Competition:

Perhaps the most intangible of these four factors is market competition. This lies largely in the fact that it is a lot more difficult to gauge competitiveness, than it is togauge things that are actually measurable, like a ranking on a search engine. Marketing executives should strive to remain aware of the online presence of their competitors, by trying out their websites. Figure out what works and doesn’t work for them, so that you can utilize what does, and throw away what does not. This is more of a trial and error metric — it will take time and effort, but used in conjunction with the other three steps, it will lead to greater profitability, and efficiency.

Remaining competitive in terms of digital marketing and web design is key to ensuring the success and profitability of any business in the digital age. If other marketing efforts have gone unrewarded, it is absolutely vital to revitalize one’s web design and online marketing in order to remain competitive in today’s market.