Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing
Do I need a website to increase my web presence?
Udi Drezner, LookupPage
What can a website do for your personal branding initiatives? Having a website is a vital step in securing a respectable web presence, but having more than just a website is just as important. A blog and profiles on relevant social media sites are also crucial to your increased web presence. The key to success – using them in conjunction in order to best benefit your web presence goals.
Your Website and Web Presence
Search engines are the agents that refer your website to the relevant parties (i.e. people that are searching for terms relevant to your brand) – so if you do not have a good image in the eye of search engines they won’t display your site on the SERPs or will display them so low down that few searchers will be persistent enough to find your site.
Here are a few tips on improving your website in order for it to have an impact on your web presence:
- Create incoming links on external sites – from your LookupPage profile to your website or blog site and visa versa.
- Keep your keywords as relevant as possible.
- Create new content regularly.
Social Media and Consumer Generated Media
Being active on the relevant social media sites these days is vital to your web presence efforts, as most of the focus is shifted from static websites to dynamic, interactive, consumer-driven ‘hang outs’.
Users looking for information on you or your brand will probably search Facebook or Twitter as well as Google or other search engines. These social media sites aren’t all indexed completely by search engines due to privacy issues, but your profile should be listed in the SERPs. Users looking to make contact might also do so via these social media sites rather than navigating to your website’s contact page to find a traditional email address or telephone number.
Some tips for increasing online visibility using social media:
- Interlink between profiles.
- List your website/profile with directories.
- Make sure you have a relevant biography.
- Look for opportunities to join discussion in social media groups.
Blogs and Blogging
Blogging is not only a great tool for increasing your web presence, but also a nifty way to create valuable content to attract readers and also be indexed by search engines. Some people use their blog for their personal branding efforts as it is easier, quicker and cheaper than building and maintaining their own websites. Blog posts written using specific keywords will increase your relevancy and therefore improve your position on the SERPs over time.
Do some research into popular search terms and make sure your content always revolves around what your audience is already looking for.
Some tips for better blogging:
- List your blog on the appropriate blog directories.
- Syndicate each individual post.
- Link between posts and out to your website.
- Link to your blog when commenting on other blogs.
Boosting Web Presence with Your LookupPage Profile
By registering for a LookupPage profile you can boost the search results for your name. You can add personal information, a biography, contact details, a profile picture and links to your various websites, blogs and social media profiles. By registering for the LookupPage Pro package you’ll be able to do all of that as well as boost SEO efforts on your name or company’s name. The added benefits you receive as a LookupPage Pro member include:
- Comprehensive visitors’ information and analysis.
- Top Google positioning – guaranteed!
- Get your personalised domain name (www.yourname.com or similar) – which will do wonders when you’re trying to build your Google CV.
- Display your business info, contact details, logo and link.
- List your business on the Business Lookup. This will help you promote your business by allowing you to add a direct link to your website from an independent source. You will also benefit from relevant traffic to your site as well as better SERPs for your company’s name.
Simple, visible and trackable: a LookupPage profile is the perfect place to start improving your web presence. By combining a LookupPage with a website or blog site, success will come that much quicker.
Ultimately, it’s all about consolidating your online efforts. A website normally forms a major component of that, and it is normally indicative of a sense of professionalism and that one has taken a series of proactive steps to communicate with the market.
*I am currently working as a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) activities manager at Cyclicom, focusing on LookupPage.com, a service for increasing your professional web presence, promoting yourself when people search your name on the web, and controlling the information people see about you. If you would like further information on LookupPage, feel free to drop me an email.
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Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
3 Comments | “Do I need a website to increase my web presence?”
The answer is not as simple as “yes”. While a traditional site can help there are plenty of profitable businesses that are capturing new customers through social media. For example there is a company that sells Korean BBQ from trucks. They are building “instant” traffic by sending out tweets on Twitter to announce where they are stopping next. According to the article I read they are building foot traffic and increasing sales.
Great read, thank you so much!
surely the answer to this is just a simple yes?