A person with no face has no way of sharing their life story, goals, contact info, or what they may have to offer. The lack of facial features would make life and communication next to impossible. How would you get to know a person with no facial features?
A business without an online profile and presence is like this person – faceless. How would a business share what their offerings of products or services? How would they be found by customers? The answer is…..you wouldn’t know they exist. But how do you “get found these days? Old timers might answer – the phone book. Phone books are truly a thing of the past. In my world, phone books simply become donations to the local school’s paper drive. I don’t keep any of them – not even the pretty, color ones. Who has space for those? In this world of mobile technology, companies MUST have an online presence – meaning they need to have a FACE online. But what exactly does that mean?
I like to call it “Web Presence Optimization.” By now, surely you’ve heard of SEO or search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization is defined by the generic, easy to read Wikipedia as, “… the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results”. Web Presence Optimization simply takes it a few steps further. Companies need to appear “alive” to those searching. 81% percent of US adults, use the internet to find answers to questions or solutions to problems. How can you ignore those kinds of numbers?
In order to take advantage of these, a company needs to demonstrate a personality. A well built website can put a face on a company. It needs to be functional and easy to navigate. The content needs to be good. By Google’s standards, the content needs to be “unique” as well; not just some mumbo-jumbo thrown together to fill a page. Searchers can handle good content. As well, today’s searchers are incredibly “visual,” and seem to respond well to images.
Companies need to have a online presence on social media outlets as well. By developing relationships with your clients and potential customers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and other social media outlets, again, allow a company to put forth a personal “image.” It takes time, but it’s worth it. Reaching out to the Internet world, and creating a company persona that people want to connect with, should be a goal of any and every company out there. Everyone’s web presence strategies are unique to their own situation. That being said, you still have to have a strategy!
Good Luck – if you need help, give us a call!
~ Melanie
Melanie Ledbetter-Remy