The Importance of Creating a Web Presence Rather than a Website.

It used to be a very simple thing to say to yourself, “I need to get myself online, I'll need a website.”

Although that may not be the wrong idea, today it's not necessary for it to be your first step, and it certainly shouldn't be your only step. The creation of a Web Presence is far more important than tossing down thousands of dollars for a quality website. Let's define what a Web Presence is.

Web Presence is where a business has created multiple avenues, on the internet, for people to find and contact your company. This relates mostly to social media, websites, blogs, sales pages and professional profiles, each of which presents your business information to appropriate parties.

Plain Speak: Create a free blog, myspace page, linkedin profile, twitter account, plaxo, etc. Spread yourself around the internet instead of being boxed into just your single website. Your web presence should be viewed like peanut butter, spread it out across the wonder bread that is the internet, thickly and tastily.

One of the biggest problems a business can face in today's online marketplace is the ability to compete on search engines. Listing sites, junk blogging and Google selling the dictionary to services like bizrate or amazon have turned search engine results into a seedy swap meet for many business categories. Just try doing a search for “plubers” or “shoes” in your local area and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's nearly impossible for a small business to compete against such websites, since they are small and don't generate as much traffic. Despite being highly relevant your business isn't being listed because of companies taking advantage of Google's automated algorithm.

BUT if you create a Web Presence, spread yourself around, you can attack search engines from many different angles. You may never rank very well for “roofing wilmington de”, on a one to one level. JohnSmithCars.com simply isn't going to the pull that FindAutoMechanicsList.com will, but if John Smith has ten different places it's increasing it's presence, it's like having ten different websites working together to achieve greater search engine ranking.

Seigfried Designs can help you create a Web Presence as well as layout a complete game plan for updating and staying on top of your social media needs.

~ Alex Seigfried, Owner; Philadelphia, PA