Getting yourself noticed on the internet

Kevin, was invited to talk at the launch of the Bizz website. The following is a transcript...

This evening I have been asked to highlight the truths and falsehoods regarding your websites and how they perform on the internet.

Let’s start with the facts. At the moment it is estimated that there are around 4 Million internet users in South Africa. And with connectivity becoming more and more affordable and the advent of government initiatives that value will exceed 8 Million in no time.

From these numbers it is very apparent that one if you don’t have a website – you will get one soon, and two if you do have one – you need to make sure that it accessible.

Now for the fiction… Just because you do have a website – don’t think that you have a web presence.

Obviously most of you have a website and I can pretty much bank on the fact that most of you are unhappy with how your websites perform on the Internet. And by this I mean…

• do your clients visit your website regularly,
• do your clients derive any benefit from your website,
• do you derive any benefit from your website,
• and do your clients know that you have a website or even worse can your clients find your website on Google?

Being in the industry for quite some time now, I get confronted daily by customers. This is the usual statement… “I have spent a fortune on my website why doesn’t it feature on the first page Google.”

Well the answer is simple! It takes a considerable amount of focus and investment (usually more than you have plowed into the development) to get your website noticed. The perception out there is that if you have a website, all of a sudden the customers are going to come streaming in – and that just isn’t true.

Simply having a website does not mean that you have an Internet presence. You need the traffic, the visits and the website and only then is the Internet working for you.

So how do you take full advantage of the Internet?

There are 3 simple rules to follow…

1. Your website must be populated with useful and current information
2. Your website must be put together and structured properly and honestly
3. You need to take advantage of the tools and services that are available out there that will drive traffic to your website

Let me just elaborate on the first two points before I discuss the 3^rd.

On the Internet “content is truly king”. If you are selling lawnmowers and your shop is in Uitenhage you can be sure that the first thing a user is going to do is enter “lawnmovers Uitenhage” into Google.

If you have no mention of lawnmowers and/or Uitenhage in your website, you just not going to feature. And the more often you feature these keywords in your content the more relevant Google will perceive you to be and hence be ranked better.

This being said, your website does need to be put together properly so that search engines like Google know how to identify, interpret and index the information in your website correctly and accurately.

Back to rule no 3…driving traffic to your website.

Having a well developed website with loads of good information will probably get you well positioned on Google. However all your competitors are vying for the same business and are always going to try and outrank you. So how do you stay on top?

Google is very clever! Google will aggregate the amount of links from other websites back to yours. The more people linking to you, so the more credible Google perceives you to be. If a very credible website, let’s say News 24, has your link somewhere on an article on their website - will carry a lot of weight as their credibly rubs off onto your listings.

You also need to make sure that you publish as much information about you and your services on other websites as possible.

So how do you get your information, website address and links out there?

• You can send out regular press releases to recognized media houses.
• You can send out regular e-correspondence keeping your clients informed and updated.
• Ensure you publish information on as many business directory services as possible.
• Ensure that you are featured on all the major search engines.

Thank you and good evening