A professional presence online for your personal brand is important in building a good reputation and attracting the right leads. The style and content of your website is the point of reference from which all other of your online entities flow. You also want to ‘stand out from the crowd’ with your own unique message and style.
A well optimized website can bring more visibility for your brand depending on how much time and effort you put into it. This means content should be appealing to both search engines and visitors.
Here are several techniques to help bring up the level of your website:
1. Quality Over Quantity. While posting a lot of blog posts can display a long string of content none of these will really be noticed unless the articles are not focused on your target market, and rank well on the search engines. To accomplish this it is good practice to avoid keyword stuffing, and instead choose a variety of words that branch off of one topic that naturally flow throughout the copy, which should be no more than 2,400 characters in length for the best viewership. Always perform a final edit and make any adjustments before hitting that publish button. And if you are finding that your post is too lengthy, consider breaking it up with bullet points, numbers, and graphics. Clear, concise, and easy-to-read content will garner the most views.
2. Use Professional Videos and Graphics. A simple message about a product or service or interesting image will stand out to your readers. There are a many free resources available to help you achieve this, including SlideShare, Pixabay, Canva, and PicMonkey just to name a few. This will also count toward your website’s search engine ranking along with great content.
3. Conduct and Study or Survey – Is there a particular topic that your brand specializes in? Then why not do your own research and come up with an infographic or a fact-based article with statistics to build a stronger reputation online? This is a great way to encourage comments and shares on social media. Attract even more readers with surveys, which can also be posted on places like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Your brand can mix content up with text articles, video presentations, and graphics.
4. Create Links Back to References – When using a trusted, professional source in your articles be sure to include a link to either their website or article. Many times they will receive a ping-back to your story, which can build your brand influence and sharability. Choose a variety of influencers and experts in your niche and watch your network grow.
A quality website that gets noticed for a personal brand is one that not only pays attention to its design, but includes well-optimized content that is original and engaging to readers. It pays to take that extra time and even a small investment to implement these steps and gain more loyal subscribers with higher rankings on the search engines.
