How to Make Your Online Presence Awesome and Amazing

How do you want your online presence to appear when potential clients search your name?

I’m excited to share this post about how to make your online presence awesome and amazing! That way, when someone searches for your business or your name, the pages they find highlight your expertise. Additionally, so potential clients and students see your credibility and expertise in the way that you want them to.

We’re talking about how to manage your online presence, your web presence, with intention. Why’s this important now? Because, that way you can boost your authority and start more valuable relationships online. You know, the kind of relationships that lead to new customers, clients, and students for your services, programs, and courses.

For starters, I've always believed that keeping your online presence buffed up like a diamond, keeping it as fresh and current as possible, is incredibly valuable. When you think about it, your online presence has been super important ever since your audience and clients began searching for EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY on their smart phones. Your web presence is one of the key ways potential clients form an opinion about your authority, credibility, and expertise.

Your online presence has been super important ever since your audience and clients began searching for EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY on their smart phones.

Now that we’re in a pandemic quarantine, how your business shows up online is *huge* for your credibility. You want super-effective ways to reach future clients, educate your audience, and grow your business using the digital world (pretty much our only option for now), don't you?

An attention-grabbing, visible, trustworthy, easy to find online presence with plenty of great content you created, is now a must-have. Crucial. Vital. Urgent. Don't get left behind, your online presence needs to be stellar—now more than ever!

What do you want clients to find when they 'google' you?

I hope the tips, steps, and actions in this post inspire you to check out your online presence (Google yourself), and then step back and consider this:

What do you need to see when your name's searched, so that you feel confident, certain, and powerful?

What search results will make you smile and say, "Yes! That’s who I am and what I do!"

Here’s one thing we absolutely have to agree on, the most important result when someone searches your name is: your business website! There’s no getting around it, your website is the foundation for your online presence. Don’t forget: your website’s where you invite followers, visitors, and fans to join your email list.

You’ve heard it before, social media isn’t all you need. Even if you have a healthy social following, experts say you never know when Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram’s going to *change the algorithms*. And you could lose contact with your followers. To avoid that terrible fate, you want to maintain your website by updating it’s content, blogging, and more, at least weekly. We’ll talk more about that in a moment.

When you think about it, your business website is your 7 x 24 spokesperson, for starters. And even more, don't forget this role—your site is your virtual salesperson!

When you think about it, your business website is your 7 x 24 spokesperson, for starters. And even more, don't forget this role—your site is your virtual salesperson!

So, what do you want your website and online presence to say to a potential client who searches your name? Or a curious student who searches out how to solve the kinds of problems your programs, services, and courses solve?

How about the potential client or student who met you months ago, and now is thinking about how to make herself smarter in your area of expertise?

What if a woman, who could be your favorite client…

…Wants to brush up on her knowledge about the problems you solve?

…And she searches your name online?

…Are you happy about what she’ll find?

So you see, the search results that come up in Google for your name, a.k.a. your online presence, needs to fill a lot of different roles, doesn't it?

If you’re ready for action steps to polish your online presence, let's dive in!

11 Steps to Make Your Online Presence Amazing

Step #1: Goal setting.

If you’re a planner, review your lead generation, list building, or marketing plan so you can set goals for using your online presence to blow through your business growth targets. You’ve likely already mapped out numbers for how many email subscribers, and buyers you want in the next 90 days.

You want to look at your revenue goals.

• How much income do you want to earn in the next 3 months?
• How many new clients, customers, or students do you want to bring in?
• Rather than specific dollar goals, is your next 90-day priority to start or increase your email subscriber list?
• Are you starting a project to begin leading your programs and classes online, instead of in person, since the lockdown has totally changed the way we all do business.

Either way, whatever comes up when someone searches your name impacts how smooth the path is for your potential clients to find you. It’s up to you: tie your goals to your web presence so you have one more advantage working in your favor!

Step #2: Find out where you stand: Google yourself.

Yep, search your name and your business name online. That was easy, right? Here are my results:

Are you with me? Wonderful, let’s keep going.

Step #3: Print out a screen shot of page 1 of your results.

Most people don't search beyond page 1, so let's work with your first page of results. Here’s an example of how my results show up.

Step #4: Study your search engine results page.

Leave your computer, or close it. Then, sit somewhere quiet and digest what you're seeing. You're putting yourself in the place of a potential client, student, or partner whose heard about you and wants to find what you do and what you're all about.

Imagine how you'd feel if you were standing right next to them when they popped open page-one of the results for your name. Here's the thing, you want to feel confident about everything that appears on your results page. That means every single website or social media site that shows up.

After all, your online presence represents your reputation in that moment. This page of results popping up for your name is your brand. It makes an impression on the person looking for you, or looking for help with a problem that they want to solve.

This is why I so much want for you to feel good about your online presence. You want to feel amazing about the information potential clients find on sites that show up when they search your name, right?!

To help you think clearly about your online presence, here are some questions.

For each social media site and website that comes up for your name:

• How up-to-date are each of the sites that come up for your name?
• When was the last time you updated your blog, services, program, or home page on your website?
• Does it reflect your most up-to-date value proposition and services?
• Does your bio explain exactly who you help, and what kind of results they can expect?
• When was the last time you posted on each of the social media sites where you set up a profile?

If you put up a profile on Twitter, maybe years ago, and haven't updated it for months, or years, make a decision.

• Do you really need to have a Twitter profile or fill-in-the-blank social media site?
• Are your dream clients active on that site?

Note: If it’s not a site you intend to keep up to date, consider deleting your profile. If you want to keep the social site handle (user name) because it’s your brand and you don't want anyone else to take it, find a way to post updates at least a few times each month. Using automated social media scheduling systems like Buffer can make this easier.

Step #5: Mark up your page of results.

Make notes about what you want to fix. Put a star by the sites you love and you don't need to worry about! For everything else, make yourself an action list.

Here's an example of an excellent online presence that communicates trust, experience, and expertise.

My friend and colleague, Billie Frances, founded GuidingMindfulChange.com in 1993. Billie is a National Board Certified Coach, among other credentials, who trains and certifies life, health, and wellness coaches for multiple national programs. She is amazing at managing her online presence, as you can see in the screen shot of her Google search results here.

Billie keeps her LinkedIn profile updated. She posts actively and regularly on Facebook and Twitter. The search engines tend to favor LinkedIn and if you have a profile, it typically appears toward the top of your results. So, it's an important social profile to keep up, right?

Step #6: Prioritize the aspects of your online presence you're going to improve.

To be strategic, start with the pages, sites that come up closer to the top. Let's face it, most people are going to start clicking at the top of page-one of search results, right? Take each portion of your web presence and website content, one at a time, and polish them till they shine like the Hope Diamond.

You got this, now get into action!

Step #7: Give yourself a trust factor grade.

How much educational content have you posted recently on your website?

How frequently are you sharing tips on social media profiles, like your Facebook Business Page?

What small baby steps, can you take today, to improve your web presence on each of your social sites?

Step #8: Refresh your perfect client description

Hands down, the fastest way to jumpstart your web presence is to get clear on who exactly is the client you want more of. That way, your decisions about what content you develop and publish on your website and social media becomes easy peasy.

Remember, in your web presence, your content, and your social media posts, you’re talking to your ideal clients. The folks you started your business to impact, in the first place.

Step #9: Create content your dream clients are looking for. On a schedule.

To boost your trust factor, there’s simply no substitute for publishing original content on your website. Work toward doing this each week. At the very least, every two weeks you want to share lessons, tips, how-tos, and pep talks for your dream clients. Find more here about getting organized to produce content on the regular in this post.

Step #10: Is your branding consistent across your web presence?

Ask yourself, do all of your social media sites have the same bio, brand colors, fonts, and message? Here’s where you can bring your brand up to date in a snap, by refreshing each social media site, or online community where you (plan to) hang out so you can build relationships.

Step #11: Evaluate LinkedIn as a source for relationship building.

If you’ve dismissed LinkedIn, give it some consideration. As of this writing, LinkedIn has 660 million users; nothing to sneeze at, is it? Check it out, see if your dream clients are active there.

With other social media sites so crammed, LinkedIn may be an opportunity for you!

Final Thoughts

Once you decide you want to make it easy for yourself to start relationships online, the best way to manage your online presence is to follow one habit that takes you very little time:

Promise me this, you'll Google your name and your business name regularly. Make it a habit so you can swiftly make corrections if something isn’t up to date.

By checking your search results online, it will remind you to post regularly on your social media sites.

The best way to keep your web presence as amazing as you are, is to create content and publish it on your website, specifically for your dream clients. Regularly.

~ Cynthia

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