Your Business Is Already on the Internet, Whether You Put it There or Not
Many small businesses believe that they don’t need a website. They incorrectly assume that since their business is face to face that they don’t need to bother. Unfortunately, as this article by Malcolm Sheppard on PC4Media explains, chances are that they’re already on the internet, and that someone else is controlling their identity and message:
Local Resources: Chatter from locally-focused networks like Kijiji, Craigslist and Facebook may mention an “offline” business in passing. The site might just grab content from local phone directories. These are generally difficult to browse from Google and in some cases (like Facebook); much of the content isn’t searchable at all. Blind searches either won’t find you, or bury you in an obscure sub-page.
Keyword Harvesting: Black hat techniques often rip long tail keywords from local directories. Surfers are likely to find these during targeted searches, when they know your business exists but don’t know anything about its web presence. This creates a high level of expectation – one that’s ruined the moment they hit a useless link farm.
Communities: Facebook, blogs, rating sites like restaurantica.com and online forums let just about anybody sound off about your business – and who knows what they’ll say? The Social Web is a great way to bring people together, but it’s also land of trolls: people who will insult your company, or worse, promote it in an off-putting, abrasive fashion.
Photo by respres.
Chris Crum on July 3rd, 2008 10:41 am
I think a lot of times, people assume that online reputation management doesn’t affect them if they do not have a website, but they’re obviously mistaken. There is really no excuse for any business not to have some form of web presence at this point. Some may think “I’ve been in business for years without one” but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be doing better.
peter caputa on July 7th, 2008 6:12 am
I liked how Malcolm painted the picture of it being necessary to have a website to protect your business. There’s a lot of upside if someone proactively builds their presence online. I haven’t met a business yet that couldn’t benefit from more leads and the web and their website is the greatest asset they have in that regards.
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