The internet is a mind-bogglingly big place. It’s kind of scary, when you think about it. At least in the real world there are landmarks that can help guide you. No such thing exists on the internet. Although you may flow on from site to site, any sense of direction is illusory.
Your target site users are lost in this world. If they happen across you in the search engines, there’s no guarantee that they’ll find their way to you again. There are no landmarks. So you have to create them.
Enhancing your findability
‘Findability’ is actually a term used in the web design industry. It refers to the ways websites are built to enable information to be found most easily, and is linked with SEO. What we’re talking about here, though, is the things you need to do off your pages to make your site easy to find. Hence, ‘findability.’
If you want to be found on the internet, you can’t rely on simply attracting traffic from the search engines. It’s true that search traffic makes up the majority of traffic for most sites, and this is one reason to concentrate on your site’s search engine optimisation. You can talk to us at SEO Consult Australia about this. It’s a good idea to build up your approachability from other areas of the net, though.
Being seen around the net can mean you continue to get some traffic even when your rankings dip, but it can also help you get good rankings in the first place. If your site seems popular around the net, the search engines are likely to promote you as well. The way people search for information is also getting more diverse, moving away from the search engines, so increasing your general exposure is a good idea.
Places you need to be seen
If you want to be findable on the net, you need to be seen in as many places you can. Here are some ideas:
*Industry forums. Industry forums can be helpful in a number of ways, not least of which is exposure to your target user groups. Consumers often go to industry forums with questions, so it’s a great way to establish your authority in your field.
*General question-and-answer pages. Places like Yahoo Answers are good to visit every now and then. Answering the popular questions can get you quite a bit of net coverage, as these tend to pop up in Google searches.
*Industry publications. These attract a lot of attention, so it’s good to get into the habit of leaving comments.
*Directories. This is kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? When someone wants to find a business, they have traditionally looked in a directory, and this hasn’t changed that much on the internet.
*Social media sites and the other main avenues of the net. These have become the watering holes of the net.
Increasing your general net exposure is simply a smart thing to do. The more places you can be seen, the more potential you have to attract customers.
