Hi Reader,

I was meant to be sending you part 2 of my privacy deep dive this week, but the dive got deeper than I expected. It's a big topic, with many, many changes happening all around us. So I'll get back to privacy next fortnight.

In the meantime, I had a conversation with a client last week about referral-based businesses and how to make the most of your online real estate. I know a lot of you get the majority of your clients via offline referrals. So it can be easy to overlook the value of your digital footprint. Ignoring the potential for online search-based referrals leaves an enormous opportunity on the table and doesn't take full advantage of the huge investment you've made in your website and the online real estate it gives you.

Let me explain.

While your website is usually the primary digital proof of your knowledge, expertise and professionalism to referrals who look you up, your website is wasting a huge opportunity if it isn't simultaneously attracting new leads who find you via an internet search. But people on the internet won't magically find your website just because it exists. 'Build it and they will come' only works for magic baseball fields in Kevin Costner movies.

You gotta help people find you. But without having a website that is set up to attract new leads, magicking this extra source of clients is very difficult to create on the run — you need to build this over time and can't just 'switch it on'.

You can always turn those extra leads away if you don't need them, or use them as an opportunity to scale up. Either way, there's a pool of potential clients out there who you aren't even tapping into. Getting set up to allow these leads to find you in the first place is a huge source of risk mitigation for your business.

There are some easy basics to letting the internet know you exist. Sure, longterm organic growth does need regular investment in strategy, content and site optimisation to maximise returns. But getting the foundations right and following a process that lays the groundwork will mean you already have the building blocks for longer term online growth, and will be maximising the return on your original website investment.

So, does the internet know your business exists? Help it out with 7 simple ways to get more bang for your buck from your business website.

Back to Privacy next fortnight.

Cheers,
Nic

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​Studio Clvr // Web design and clever online strategies