Personal Brand Tip 5: Build A Website That Performs To Get More Referrals

blog 2017
Written By Andrew Ford

As discussed in the last blog, if a referral comes to you from a client or associate, it’s likely to be based on your name or your business name, so you need Google to find your site for that specific search term. But that is only half the battle. Once a client finds and visit your site, it’s important they get the information they need to move to the next step and take the action you want.

Here are some tips on how to build a website that can be found in Google for your three key searches: your name, business name and niche and what to do when they get there.

The focus on each of these three sites will depend on whether you are working for someone else or have your own business. The idea is that you will appear for all three regardless. However the focus will be on your personal website if you are working for others, and your business website if you run your own company.

If you already have a website, check its quality by running it through a website grader.

We recommend Hubspot website grader as it gives you an overall score and a good breakdown of each important categories with recommendations to resolve the issues, plus it’s free. Google also has some great free tools here - Google tools 

Build an effective website - SEO tips

Before we rush off to build a new website, let’s see how your current websites are performing. Google your name, business name and niche to see how many times you show up on the front page of Google? The goal is to show up number one for all three, but also to have at least 50% of the other links pointing back to your brand. If you can also get the Google plus (G+) advertisement on the right of the search results, that’s perfection!

That type of search dominance takes time and effort. The best place to start is to have a website dedicated to each of the three search terms. You may think it’s overkill to have three different websites, instead of one that includes all?

Below is the logic in our strategy.

  • The URL matters

Google appreciates having a website dedicated to one specific topic. When the URL is an exact match for the search term it is likely to get the first link in a search result. Therefore if your company name is Social Star but you want to be found for Andrew Ford and e-ttraction, it is less likely these will show up. You can see the relevance of the search results as Google bolds these terms in the results URLs.

  • Choice of software

The choice of software or platform in which you build your site will matter. The more the code matches Google's criteria, the more likely it will show up in the results. There are many choices with the popular ones being Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly and others. They all have benefits and challenges. We recommend Squarespace because it provides high-quality code, great SEO and makes it really easy to build a website. With no code to worry about, your focus goes into the quality of your content, not the technology. It also has the benefit of being easier for your to update the content yourself, faster to get to market and cheaper than other software.

  • Regular content

One of the best ways to get your website loved by Google is to provide high quality and relevant content for your target audience. This provides four big SEO wins: it updates your website regularly, provides long tail search terms for your customer's searches, gives people a reason to come to your site and provides backlinks to others websites. Content really is the best way to improve your website SEO so get blogging!

The issue with building great websites is that there are no standards for business people to follow. There is so much conflicting information out there and opinions, it’s hard to know whom to trust. My advice is to start with a marketing and sales strategy for your specific career, market and business. Then decide on a budget and priority for the websites and get a referral to find someone to assist you.

Best of luck and visit our website for more free guides on website and SEO.

P.S. If you are looking to boost your career or business in 2017, download our “E-ttractive Personal Brand Calculator” to measure how e-ttractive your current brand is and how to improve it.

Andrew Ford
Marketing expert Andrew Ford, the founder of Social Star, has discovered the secret of ‘Powerful Branding’. With a fire for unleashing people’s inner brand and developing business models to generate profit from an individual’s passions, Andrew leverages ground-breaking digital and social media marketing techniques to create digital strategies for clients to attract maximum opportunities. Having established a strong name for himself in the field, Andrew blends traditional business techniques with now-necessary tools for entrepreneurs to achieve scale, quality, and influence in their niche. Andrew’s comprehensive business background and qualifications consist of a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (RMIT 2003), a Graduate Certificate in Management (MBA Executive Program, University of Sydney 2005), and a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University 2011). Continually on the cutting edge of his own education, Andrew has tested his marketing theories in forums such as the BCG Business Strategy Competition, which he won in 2005 against all Victorian MBA schools, and the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition (Swinburne University 2003), which he won in the Masters category. With experience working at Hewlett-Packard, Sensis (Telstra) and IBM, Andrew also has mentored dozens of junior staffs to help them achieve their professional goals. Meeting and influencing high-profile public figures helped Andrew to realise just how many professionals require more understanding and control of their public brands or appearance, and need help with the skills to use the many amazing free tools at their disposal to generate success. At Social Star, Andrew consults with clients to uncover their personal brand – both where it is today and where it can be tomorrow – and refine and define how that should be displayed in social media in order to attract their perfect target audience. Andrew mentors his clients to rapidly grow their business’ audiences, resulting in larger potential client bases and higher revenue. Applying formulas that integrate over twenty years of Andrew’s business experience and fifteen years of formal business education, Social Star specialises in building clarity and velocity for clients’ brands using the ‘Understand, Build and Leverage’ methodology. ‘Having a Personal Business enables people to have an authentic, congruent connection with their valued clients and partners, using their brand as the bridge,’ says Andrew. ‘I’m highly driven to work with the new breed of entrepreneurs and small business owners – people who have a passion for making the world a better place. Traditional business models are stepping aside as people follow their innermost dreams and my role is to see them operate within their values while creating wealth. Some people think you have to sacrifice what you love to be successful in your business, yet it is actually the opposite. Follow your passion and success will come.’ Lecturing at Swinburne University from 2009 to 2011 on brand dynamics and digital marketing, presenting at numerous conferences, and consulting to hundreds of clients, Andrew has seen his philosophy work that if you follow your unique path, based on your skills, experience, values and goals, you will automatically attract the opportunities you desire and achieve the success you deserve. Living his mantra, Andrew has created a successful business and attracts high-profile clients including musicians, athletes, authors, models, entrepreneurs, professionals and small business owners, helping them find their ‘why’ in their business and fulfilment in their lives. Business for Andrew is more than work, it’s personal. Running a personal business means that he is able to fulfil all of his values rather than separating his life from work. It supports his two boys while providing social opportunities, educational development, fitness opportunities, spiritual fulfilment and many valuable friendships. Social Star has now become the vehicle for Andrew to crystallise his mission in the world, to help people love what they do, supporting his ‘why’, that if more people loved what they did, the world would be a better place.
http://www.andrewford.com.au/
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