by Sara Sims
If you haven’t noticed, the Internet has radically changed the way the world does business. Seemingly overnight, a website has become a minimal mark of professionalism for a coaching practice. The reality is that a website for your practice is no longer a luxury; it is the business card of the 21st century. Having a website is the first step for marketing your practice and attracting new clients. As the Internet grows in popularity, coaches without a website are unknowingly losing clients to ones who have embraced the new standard. If you do not have a website or the one you have is not generating new clients, then you are missing an opportunity.
Unfortunately, having an attractive website that functions well won’t necessarily bring you new business. Once you have a website, you need to know the real name of the game in website marketing… getting a high search engine ranking so that your website shows up on that front page when someone "Googles" for coaching in your specialty or region. Search engine optimization, or SEO, refers to the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website and is essential for effective website marketing. After all what good is a nice-looking website if it is floating out in cyberspace where no one can find it?
You can improve the search engine ranking of your website in a variety of ways, and today I am going to focus on one:
Networking your website
Being listed by a respected online directory such as the IAC's Find a Coach directory is a great way to optimize your website. Not only will your directory listing be a source of direct client referrals, it will also alert search engines that your site is part of a respected community, and search engines will increase your page rank because of it.
Directory listings and websites work hand in hand and are both vital for effective website marketing. Everything you do to network your website with other respected sites on the net will drive more traffic to your website and give you a higher search engine ranking. If you're not yet listed in an online directory, I encourage you to get listed in the IAC's Find a Coach directory.
Sara Sims is the Director of Business Development at Coaching-Websites.com, offering a comprehensive website package with many incredible features for only $59 a month. Please click here to register for Sara’s free upcoming webinar, The Four Biggest Online Marketing Secrets That Will Make—Or Break—Your Practice.
Member benefit: IAC members receive their first three months of website service free with a promo code available on the Coaching-Websites member benefit page @ http://www.certifiedcoach.org/index.php/my_iac_community/overview_of_benefits/coaching_websites/ (log in first to see the promo code).
