5 Simple reasons you need a personal website
An online presence - in the form of a personal website - can be a powerful weapon in creating awareness, building brand credibility, telling your story & engaging your targeted audience.
Regardless of your generational affiliation or tech savviness, there’s no ignoring the impact digital has had on us all. If you have a business or brand, or happen to be a freelancer, an online presence is crucial to representing your products or services to a target audience. A personal website is the potential frontline of your marketing efforts and is often the first place prospective customers will engage with you or go to check you out.
Far from being an optional extra or the ‘last to be selected for the team,’ personal websites are emerging as frontrunners; proving their worth in ROI and making a difference to how your brand story is conveyed and received.
“A website is a window through which your business says 'hello' to the world.” -Amit Kalantri
Your digital footprint matters. You need to get it right. So get ready to embrace the empowering opportunity bound up in a customised web address.
1. Get professional
The evolution of online business in the digital space has completely redefined consumer behaviours. Your web presence becomes the entry point to establishing your professional status in the market. A website URL has replaced a business card. And if your personal website shows up in online searches, your 'street cred' is boosted. (Disclaimer: For this you will need to implement an SEO strategy).
When contemplating the setting up of a personal website, size doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you can be found online. This applies to the whole gamut: a local place of worship, a mommy blogger, an NPO, a small enterprise offering industry-related services, a independent freelancer, or a large mover-and-shaker corporate business.
Having a professional business or personal website gives your brand compelling legitimacy that other social media channels cannot compete with. (In fact, your social media presence exists to send people to your personal website).
Once your website is set up, it does the hard slog for you. Available 24/7 - every day of the year and from anywhere around the globe - your business or brand is always accessible. (You can’t get more professional than that).
Acting as a platform to highlight your expertise, achievements, and testimonials from satisfied customers, a personal website establishes you as a legitimate player among potential clients, making them more likely to engage with your brand. (Most audiences or target markets won’t trust a business without a website).
2. Get discovered
Perhaps you don’t have a business, but are a freelancer considering creating a place to showcase your portfolio, or populating an online space where you can be discovered by online recruiters if you're looking for a job.
A personal website is a great (and professional) way to stand out from the crowd.
According to Forbes, of all the branding tools at your fingertips, 56% of recruitment managers are most impressed by a candidate’s website.
A personal website is a helpful tool for brand awareness and is likely to get you in front of customers or clients who weren’t specifically looking for you but were just researching a topic and then ‘stumbled on’ your site. (The chances are way higher than trusting an organic social media strategy to do the job for you).
The internet has global reach covered, and a website offers you the opportunity to to extend your brand's presence beyond geographical boundaries. By leveraging online marketing strategies and SEO techniques, you have the chance to extend your reach, attract a wider audience and tap into new markets; opening up new growth opportunities for you.
3. Get creative
If you want control over your content and how it is presented to visitors, then you need to invest in a personal website which will serve as a central hub for all your online activities, including your brand's backstory. You also get to integrate various marketing channels - including blogs, videos, podcasts and social media posts - on one cohesive platform.
Blogging for engagement:
A blog section on a website allows you to share valuable content with your audience, address their pain points, offer solutions, and establish yourself as an industry authority or thought leader. Compelling and engaging blog posts are likely to keep visitors coming back for more and are a means to establishing trust with your readers.(It's also where you can tick Google's E-E-A-T criteria which prioritises people-first content).
Integrating social media channels:
Your personal website becomes a strategic gateway to your selected and relevant social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok etc.). This fosters a sense of community and nurtures brand loyalty as customers engage with you across various channels.
The visual design elements and content of a personal website allow you to express your brand's personality, identity, voice and values, so paying detailed attention these aspects will 'pay off' in keeping everything consistent.
It's crucial to make your website meaningful, valuable, intuitive and authentic, as this shapes the first impression you make in the online world.
4. Get informed
There is so much more to a personal website than its front-end aesthetics.
With specialist industry tools like Google Analytics and Yoast, you can gain valuable back-end insights into your website’s performance and user bahaviour. (The 'big 3' platforms for small businesses - Shopify, Wordpress and WIX - all give you back-end access to helpful SEO tools and plugins to audit your website content).
Understanding user behaviour, popular content, conversion rates, bounce rates etc. can help you make data-driven and informed decisions to optimise your website for better results. (Disclaimer: Depending on the scale of your brand or business, this is quite a nuanced and complex aspect of performance marketing and it helps to have access to an SEO specialist).
5. Get noticed
The world and its dog are online. In such a competitive market, a well-designed website will set you apart from the crowd. By showcasing your USPs (unique selling points) and brand personality, you have an opportunity to make a lasting impression on visitors which has the possibility of increased awareness, conversions and brand loyalty.
"An authentic and honest brand narrative is fundamental today; otherwise, you will simply be edited out." -Marco Bizzarri
So where do you start?
You start by investing in and crafting a personal, customised website that tells your story and reflects your brand’s values and personality. Designing such a website, however, can be overwhelming and is a time-consuming exercise, so determine the time/financial commitment. Do you have capacity and the skill set to do this yourself or do you need to engage the services of an agency or a freelance web developer? You'll have to decide what works for you.
But here's the bottom line: If you are intent on building lasting relationships with your audience, earn their trust, gain broad exposure and achieve long-term success, then a personal website needs to make it onto your to-do list.
Comments