An odd match you may think. What has your online visibility got to do with parking cars?

No, I haven’t partied too hard over the break!

I was sat here, wondering what can I do for my first blog post of 2012. Staring at a blank page and waiting for inspiration to hit just wasn’t working… I have a couple of videos done and a gazillion ideas, but none seemed appropriate.

I didn’t want to do a business New Year resolution post – let’s face it, that’s been done for the last couple of weeks all over the web.

Your Online Visibility and My Neighbour

I decided to take a walk and have a think. Stepping outside, there is my neighbour in his car making a huge deal out of trying to get it in a rather oversized parking space.

It’s a small car. The parking space was at least three times its length – you could have driven straight in. There he was struggling. Full lock one way inch forwards, full lock the other way and back another few inches.

I nodded a hello and he stalled the thing.

BAM

That was the idea hitting me not his car walloping the lamp post – although judging from the language as he got out of the car when I was walking up the road, he may well have hit it!

His struggle reminded me of conversations with many local business owners about online visibility and using the internet over the last few months. Perhaps you are familiar with the thought process? I know I am, been there, done that and got the t-shirts printed. It goes something like this:

Everyone uses the internet, we should too. We need a website. One page will do.

A few weeks later…

Hmm, that doesn’t work, we’re not even turning up in search. Scrap that idea! Everyone is on Facebook, we need to be there. Make a Facebook page, oh and don’t spend any time updating it or interacting with people either, we can’t afford that wasted time.

Two weeks later…

Nobody likes us? Our customers and potential customers don’t use social media. Abandon that! Blogging! I’ve heard that works, get me a blog. No not on our website. That web designer guy was useless, he even wanted paying for something called off-page optimisation! Use a free one.

Three posts later…

I have no idea what to write about, there’s only so many times I can say buy our great widgets they’re the best widgets ever. We have no readers anyway. Our customers don’t read blogs.

Stop wasting time with that, I had a call from the [insert directory here] sales guy. For just a small investment of our first born child he guarantees first page listings above all of our competitors and a whole slew of new business.

You know what I am going to say here too…

That didn’t work as expected either. These guys are good at their jobs, they sell well.

The real secret to local online visibility

You see when it comes to online visibility, things don’t happen overnight. Making huge changes to your online marketing strategy and leaping from one technique to the next is a lot like my neighbours parking skills.

You can spend a lot of time, effort and let’s not forget money, turning the wheel one way then the other and get nowhere fast.

Just like driving a car, there are no secrets to getting found online. It’s a series of movements, which take time and practice to coordinate together. The good thing is, you won’t cause any accidents if you don’t get it right.

The real secret to online visibility is realising that each movement has a part to play. Your website, Google Places page, social media, video, blogging, email and more all have a role. They don’t tend to work quite as well as stand alone methods. None of them are ‘set and forget’ techniques.

Where does that leave you?

You could do worse than downloading my ‘Get Started Online’ free guides. Simply pop in your name and email address in the blue strip below and I’ll send you the download link straight away.

You do have another option. You can hire someone like me to take care of your online visibility. Find out more about what I do – here

– Jan

Ant Crash Image Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos