Why you need a personal website
By: Labi Francis
Tags: Content Strategy, Content Marketing, Personal Branding, Personal Website, SEO

Personal website? Having a personal website for yourself, your services or company is the new resume/portfolio and also a subtle requirement for people to trust you, do business with you or hire you for a job in a global space. What makes having a personal website unique? I wrote on how to get a job and this post is an add up to it. Maybe you are pondering on this question “do I really need a website? ” Yes, you do and I will tell you why. I have read stories about Human Resource Managers searching on Google to know if they can find any useful information about potential employees. Also, if they happen to find any, they’ll will judge them by their online content.

I read a story of a guy who saw an advert for a job with a celebrity, while others were busy sending their resumes, he created a website for himself with relevant content and sent the link via twitter to the celebrity. This made him to stand out amongst many. And of course, he got the job.

What do people see when they search your name on Google? Are you producing online content in your area of expertise that will help people and promote your work?

Having a personal website gives you leverage to promote your content thereby showcasing your work. Let’s say I have a business deal with some Americans and we haven’t met but online. They’ll like to know more about me and they’ll definitely search “labi francis” on Google to know what kind of person I am. If that happens, I am glad my personal website will pop up. There is a bit of work to make this happen (my site appearing on the first page) which is called Search Engine Optimization(SEO). I will discuss that in another post. So, whatsoever they find about me, be it good or bad will influence their decision. I am sure they’ll find me to be a good guy that loves jollof rice (hahaha).

Having a personal website gives you a platform to connect with the world.

Another benefit of having a personal website is to luxury of connecting to the world. Your website can be accessed from any part of the world.When I check my website stats on Google Analytics ( labifrancis.com) I see it has been visited from different parts of the world.People can read, comment and share your articles from any part of the world. Sometimes, if what you share is useful to them – maybe an organization- they can invite to be a speaker in an event happening in their country. Yeah, they’ll will cover the cost of everything because they’ve found value. But what if you have no online content? I guess you know the answer.

Do you have products or services you offer?

If you are to scale your business to a high level, you’ll definitely need a website. It gives you brand integrity and access to many customers.

Influence and add value to people.

Having a personal website helps you to influence people and add value to people by sharing your knowledge. The more you create online content for people to consume, the more you influence them.

I know you might say, “well, I have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter accounts etc. and I can promote my work” These are very important social media accounts you should have. But According to this report , there are 3.2 billion searches on Google per day. That’s because people are looking for solutions to there problems. Will they find you online?

If for example I am looking for an event management company in Lagos (Nigeria ), I will do a Google Search. Google Search Engine will pop up results of companies that have websites as their priority. Having social media accounts is very important but having a personal website adds icing to the cake.

Let me know what you think.

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