The 5 Elements of a Business Web Presence	1.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
May 17, 2017

A couple of decades ago, a typical business web presence was often a single website, and perhaps one or two social media accounts. However, these days, even small businesses have a vast, multi-faceted web presence; to say nothing of larger organizations, which have a categorically more sophisticated and complex footprint. Indeed, a report by the Altimeter Group found that in the average enterprise, at least 13 different departments — such as marketing, IT, sales, public relations, legal, and so on — have a stake in the company’s social media presence alone.

Ultimately, this means that a business’s web presence is not a fuzzy or abstract entity that governs itself in the background. On the contrary, it’s a core function that must part of a robust and comprehensive web presence management approach; one discovers, inventories, monitors and reports across five elements:

1.  Domains

Some businesses have dozens — or even hundreds or thousands — of domains associated with their brand; and they’re often independent. Building, monitoring and updating an inventory of domains (and all associated registry data) is vital for a strong, functional web presence.

2.  Microsites

Many businesses have an ecosystem of microsites for various inbound marketing campaigns. To make things even more complex, these pages may be created and managed by third parties, such as marketing agencies, SEO firms, and so on. All of these digital assets need to be audited and monitored on a regular basis.

3.  Social Media

Just as social media itself can be organic and conversations follow emergent activity streams, many businesses are surprised — or shocked — to discover that they have an enormous (and often disparate and disconnected) social media profile. Each platform and page is a point-of-presence that could be an asset or a liability to the brand, or even represent a security vulnerability.

4.  User-Generates Pages

Review websites, wiki pages, and directories are all examples of user-generated pages that must be tracked; especially if the business is in a regulated industry.

5.  URL’s

Last but certainly not least, businesses need to ensure they keep a watchful eye on all URL’s that are used to point prospects or customers towards a desired destination, such as a main corporate website, self-support section, social media pages, and so on. Dead or incorrect links must be corrected in a timely manner, and suspicious or fraudulent links must be removed before reputation damage occurs; not after.

The Bottom Line

When businesses implement robust and comprehensive web presence management, they capture all of the above to get complete and clear picture of their digital footprint — which on today’s landscape isn’t just an important priority for brand strength and reputation health, but it’s an essential requirement for current success and future growth.