Why Your Website Should be the Center of Your Web Presence

Entrepreneurs, your website should be the center, or hub, of your web presence. It’s the only way tomaintain control of your professional image, content, and design. You forfeit control when you use third-party platforms (such as social media or blogging sites) as the center. Of course, you should use third-party platforms, but they should promote and drive traffic to your website, not be substitutes for a website.

The hub and spoke model is an effective way of using websites and third-party platforms together. Just as a wagon wheel has a central hub and several spokes extending from it, your website should be the hub of your web presence, and third-party platforms should be the spokes that connect people back to your website. In this model, third-party platforms support your website and improve your overall web presence.

I originally wrote about this in an article for Great Lakes Entrepreneur. Here’s a summary of my main points:

• Professional image and credibility
• Control your content
• Control the design
• Greater functionality
• SEO: better visibility in search engines

This is just an overview. The site containing my original post is offline, but you can find a version of it at my post Business Website Mistakes: Chamber Tech Lunch.

Wonder where to go from here? Let’s talk about your business’ web presence.