iContext is in the business of helping companies and organizations to improve their overall profile on the Internet, so it's a bit embarassing to admit that we've let our own profile slip over the past year. 2010 was another record year for us, and while we were busy with client projects, we completely - and we mean COMPLETELY - let our own web channels lapse. No blog posts, no tweets, no Facebook posts. Not a single update to our website. We were about as offline as Al Gore before he invented the Internet.
And our SEO has suffered for our lack of engagement with the web. In December 2009 we were ranked highly in Google (top 10 / first page) for several terms that we targeted at the time, but we've since slipped significantly:
Thankfully, we're very fortunate that the vast majority of our business comes from referrals from existing clients or repeat business. If we had to rely on Internet marketing alone to develop new business, our drop in Google rankings would have decimated our sales.
The simple lesson in all of this? Ignore your web profile at your business' peril.
Watching our rankings drop, we knew that we had to do something, if only to show our loyal customers that we "eat our own dog food". In December 2009 we were finally able to catch our breath and begin to redevelop our website and strategize on how to reengage via our social media channels. (It still took us nearly 4 months to complete our website redevelopment due to a busy 2001 Q1 of client work, but hey, that's a hardship that we'll suffer any day.)
We've reprioritized the terms that we're aiming for a solid Google ranking on, and we've reoriented the iContext website to target those terms. We've invested in some new tools, most notably iPads and some great Android apps, to try and free up some time for making regular updates to our own website / blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts, etc.
We'll be monitoring and working on our search engine rankings and overall web profile in the coming months to reclaim top-10 ranking for some of the terms on which we've slipped. Stay tuned....