I’m sitting in a Starbucks listening to a web guy talk to a woman about the design of her website and the keywords that will drive traffic to her site. I’m all for this. Understanding the web and how it can drive people to you is important.
What’s interesting is that the woman keeps referring to what her business will be once she starts it AND how clients in the past haven’t really “understood” her. I can tell that she’s really banking on the web guy to “get her out there.” Here’s the question:
Is she amazing at what she does?
If not, then the web guy could be the zen master of all things web, but eventually it won’t matter. Why?
Because your message (your front door to the world) should emerge out of your performance. If you have a porch, but no house, people won’t hang around your porch very long, because they sense you’re missing a house (the substance and remark-ability of what you do).
Let the house (you and what you do best) attract people to the porch (your message about you to the world).