Having a website is not the same as having a web presence. A online presence is bigger: It’s the overall profile you have on the Internet, coming from a variety of online sources such as your website, a blog, association and directory listings, articles you’ve published, forum postings, and any site where someone has written about you or your work.

A web presence is important because your prospective clients will probably research you on the web. Mine certainly do. And the more references there are to your good and valued work, the greater sense clients can get about exactly who you are and how you work. And the seed of a connection is planted in that moment.

Or a seed of disconnection—though probably not for professionals reading this blog post. The past week’s national news had several painful stories about prospective employers researching their freshly minted college graduate applicants…and finding embarrassing photos and partying stories on sites like MySpace and Facebook. Said one college career counselor, “There are lots of employers that Google.” There are lots of prospective clients that Google, too.

A strong web presence also increases your search engine rankings. And while you may not rely on clients finding you via online searches at this point, as search engines become much more adept at regional searches, this is likely to change. It’s already happening. The print yellow pages are destined to become far less important as an advertising vehicle for you.

What kind of web presence do you have? Here are two ways to find out:

• Google yourself and your business name. It’s not a shameless sense of ego to do so. It’s sound business practice these days, because it’s an excellent way to find out just what kind of online profile you have. While you’re at it, do the same in directories such as Yahoo.
• Set up a Google alert for your name (unless you have a very common name), business name and website URL. Google will send you emails with links to websites that reference you, your business name or website URL.

Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MediatorTech.com.