- October 2nd 2025
- SEO News,Blog,Content,content marketing,Content Strategy,digital marketing,On-Page SEO,SEO,SEO Strategy
Communities and networks and online discovery
No man is an island. It takes a village. Two heads are better than one. Many hands make light work. Better when we’re together.
OK, that last one was Jack Johnson circa 2005. But otherwise these are age old proverbs about community which remain relevant to this day in pretty much every aspect of life. From overcoming personal challenges and tackling life milestones, to developing a career and fulfilling your potential, the right support from other humans will always help.
Of course, humans are eminently capable of dragging others down, too. That’s why the communities and networks that you choose are so important. And nowadays, there are networks absolutely everywhere. There are real world business and social communities, online networks, and even the web of links that builds the foundation of your website’s authority. It all matters, and here’s why we think it’s a force for good, especially when it comes to online discovery!
Connection
What makes a community strong, then? A successful community needs a thread of connection. It’s why we seek people out who have similar interests to our own; why we join a book club or football team for example. But it’s just as important in business success and growth. Your website is the core way that you present your identity as a member of a community, whether that’s geographically or within your industry.
Brand values
Clear brand values or a mission statement puts your heart on your sleeve and helps you to find clients, customers and employees who are aligned. Your brand values don’t just appear in a nicely structured list, though. They’re evident in every single piece of content which you put your name to, whether it’s a Google Ad, blog post, pricing page, or social media comment. So think and review before you publish!
Partners
Offering services with a partner is a wonderful way to leverage community values. Perhaps you offer a niche service which compliments another agency’s offering. Together, you add value to potential clients. When you choose partners from within a business community where you share the same values, you’re more likely to find partners with whom you will share a long and successful relationship.
Interactions
We’ve all had those tricky clients; the relationship might feel strained or lacking. But maybe you’re just missing a connection. Clearly no business can limit their clientele to perfect value matches, but it might be that you just need to find that one thread of connection. This is where communication is key, and it goes beyond day to day account management. It’s about your content: blogs, newsletters, events. Create content that reaches out. Visibly demonstrate your community values with volunteering programmes. Host events and promote learning. This all helps you to retain and attract aligned clients, and maybe connect better with the more distant ones!
Presence
Word of mouth, or knowing someone who knows someone is an age old way of doing business. It used to be down to corporate lunches and trade publications. Then the internet landed and search engines became our first port of call to source services, products and partners. Now behaviour is evolving again, and search engines are being bypassed in favour of AI applications. So how do we make our presence felt?
Online discovery
It’s not just about being found on Google any more. Online discovery is so much broader and harder to control. But it’s important to remember that SEO is still very much central to a strategy, in that its principles are good practice as a foundation for all online discovery. Use keywords, but extend this to offer content that’s attractive to specific AI queries, giving concise and insightful information. Leave no tech stone unturned: look at loading speed, metadata, optimisation. All these things still matter!
Linking
Your website becomes more authoritative depending on the quality of links going to and from it. Quantity does not beat quality. Much as you’re more likely to do business with someone recommended by a source you trust, relevant links to and from your website offer the same signals to algorithms. Similarly, when the internal links within your website form a logical framework, search engines and LLMs are drawn to using your content, and you’re more visible in the right communities.
Social networks
From reviews to social posts to the wider interactions of your brand, the way that your business shows up on social platforms increasingly impacts how you appear within networks. You can’t talk behind someone else’s back! Be genuine and transparent in your business’ social presence and you’ll have higher value within the wider community in which you appear.
IRL (in real life!)
Building networks in the real world with real humans is still a thing! Default entirely to LinkedIn (super useful though it is!) and you’ll soon miss the human connection. The trouble is that business networking has been given a bit of a bad rap over the years. It can be intimidating and unpleasant. But there is change in them there hills. A more gentle, inclusive, and supportive breed of networking has been coming to the fore, and you just need to find the network that works for you and your brand. To find your tribe, so to speak. We’re trying this ourselves by sponsoring The Marketing Meetup in our local area of Fleet.
Better together
So, it’s true that we’re definitely better together. We need connections to grow, as individuals and as businesses. It’s never been more important to present your brand (both business and personal) authentically online and IRL. Consistency will help you to be found in the ever more complex online networks of discovery, and it’ll help you to forge collaborative and positive business relationships too.
As seasoned experts in SEO and online discovery, Leapfrog can help you with your web presence. And for some marketing based IRL connection, why not come along to our sponsored event with The Marketing Meetup and see if you like it too?
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