Getting found online by expectant parents who are considering adoption used to be a straightforward affair for hopeful adoptive parents. Create a website or get someone to create one for you and voila, you’d have an instant web presence.

But the days of “If you build it, they will come” are long over. More than 150,000 new URLs are created every day. Hopeful adoptive parents not only have their own personal website, they also have their own Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest pages.

So if you really want to stand out from the crowd and get noticed by expectant parents, what more can you do? You can do what many hopeful adoptive parents are doing today: Join an adoption profile website with other hopeful parents and boost your presence online.

Now you’re probably wondering, why should I join a site with others who are hoping to adopt if I already have one of my own? Won’t I be competing against the other families? How do I know an expectant parent will click on my profile and not someone else’s? And what’s the difference between the America Adopts! adoption profile website and other similar services anyway?

Great questions all! I’m glad you asked. Here are six reasons you should join an adoption profile website even if you already have a site of your own.

More visibility

When it comes to finding an adoption match with expectant parents, exposure is the name of the game. Luck helps, of course. But without exposure, you can’t have luck. It just makes sense: the more visibility you have, the more leads. And the more leads, the more chances you’ll have of clicking with the family that’s looking for you and eventually finding success.

After all, you never known when and where a match with expectant parents will come from. When it comes to getting yourself out there and creating a connection, there’s no such thing as too much exposure. We all know that when expectant parents go online to look for an adoptive family for their baby, they usually visit more than one site. Being on an adoption profile website helps you cover your bases — and at the fraction of the cost of having your own site.

More search engine optimization

What’s the point of creating a personal adoption website if no one can find it? If you want expectant parents to know where you are, you need to reach out to them in a targeted way. That’s where search engine optimization comes into play. Search engine optimization is all about maximizing your site’s presence on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. It’s about knowing what keywords and content to use to establish yourself on the web and drive expectant parents to your parent profile.

That’s not something you can figure out overnight. It’s a time-consuming and labor-intensive process involving trial and error that requires constant monitoring and testing over weeks and months rather than days. Most hopeful adoptive parents don’t have that kind of time and patience.

Nor do they have the skills or the experience to undertake an intensive content management and social media strategy to help them get noticed online. At America Adopts!, it’s been the cornerstone of our adoption profile service‘s outreach plan from Day One. And we’re starting to see the results with higher search engine rankings every day.

More targeted advertising

Organic or natural search is one thing. Paid search or pay-per-click advertising is something quite different. To be fair, starting an advertising campaign with Google Adwords is a breeze. All you need to do is sign up, pay the fees, and away you go. But if you’re not careful, if you don’t know the basics of keyword research, copy writing and creating a strong call to action, you’ll burn through your budget in no time and have nothing to show for it.

Pay-per-click advertising can be effective, but you need to know which levers to pull. An adoption profile website like ours has an extensive advertising track record and experience with Adwords and other types of internet marketing. We can help you avoid the pitfalls that first-time Adwords users run into and save you time and money. Plus, by piggybacking on our advertising dollars, you can add more marketing muscle to your own outreach campaign.

More options

Being on an adoption profile website with other hopeful adoptive parents means you’ll be fighting for attention with them, right? Actually, it means having more choices, and more choices = more opportunities. Here’s an example: Let’s say expectant parents from New York are looking for a bi-racial same sex couple close to home. If you’re a traditional caucasian family of three from California, chances are you’ll be out of luck.

But it can also work in your favor. Let’s say the expectant parents are looking for a traditional caucasian family of three from California and they originally came to the website because another couple caught their eye. After viewing the other couple’s profile, however, they decide the family isn’t for them. Whose profile do you think they’ll look at next?

Still not convinced? Here’s an analogy that will further highlight the advantages of sharing a website with other adoptive parents versus being on one by yourself: Suppose you’re in an unfamiliar city and you’re looking to get a bite to eat. Would you go to a neighborhood with a variety of restaurants or to a neighborhood with just one?

More expertise

Creating a website is only the first step in reaching out to expectant parents. There are also a myriad of technical issues that can make or break your ability to grab their attention. For instance, we all know that a slow loading website is a turn-off for expectant parents. But did you know it will also hurt your presence on Google?

Let’s look at photos. Nothing will give your profile a bigger impact or let you stand out more than large photos and an interactive album. Problem is, photo optimization is a skill that requires a lot of time and care. That’s why many personal websites still have small, static, washed-out photos. At America Adopts! we’ll not only blow up your photos to let you make a strong first impression. We’ll touch them up and make them web-ready to show you in the best possible light.

More leads and support

Adoption can be a long and lonely journey. Sometimes it seems like the only people who really understand what you’re up against are other hopeful parents who are navigating the process themselves. A personal adoption website can give you a presence online. But it’s no community.

An adoption profile service, on the other hand, can be a community. Sharing a corner of the internet with other hopeful adoptive parents creates natural connections and a common bond. At America Adopts! we take that concept one step further. Unlike other services, your name is included in your URL, not a number. Your social media promotion is personalized, not automated. But most important of all, when you join our Find A Family page you automatically become eligible to join our “Buddy Network,” a private network where you can exchange stories, leads and support with other parents hoping to adopt. For added exposure, you can also get your story featured on our blog and other social media channels.

Even if you already have an online parent profile, blog or website, joining an adoption profile website can boost your presence on the web. Through its experience in search engine optimization, web design and programming, an adoption profile service can help you stand out and get noticed by expectant parents in a host of new and unique ways.

What are you doing to set yourself apart online and reach out to expectant parents considering adoption? Do you have an adoption website? Have you thought about joining a parent profile website with other hopeful adoptive parents? Share you answers in the comments section below.