Your online presence says a lot about who you are. What your clients and prospective clients see and hear online can polish or tarnish your business image. You can capitalize on your online image—or you can spend time making up for it. It's that simple.

Here are 10 actionable items to help boost your online business image:

1. Have the same professional photograph on every page where people can see you. The image sends a message—make sure it's the same one.
2. Decide what you want that image to say about you, and make sure your photographer knows what you want.
3. Decide which social networks you will contribute to—and contribute frequently. You will build a following of people who will get to know you, like you and trust you.
4. Have separate social network profiles—one for personal and one for business. It’s a good idea to keep these lives separated.
5. Avoid being offensive or controversial. If a client doesn’t like your stand on a certain topic that may be just as close to his/her heart as it is to yours, you will have to overcome that prejudice that just sprouted roots.
6. Contribute to your clients' social media pages. Be useful, and help them to improve their image and grow their following.
7. Start an online discussion group—or join existing ones. Contribute to them, so other members get to know you, like you and trust you.
8. Publish valuable blogs and articles (write them yourself or pay a vendor to write them for you) that link back to your professional pages, and to your website. What new healthcare initiatives or policies would your market want to know about? What clever ideas on saving money, getting better coverage, submitting claims, and better ways to work with a health insurance broker can you write a few hundred words on? Giving your clients helpful and valuable information makes you become an expert in their eyes.
9. Make sure those 'back links' take the blog readers to new and specific landing pages that are specifically valuable to them. Don't just link to your home page—that's what everyone else does. You want your web site to help you bring in new business.
10. Keep your online presence active! Many websites and landing pages begin to fail, so visitors stop visiting. Keep checking that your online presence is doing what you want it to do for you.

These 10 simple, straightforward items will polish your online image. That is where many people in your marketplace meet you and learn about you. When they like what they see, they will also want to meet with you—and that means they are more likely to become clients.