Sometimes it seems that nearly every business has a website. And nearly every business that has a website thinks that having one is all that's needed to crack that web thing. The thinking is that if we build, they will come.
That's just not the case and could spell trouble for your business if you're hoping to use your website to generate sales.
Several years ago, that might have been the case. Back then, competition wasn't as stiff. Not so many people where gaming the system quite the way they are today, or if they were, they were easily seen and dealt with. Back then, because the web design & development industry was nascent, getting onto the web was an expensive and largely unknown quantity. So simply being there seemed to be all that was needed.
Simply having a business website is not enough. I've been there and seen that look of self satisfaction, that air of apparent victory, seemingly safe in the knowledge that being on the web is that last part of the sales & marketing puzzle licked. And quite rightly, too!
After all, the web was something relatively new and having a website for your business could score you some serious points in the credibility stakes.
But what happens next is all too predictable and all too common. What happens next is a failure to apply the same rigor of principles and practice to the website as a means of marketing your business website and generating sales as would be applied to the rest of the sales & marketing materials, such as brochures, mailshots and adverts.
And that is to be analytical and measure your activities.
1. What's the first thing you ask someone when they call your business? You ask them how they found out about you.
2. Then you ask them for their name and where their from.
3. In all likelihood, they have a request or a pre-sales question in mind. To which you help answer.
If you're tracking your website traffic statistics, you will have at hand much of the above! You will know where they came from as well as where they're from and what pages on your website they happened to be looking at, and more besides.
However, in some instances, when it comes to tracking visitors and website traffic statistics, it's a double-whammy because the web design agency involved make the self same mistake you do too, which further compounds the problem.
You have to apply the same rules to your business website through good web design & development practice as you would to your regular sales & marketing activities.
1. Provide compelling, engaging, rich, authoritative text to keep your visitor hooked and wanting to read more.
2. The title of each page is the hook to a generating a successful visit. So make sure that title says everything you need it to say to draw the visitor in.
3. Be sure to infuse all of those key words & key phrases into your text that you'd expect your potential customers to associate with you and your products or services.
4. Think about your visitor and what they want from your website. Be clear about what you'd like them to do and shepherd them towards a particular goal.
5. Make sure that once you've lead your visitor to a particular page, call them to action, prompt them to either call you, buy something or send you an email.
6. Use those web standards, embrace them and they will be your friend. It's not just about web accessibility and making things easier for people with physical or visual disabilities, it's about making things easier for the search engines, too. A little search engine optimization will do you good!
7. Don't repeat yourself by creating duplicate pages. The search engines aren't to be fooled with and this will count against you. Each page should contain unique content.
8. Build a sense of trust, work with your partners, keep things simple and obvious and most important of all, don't give up!
And this just a fraction of the sort of internet marketing activities you ought to be doing to make sure your business website is there to be found. But the thing is, most of the things you ought to be doing are just plain common sense, and nothing more.
Now, this isn't to say that all web design agencies make the same mistakes, nor am I saying that all businesses with a website make the same mistake.
But there's enough web design agencies making enough mistakes to clear the way for me do my thing, and there's enough of your competitors making mistakes to clear the way for you to do your thing, too!
Or are they making mistakes?
Maybe they're ahead of you?
Time to make that website earn its keep for a change...
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