I’m always amazed at the talent of business professionals I meet during website consultations. Their passion for their business is second to none. Business owners and entrepreneurs tend to be extremely self-sufficient; having invested so much time, money and energy into their business; it isn’t hard to understand why they feel most comfortable when they can manage every aspect of an empire they’ve created.
For many business owners, website development is a scary first step outside of this comfort zone. After years of doing everything for their business on their own, many individuals turn to cheap template programs for their website needs. After spending countless hours designing their own website, they’re left with sub-standard results, which aren’t a true representation of the quality of their business. It never takes long for these individuals to realize they wasted their valuable time; time that would have been better spent doing what they do best—running their business.
Having the same passion for my own business as my clients have for theirs, I reflect on their mistakes with respect and optimism. Websites—when properly designed, programmed and optimized—are meant to work for business owners, rather than business owners working for them. I urge business owners to take a moment to consider if the following important elements of their company’s website are truly doing the work for them, and ultimately making their job easier: design, functionality and search engine optimization.
Design. First impressions count, especially online. In a retail environment, even if a customer gets a bad impression of your business, they feel obligated to at least walk through your store, leaving a small window of opportunity for turning them into a paying customer. On the Internet, however, your customers aren’t concerned about your feelings. The moment they get the impression your website is not of good quality, they’ll close their browser and continue their search elsewhere.
It only takes three seconds for your online customer to make a snap judgment about your business based on its website design. It’s important to regularly assess your website and determine how potential customers will perceive your business in those first three seconds. Does your website appeal to your target audience? Is your design in alignment with your current marketing strategies? Does the quality of your website design correctly reflect the quality of the products and services your company offers?
Search engine optimization (SEO). Most people have a general understanding of SEO at its most basic level. What many people overlook is the fact that search engines continue to evolve and won’t optimize a website unless they believe it’s authentic. Because of this, computer-generated SEO tactics are no longer effective. To develop SEO organically, which is necessary to help search engines determine a website’s authenticity, SEO must be programmed directly into a website’s coding.
Of course, I wouldn’t be emphasizing SEO if I didn’t genuinely believe in all of the benefits it can provide your business. SEO is, hands down, the best way of marketing a small- to medium-sized business. About 70 percent of search engine users find their results on the first page of Google. This means if your business isn’t on that first page, it’s unlikely it will be seen by more than 30 percent of the people searching for products and services in your industry. Google ranking also affects prospective customers’ perception of a business, as 50 percent of search engine users believe companies that are on page one of Google are leaders in their industry.
The good news is, by investing in SEO, locally owned businesses will get more new customers for their dollar. It lets your business reach them at the exact moment they’re motivated to buy your products or services. Think about how much revenue could be gained from your website ranking before your competition, if every time a customer who’s already motivated to buy the products or services your business offers saw your website first.
Functionality. Your website must be easy to navigate. Keep in mind how valuable your time is. If your website visitors had all the time in the world, they’d be driving from business to business or using the phone book to obtain information. The reality is, we live in a fast paced, multi-tasking society, and the Internet has become the preferred method of finding—or, at least, narrowing down—the options available to consumers. A website that’s both a challenge to navigate and that requires an online consumer’s full attention conflicts with their expectation to be able to navigate your website while taking care of other tasks.
The organization and functionality of your website is equally important for mobile devices. Don’t make the mistake of doubting the benefit of responsive design—recent research on mobile behavior suggests that 70 percent of mobile searches lead to an action within an hour. With a 40/60 split between tablets and smartphones as the leading mobile devices for searches, it’s important that your website can automatically adapt to any screen size.
Take a moment to look at the functionality of your website from the perspective of your target audience, keeping in mind that both functionality on a PC and mobile devices play a major role in keeping potential customers on your website. Is the journey to the various products, services and information your website offers intuitive or frustrating? How much of your valuable time would you, as a consumer, expect to spend browsing your site before finding what you seek?
As business owners and administrators, all we need to do is grab these online opportunities, have conviction and faith in ourselves and let our websites do the rest of the work for us.
Virginie Dorn is the owner of Business Website Center, a full-service website development and Internet marketing company in Petaluma. For more information, visit www.PetalumaWebsite.com, email info@petalumawebsite or call (707) 794-9999.
