Wednesday 21 March 2012

Is Your Website Costing You Customers?

You might have a superb business model with bags of money-making potential, but if your website isn’t up to scratch it could be costing you vital custom. Perhaps you could do with some help from an experienced Internet marketing consultant.


Although it’s considered something of a necessity for businesses these days to have a web presence, having an ugly or dysfunctional website can be worse than no website at all.

Just imagine for a moment that your website exists as a bricks and mortar shop. What if your shop front was run down, with paint peeling everywhere? You could have the most tremendous products inside, but it’s all to no avail if nobody comes through your door.



Here are several of the worst offenders:

Bad design

To a degree, design is a subjective thing defined by individual taste. It can also be dictated by the type of industry you are in. Generally speaking, the more conservative your industry, the more sober your website is expected to be, whether we like it or not.

Websites with colours that clash are a no-no, flashing images can be disturbing to some people and as for poor quality images or clip art – let’s not even go there.

Lack of quality content

Too many businesses think it’s enough to fill their website with content from a brochure say, rather than specifically-written, high quality content that will engage and involve their visitors. Is your content enticing enough? And does it contain a ‘call to action’ where you prompt your reader on what to do next?

On average, your visitors will look at four websites before making a purchasing decision. Inviting them to ask for a free quotation or consultation could be the difference between them contacting you, or a competitor.

Aiming At The Wrong Market

Your web designer should have installed an analytics programme which means you can track and monitor the visitors to your website. How often do you check the data produced? Hopefully, at regular intervals, because you could find that the keywords used by visitors who arrive at your website are not the same ones you were expecting when the website was commissioned. This is because sometimes your online market can differ from your offline market.

This valuable information can help you make sure that the keywords you use in your content remain in alignment with your goals. Also, uncovering the keywords used by your visitors can prove a great help when planning future online marketing campaigns.

If you need some help getting your website into shape, or building a new one, then try asking some Internet marketing consultants.

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