“If you’re in business ya gotta have a website.” Someplace along the way, every small business owner hears that advice, whether from friends, family members, customers, or the local person who fancies himself or herself a web designer. That advice is pretty much on target… as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough!
The result is that the websites of most small businesses include a variety of sins, sins that can be costly – even deadly – to that business. Which of the following 7 Deadliest Sins is your business website be guilty of?
1. Failure to Update Your Site: Unless you provide a reason for someone to visit your site a second or third time, you’re likely to end up with a declining number of one-time-visitors. People return to a website with the expectation that they’ll find something new and different each time. When you don’t deliver on that expectation your site’s visitor count goes flat and eventually takes a steep nose dive.
2. A Web Page Titled “Home”: That’s a meaningless title that’s a carry-over from the ’90s. Much more interesting titles for such a page – titles much more inviting to a site’s visitors – would be “What We Do” or “About Us.”
3. Do-It-Yourself Content: This sin results when a business owner – a fantastic auto mechanic, for example – decides he has the know-how pull together the right words to create a mile-long line of clunkers whose drivers will pay for repairs. The reality is that without training or experience few business owners have what it takes to create the kinds of web content most likely to generates sales.
4. Failure to Measure Site Viewership: How many people visited your site last month? This month? What kind of trend do those monthly numbers indicate? Are more people visiting your site now than in the past? Fewer, perhaps? If so, why? Unless you’re aware of those numbers, you’ll never know why, or what to do to increase visits to your site.
5. Allowing Web Designers Write Content: Even more common than writing their own content is the belief of many business owners that the person they hire to design their website is also qualified to write its content. Content is King! Words more than graphics motivate people to buy, to subscribe to a newsletter or to take whatever action your site desires. A web designer’s strength is designing. Creating effective content is best left to a professional copywriter.
6. Failure to Own Multiple Domains: One domain name is no longer enough. A half dozen – interrelated, of course – are much better because they allow the smart business owner to direct people to specific landing pages within a site – or to related mini-sites – in response to specific promotions.
7. Failure to Respond to Emails: Most websites have a Contact Us function, yet more than 60 percent of the small businesses we sampled don’t respond to anyone – current or potential customers – who use its Contact Us feature. The most common excuse: “We don’t have the people to respond to those emails.” Now ask yourself how much business you’re losing by not responding?
How many of these sins is your website guilty of? If you want to grow your business, you’ll eliminate them. Quickly!
