Are you a small business, retailer, tradesman with a web site online? Is your web site being found in search engines? Are you sure that your website pages are working, accurate and up to date? Even more important, are you marketing your website online as well as offline?
A recent study of 1700 online consumers found that 83% of users faced faults including unfinished web pages, broken URLs and out-dated designs. During another survey of 450 small businesses in the UK 50% considered their website to look ‘professional’, but 33% of owners admitted that they did not regularly check and monitor their web sites. An even more worrying trend is that consumers who wished to find a particular vendors web site either couldn’t find them online at all or had to take their web site address from the sides of vehicles or rely on business cards. Currently only 10% of small firms display theirs in this way.
48% of small businesses do not make any efforts to optimise their domain name for the search engines. Simple ongoing search engine optimisation would not only increase business visibility but would in fact increase leads whilst making usability easier for consumers.
The study by Streamline.net showed that many SMEs are alienating web users through simple web errors that professional designers would simply not let happen. 76% of online consumers have now used a website of a small business. Whilst 47% of those online consumers consider their experiences of such sites to be overall ‘good’, a further 25% of Britons conclude that such websites are ‘barely usable’. In the past year, 83% of online consumers found discrepancies on more than one occasion. Web errors reported included unfinished web pages (54%), broken URLs (52%), outdated email addresses (50%), and missing contact details (31%). Let’s be clear here, hiring a professional designer does not always equal a big expense, there are independant freelancers who are cost effective. It could mean the difference between leads and no leads and you could recoup the return on your investment through increased sales and increased visibility.
The number one design complaint with SME websites is an outdated website design, faced by one third of online users in the past year. 20% of online consumers have encountered superfluous or outdated descriptions of products and services. All manner of illegal acts could be construed as being committed with outdated descriptions of products and services, without your knowledge, so it pays to ensure that all literature, including your website is up to date. 20% have been confused by the use of generic corporate images that bear no relation to a specific company.First rule of branding, make sure you have an easily recognisable logo that you build brand loyalty on.
The findings are in contrast to another survey of 450 small firms where 76% felt confident that the language on their website could in no way be perceived negatively, and 84% saw the images on their website as fit for purpose.
If there is only one piece of advice that I could give to a business owner with a web site, it would be, your web site is just as important as your business itself. In fact it could perhaps be more important as time goes on, as it is the proverbial shop window on your business. Get the PR and marketing wrong offline and you end up struggling. Fail to market and optimise for the search engines and your potential customers will pass you by or not see you at all online. These days, it pays to do both right and with equal importance.
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