In the old days there was a saying in Public Relations: “If it isn’t in the New York Times, it   didn’t happen.”

These days, rightly or wrongly, most consumers and many business people have fallen under the spell of the Internet as the source of all things true and valuable.  So that old adage could be updated: “If you’re not on the Web, you don’t exist.”

Your website can be a multi-tasking, lead generating, marketing Superhero OR it can be the Villain that is thwarting your good intentions to build reputation, attract business and grow.

So where do you stand?  Are you one of the estimated 49% of small businesses that is still limping along without a site?  Or maybe you put up a “brochure” style site years ago and then essentially crossed it off your to-do list.  If you have a site, does it generate the quantity and quality of contacts you desire?

If you don’t have a contemporary site that factors in the advances in search engine optimization and web marketing strategy, you probably haven’t even thought about whether your customers and prospects are trying to access you on their mobile devices!  Now that could keep a person up at night.

Here is a short checklist of compelling reasons to design or redesign your website NOW (and there are many more!):

  1. You don’t have one, which today, amounts to being invisible in the marketplace.
  2. You don’t have control over content and have to pay for routine updates.
  3. The site looks amateurish or has an outdated design or old content.
  4. Links, images or other page elements are broken.
  5. You are not attracting a flow of dynamic traffic.
  6. It is cluttered with too much content, too many calls to action, is in denial that less is more.
  7. You aren’t receiving inquiries or sales leads from your site.
  8. You’ve never evaluated the site for readability or ease-of-use
  9. The content doesn’t reflect customer preferences and needs
  10. There is no interactive content for engagement (e.g. blog, social media, polls & surveys, videos to share, etc.)
  11. You have no analytics or haven’t acted on data to respond to how the site is currently being used
  12. The brand look and content of the site are inconsistent with your other marketing tools
  13. You’re not making it easy for users to purchase what you’re selling

It’s time to  redeem your Villainous site and convert it to Superhero status!

The next post will be about how to select the right web developer or designer to play Robin to your Batman.  In the meantime, we welcome your comments about web development and online marketing.

 

PS  For those who like data, here’s the rude awakening:

94% of consumers research online before making a purchase (Compete.com)

87% actually made purchases online during the 2011 holidays  (Equation Research via Mashable)

71% of enterprise (business) purchases start with an online search (DAC Group)

Even without data, we know from our own routines, that both consumers and business people turn to the web first to research purchases of goods and services.  I do it, you do it and virtually everyone from the decider at a growing company to your granny does it.

 

 

 

 

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