Do you work for your website or does your website work for you?
Will you try a quick mental exercise with me? I want you to think for a moment about your own habits. If you want to find someone or something, you most likely use a search engine (possibly on your phone), and you probably don’t have the time or the inclination to scroll through pages and pages of results. Am I correct? I recently needed some new luggage for an upcoming trip, so I pulled up Amazon, Target and Kohls, typed in the type of luggage I wanted, compared what each had to offer, scanned though product reviews to make sure I wasn’t buying something that would fall apart before I made it back home, made my purchase from the one with the best offer and it was delivered to my house two days later, on a Sunday no less. It was all done within 30 minutes at 11:00 on a Friday night while I was wearing my PJs and sitting in the comfort of my own home. This is the reality of our world today. I won’t need luggage again for a while, but I may need a plumber, a dentist or a haircut. I may want to buy some t-shirts with our company logo, a kitchen table or have my master bath redone. Regardless of what I want or need, the given is that I will start the process online long before I venture out of the house or pick up the phone, and if I can complete the whole transaction online, well that’s even better. Now, think about your company’s website…how does it measure up to your own consumer habits?
Back in the day (like 5 minutes ago) it was enough to just have a website. A company’s website was much like an electronic business card. All that was needed was a little bit about your company, the products and/or services you offer, and information about how to contact you. You could either build it yourself or pay someone to build it for you, then just pay for the domain name and hosting and you’re all done. Easy enough, right? Well…those days are gone! Now-a-days, you should not have to work to pay for the costs of your website; instead your website should be an extension of your company, working for you. It should not simply convey information about your company; it should also perform as a sales and marketing employee, a customer service representative and more.
So, what does all of this mean for your business? It means that you need more than just a website. You need a web strategy that includes:
- A website that is more than just an electronic business card
- A mobile version of your website designed for people using their cell phones
- A cost effective means of getting your website to rank high on search engines
- A way for people to tell others about your products and/or services
- A means of sharing information with your customers and gaining the interest of potential customers
I will be posting on this blog with musings on the web industry; follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus.
Written by Stacy Bass
Select Web Solutions, LLC, an Orange County, CA website developer in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Select Web Solutions is a provider of web services in Orange County; including custom website design in Orange County, MobZeo affordable affordable website development in Orange County, MobZeo mobile websites in Orange County, website hosting, online marketing in Orange County, search engine optimization in Orange County, social media services in Orange County, newsletter services, email services, logo design and web consulting in Orange County, California.
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