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The landscape of doing business in the digital era has changed. The mainstream utilization of the internet was supposed to level the playing field for small businesses. Large corporations had the monopoly on advertising using big money to purchase television ads, billboards, radio spots and feature print ads. Once the first small business website went up online, the game changed dramatically. A whole new market opened up for small businesses to get exposure, not just on a local scale, but potentially global. But now look what has happened. You have a website, its sitting on the interwebs, but it’s not converting business like you would have hoped. Or even worse, maybe your reading this and you think that your industry or business doesn’t need a website so you currently don’t have one. All things considered, here are a few thoughts as to why your business is running on empty while your competition is squashing you like a bug:

5. Poor User Experience

So you have a website, but have you had it tested? Have you gotten feedback from peers or potential users of the site as to how easy it is to find things or the speed to which the page loads? All these things can be causing those who happen to actually find your website to click that back button and go on to your competitors page or to “x” out all together. According to a website called Kissmetrics, 40% of people say they abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. For an e-commerce site, this could cost you millions of dollars in sales per year.

4. Poor Design

Is your website dated? I view prospective clients websites all day and the first thing I’m looking at is the dates of the copyright at the bottom of the footer. If the last time your website had a face lift was back in 2003, or heck 2010, your site is outdated. Current web design trends change on average every 6 months. Now you don’t have to do a complete site overhaul every six months, but you should at least be giving your website a fresh look every two years. A poorly designed website created by your nephew, communicates something…amateur.

3. No Traffic

Ok so now you have a nice looking, professional website…now what? Who is actually finding you? Many website owners don’t even know the amount of monthly hits they are accumulating nor do they measure any kind of analytics. Make sure your website is Search Engine Optimized with at least the basic SEO techniques to get your website indexed with major search engines and be found.

2. No Call To Action

This is a very important feature you have to nail on your website. What do you want the user to do? Do you want them to call you, sign up on your email list or purchase something? All of these factors have to be taken in consideration to get the most use our of your website. Slideshare provides a helpful tutorial that includes some “Do’s and Don’ts for Clickable Calls To Action”.

1. You Don’t Have One

Are you still advertising in the Yellow Pages? Everyone knows that people use the Yellow Pages book for a door stopper, high chair for their kids or kindle. For the same price you advertise in the phone book, you should have your own piece of web real estate. If not your missing out on the the 95% of the human race that searches online for goods and services these days. According to an AT&T Small Business Tech Poll still only 67% of small businesses are using a website to market to their customers. Make sure you make creating an online presence part of your overall marketing strategy. Trust me, it will be well worth it.

If you still haven’t decided to get a website done or you have a website, but are seeing that its lacking, contact Severity Design to schedule a website evaluation or to discuss your project. We are happy to make our customers happy and can get your website up and on the web in as little as 3-4 business days!

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