Your eCommerce website or your manufacturing or industrial
website can be your most productive and loyal employee, working
24/7 365 days a year. However, your website may be like that
employee shoppers can never find in the store or who loses sales
because he dresses sloppy and comes across as
untrustworthy.
Can I find Your Website (Search Engine
Optimization)?
Search statistics show that around 2/3 of companies trying to
find new products and services use the web to find suppliers. They
most likely search Google to find those new suppliers. In
addition, over 80% of shoppers use the web to compare products,
with many leading to an online purchase, phone call orders or
visits to your store.
Evaulate your website with these 2 quick search engine
optimization indicators:
1. When you Google your company name, does it come up at the top or
near the top of the list?
2. When you search online for the products or services that you
offer, are you listed?
If the answers are no, then those people searching are not
becomming your new customers, because they cannot find you.
It's a level playing field on the search engines. Google
doesn't list companies in terms of revenue or size; Google likes
your website because it has relevant, fresh and useful information
for people.
What is My First Impression When I Do Find Your Website
(Website Design)?
Your website design may be the determining factor whether a
person decides to even stay long enough to read about your company
and products. I read that a study, published in the
Behaviour and Information Technology journal, found that the
brain makes decisions in a twentieth of a second of viewing a
web page. If people think a website looks good, then the
positive vibes will spread to other areas, like the content.
The researches also believe that the first impression will persist
because of the "halo effect". Since people like to be right,
they continue to use websites that made a good first
impression, confirming that their initial decision was a good
one.
I'll leave the psychology to the scientists. I do know
that when I see a cheap-looking website or one with broken
links and out-of-date information, I am not confident that the
company is one I can trust. I wonder if the company is
well managed and professional. And I realized today, that
sometimes I decide to leave the website back to the Google listings
in less than a second.
Before you decide to fire your website, you need to evaulate
your website and the competition, comparing website design,
functionality and search engine optimization. Bring in a trusted
advisor to get an objective evaluation. TwinEngines offers no-cost
website evaluations for small and mid-market companies who
participate in the manufacturing value chain. If you don't
call us, then call somebody. Each day you could be losing
sales opportunities because people can't find your website or have
a bad first impression.