So you’ve got a website and you’re proud of it. In fact, many of you were probably excited to tell people once it was up and going. I’ve got some questions for you. What is it for? What does it do? How do people find it? How do people use it? Do you know the answers to any of these questions?
I think most company websites are there just to provide a presence on the web. It’s something to put on the business card or at least a face that people can find when they’re searching for you by name. If it is and that’s your only goal – well mission accomplished. You probably achieved it. All that it takes is a pleasant graphic, contact information, maybe a list of clients and maybe the president’s bio. Voila’ – you’re on the web.
What if you hope that one person, one small person finds your site and contacts you for work. Could that be you? How much thought did you put into that? Well 105% of people don’t put enough thought and 95% of those didn’t think at all. So in one paragraph, let me tell you what you need to consider when putting your website together.
If your company name is Hodgkins and you make custom pens, www.hodgkins.com is probably not your future client’s first keyword search when looking for a good pen manufacturer. Consider www.custom-pens-by-Hodgkins.com. If the first page is all about your company history, Google won’t know what your site is about.
Make the first page about custom pens. Your desire to feature yourself and your company’s 30 year track record isn’t as important to ‘searchers’ as finding the right color pen.
1. What’s important to the customer?
2. How are they looking for me?
3. What do I have to offer
– IN THAT ORDER. Then design a site that meets those requirements.