The web has become the way people find out about your organization. Its likely that potential customers will search you out. They’ll see how your web site looks, whether there is relevant, well written content and how easily they can contact you. If there’s e-commerce on your site, the ease of ordering is critical to your success. The web has becoming more and more ubiquitous as a means of doing business. With the current rising gas prices people will look to do even more business from their desktops.
Yet, I still run into people who minimize the impact that their web site has on their business. Some think that because people don’t use their site it means it doesn’t have value. In many of these cases, their web sites are aesthetically unappealing, are poorly organized, or have poorly written content. So, instead of attracting customers, the site discourages them. Others think that because they don’t do e-commerce on their site that’s its not important. Again, your web site is often the first thing people look at to get an impression of your business. How professional it is reflects directly on your business. Finally, there are some business that think that because they get some revenue from their web site there’s no pressing need to improve the site. This is probably incorrect. One place I worked had neglected an e-commerce site for over a year. When we finally upgraded it sales went up 50% in 2 months. The quality of your site can make a big difference.
The amount of business generated for your organization may vary depending on the nature of what services you provide. However, this is a rapidly evolving world and its a good idea to revisit your web strategy a few times a year to see if your site is serving your needs.
