I get emails, phone calls and contact forms all the time from brick and mortar businesses that are curious about getting their business on the web but more often than not they feel spending a couple of thousand dollars for a website just “isn’t in the budget” and that’s really a shame because most of these people don’t realize these days a well built website is the most effective means of attracting new customers.

So I have come up with a set of questions that I ask most potential clients and I really think anyone considering having a website built for them should ask themselves and their friends these questions.

1. When you are looking for a product, information or services where is the first place you look? Is it the phone book, the newspaper, the TV or is it in fact the internet.
2. When you search the internet for something how many pages of search results will you wade through before you give up or try other search terms?
3. When you find a site you think may have what you are looking for how long will you spend looking through it before you move to the next search result?
4. Does the appearance, layout of the site effect your willingness to do business with the company?
5. Is the site set up in a manner that makes you feel safe buying from them online?

Those are tough questions that any business person needs to ask themselves, whether they have a website or not. Answering these questions in an honest fashion could in fact answer your questions about your online business. So let’s take a few minutes to go over each question in detail.

When you are looking for a product, information or services where is the first place you look? Is it the phone book, the newspaper, the TV or is it in fact the internet.

The truth is the vast majority of people looking for products or services will go straight to Google, Yahoo or MSN and start searching. The internet has become the new phone book, especially with the under 60 demographic. The internet is no longer a ‘kid thing’, it has become the vital source of information and the first place anyone that owns a computer will look when they want to find something. This is especially true when people are visiting an area or moving to a new area. They will spend hours using a search engine to locate products and services they will need in that area.

But to some businesses the cost seems to be overwhelming at first glance but compared to ‘mainstream’ advertising the cost is actually a fraction of other advertising medias. A 1/4 page ad in the local newspaper can cost thousands to run for a week. Yellow page ads have also increased to the point their effectiveness must be questioned. With these ‘real world’ advertising methods you can very well spend more than the cost of a well built site for advertising that only lasts one or two weeks. A good website on the other hand can last years before any redesigning or other costs come into play.

I wanted to find out for myself what these costs might be so I did some checking with my local paper. An 1/8 page ad running for 10 days in a section of the paper people might actually read was quoted at $1500. That breaks down to $150 a day with a potential exposure to 100,000 people. Now let’s take a very well built, search engine optimized website at a cost of $2500. The life of that site should be at least 3 years without additional costs (e.g. redesigns etc). That breaks down to $2.28 a day with a potential exposure to millions of customers. I have to wonder how many businesses would say no if I walked in and said “I can get you exposure to millions of potential clients for $2.28 a day”?

When you search the internet for something how many pages of search results will you wade through before you give up or try other search terms?

This question is for those people that may have a website and it is a very serious question indeed. The usual answer I get from anyone I know is 2-4 pages. After that the person searching will either change search terms of just give up. But what happens to the businesses that are listed on page 5 – whatever? The simple answer is nothing, something that any business owner dreads. This all boils down to a well built, search engine optimized site and knowing what your potential customers may be searching for. If the site owner and or builder does not take the time to optimize the site based on the most likely key phrases their potential clients would be looking for they may in fact be dooming themselves to those ‘forgotten’ search pages.

When you find a site you think may have what you are looking for how long will you spend looking through it before you move to the next search result?

All too often I am searching for information about one thing or another and will click on a link to a site only to struggle to find the actual search terms I was looking for. Either the site is set up in some way that makes it tough to locate what I was searching for or the content is so jumbled up I can’t find it. Usability, a concise menu system is essential on any website. If your site suffers from any of these symptoms you are more than likely driving potential customers to the next result they found in their search.

Does the appearance, layout of the site effect your willingness to do business with the company?

This is where a business owner has to step back and attempt to see their site as a customer would. Sometimes owners can’t do this and need to find a few unbiased people to do it for them. Plain and simple if a business does not present itself as ‘upstanding’ and professional many potential clients may make the snap judgment that your company isn’t ‘up to par’ in their eyes. Site owners need to remember that customers make their first judgment, and set their willingness to spend money with the business based on their initial reaction to the store front or store layout. It’s the same thing with a website. A sloppy, unprofessional website often makes customers feel the products or services will also be sloppy and unprofessional, whether the business is actually like that or not.

Is the site set up in a manner that makes you feel safe buying from them online?

We all see horror story after horror story in the news about some website scam or identity theft  problem and whether a business owner wants to believe it or not it effects how customers perceive your website. If it is sloppy, unprofessional or just “doesn’t feel right” to the average web user they may in fact be deciding to shop elsewhere. The absence of a privacy policy, terms and conditions, secure checkout areas, and real contact information along with many other overlooked sections in a site can give the customer a lack of confidence in you and your business. These are simple things to fix but are all too often overlooked by both the business owner and the site developer. Make sure your potential customers have full confidence in you and your business!

There’s a lot to a website and many people can easily feel overwhelmed by it all but when it all boils down to it a well built site, properly optimized and presented to potential customers can very well mean the difference between improving your ‘bottom line’ all while bringing in new customers each and every day. Make sure you take the time to put as much thought into your website, or lack thereof as you do your brick and mortar business!

Till next time!

Dave

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