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5 Question Website Performance Quiz – Is Your Business Website Performing?
by Judy.
After having spent seven years in the web industry, it never ceases to amaze me that many of today’s corporate decision makers are still failing to grasp and/or maximize the power of their corporate website.
There are enough studies out there today to tell us that the majority of research preceding purchase decisions, both for the B2B and B2C channels, is done online. In some cases, the only piece of the process executed offline is the actual sale or engagement itself. From small business engagements (plumbers, florists, etc.) to enterprise level purchases (vehicles, technology, etc.) the first and most critical stage of the process happens right here online…the initial research.
Research Stage:
This research stage will support a buyer or corporate decision maker in determining what solutions exist to address their need/problem and then what providers they can go to for this product/service. In our world we describe these two phases as:
1. The Information Search – solutions/options
2. Evaluation of Alternatives – suppliers/vendors
When I am in meetings where people challenge this point, I often ask them to evaluate their own approach to purchase decision making. Without fail, many at the table will admit that they start online for almost everything…even going as far as searching for local services such as plumbers and florists on their cell phones or Blackberrys using a mobile browser.
Let’s face it – the world of information seeking is shifting to online. Catalogues, dusty manuals, etc. are being used less. Today, researching information is more often than not, performed online.
Knowing that, why are C-level decision makers not applying the same efforts to their online strategies as they are offline? My experience tells me there is a knowledge gap that exists out there. A lot of marketers are still falling back on their strengths by executing campaigns that rely on traditional mediums (offline PR, traditional print and display ads, direct mail, etc.) as opposed to seeking to understand the mechanics behind successful web platforms.
Not only for the sake of businesses, but also for the sake of buyers/consumers – the accessibility of product and service information needs to improve. I always tell my clients that in a case where I am not finding them in my online information search, I am finding their competitor and they are losing a sale/contract. It doesn’t mean that the alternative option was better – it simply means it was more accessible and easier to find.
Top 5 Questions to Ask Yourself:
1. SEARCH ENGINE RANKING:
Can I easily find you online using search terms related to your business or industry?
- Over 40% of searchers judge a company’s credibility solely on whether they appear in the first page of search results. Findability = credibility.
2. WEBSITE DESIGN:
Does the look and feel of your website reflect the professionalism and personality of your business?
- Several notable North American universities have released studies indicating that you have less than five seconds to make your first impression online before a user will either engage with your site (execute an action) or leave it (bounce). You would not believe the number of businesses that strongly dislike their own websites yet refuse to make the necessary improvements because they question the ROI or investment of time to make it “best of breed”.
3. WEBSITE STRATEGY:
Do you direct me to the appropriate department/information channel online the same way you would offline?
- If a customer phones into your company’s main number with a sales/new business inquiry, a receptionist or automated system will direct them accordingly… their online options should offer the same clarity/directives. The K-I-S-S theory applies online as much as it does offline. For example, iIf you’re not going through your company news and announcements with me every time I call in, why are you taking me through them every time I reach your homepage?
4. LANDING PAGE DESIGN/CALLS TO ACTION DEVELOPMENT:
Have you determined what action you want your web visitors to take off of every major landing page on
your site?
- All key pages on your website should be built using the “for dummies” model. If a visitor lands on a product/service landing page that doesn’t seek to turn them into a lead/customer, you deserve to lose them. It is up to you to tell them what to do. Some options could include: “call us today”, “order online”, and “request more information” - these are otherwise known as Calls to Action (CTAs) or Callouts. We have seen clients add a simple CTA (request a quote) and see as much as a 200% change in conversion rates overnight!
5. DATA MINING:
Do you use website analytics?
- The online space offers the most incredible and extensive ROI tracking of all marketing mediums. Not only can you determine how many leads/sales you’re achieving online – you can also see where those acquisitions are coming from (referral, direct, search engines) what keywords are driving them, etc. The data mining opportunities are literally unbelievable. You can dig down to levels where you are evaluating which pages are causing the majority of exits off your site and then test alternative page layouts / copy / images to determine what the best formula is to plug that loss. By addressing website weaknesses identified by your analytics, your visitor engagement time and conversion rates can literally experience a 180 degree change.
In my opinion, as someone involved in business strategy, sales or marketing, you should have answered ‘yes’ to every question above. If you weren’t able to do so, I urge you to read the upcoming posts in this series. My future posts will seek to elaborate on each of the topics above in much greater detail. I will offer actionable steps that you can take to make necessary improvements as well as reference resources that you can leverage for additional reading/research.
The bottom line is this, I have seen clients improve sales by 400% within a fiscal quarter by improving their search engine ranking; I have seen conversion rates double within the first week of implementing a better web design; I have seen sales double/triple by applying a strategy to the online platform.
At the end of the day in the corporate world it all boils down to dollars and cents. If your website isn’t an integral part of the sales funnel channeling the dollars and cents to your bottom-line revenue, you are missing the boat. In doing so, you are leaving the online space wide open for your competitors to step up and beat you to the punch.
As posted in SEO on September 2, 2008.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
Excellent post mate,……You have done a deep reasearch on the topic,,,its really appreciable.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Thankfully I don’t have the pressures of a b2c or b2b website, but your article works just as well for a regular blog as well.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Every now and then you should sit down and ask yourself the questions you posed to us today.Do your own website review.We see so many changes on the rules of the internet we need to stay on top them.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Very practical information, this is a must read for any one who is doing online marketing.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:42 am
Godaddy needs to take some lessons from this post. The process of buying a domain at Godaddy is littered with so much add on stuff that I almost want to bail and go to a different Registrar. Thanks for the post as it is a reminder to first determine our goals, then take actions to achieve them, including monitoring progress (or failure) with detailed statistics.
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:09 am
Great post mate! These are the right questions to ask yourself if you want your website to be a great marketing tool.
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 am
Hello everyone,
I used google analytics on somme of my blogs. But some day i`ve tried to erase it, and after a couple days i`ve seem my ranking position go up in the ranks.
I think i`m going to take off all analytics code in all of my blogs and sites.
Puts,
Artur
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Definitely great questions to ask yourself when developing a website.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I so agree that many businesses no matter what their size are are not maximizing their potential by making optimum use of the web and the opportunities that it presents. Good post.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I so agree that many businesses no matter what their size are are not maximizing their potential by making optimum use of the web and the opportunities that it presents. Good post there.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:27 am
As a SEO consultant, we should advise our clients how much sales they are losing to their competitors, instead of how much sales they can bring in via organic seo.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:38 am
The first step is the most important, at least for me. I saved myself a lot of time and money by investing a bit more time in research for a new project.
You can apply these 5 steps in most new projects and you will be on a good way to success.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Excellent article guys!
When I first started with se marketing, I didn’t knew these few important steps. In fact, I only knew that I need a nice landing page and some good traffic. Then I realised that I was doing something wrong, because I had very few conversions in comparison with my friends. Anyway, looking at your article…I realised exactly where I was wrong.
Thank you guys!
I have bookmarked this blog, an excellent resource for me.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
These are really fantastic & will help us for improvement in SEO work
September 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Thank. This is very practical information and could serve as point of discussion on pre-engagement for SEO appointment.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I would also recommend to use this online free tool - http://Site-Perf.com
It measure loading speed of page and it’s requisites (images/js/css) like browsers do and shows nice detailed chart - so you can easily spot bottlenecks. It’s very detailed and accurate, supports a lot of features like Keep-Alive and HTTP-compression.
Also useful feature is that this tool can measure quality of internet link of your server.