Is Your Company Website Doing All It Can for Your Business?

A common myth among business owners is that just having a website is enough. Unfortunately, it isn’t.  Just having it is the beginning, but you have to constantly update it to see a positive ROI for your site. Otherwise, potential customers will not find you or get a real feel for your business.

A website is an investment and should be treated as such. Would you neglect your other company investments, like cash registers and security systems? Of course not, and you shouldn’t neglect your site either.

We posted a short while back about the importance of “servicing your website every 3,000 visitors. ” We got a really good response from business owners who are now developing strategies for website maintenance.

Many people hire professionals to maintain their sites because it is a lot of work, but you can do it yourself if you are willing to put in the work.

The main thing you have to do it keep everything fresh (your content, pictures, pages, testimonials, etc.). Don’t allow old, irrelevant images and messages to linger for months and months (example: Christmas promotions in March).  If you don’t have the time to make these types of updates, you can get a website management system when you buy your web account. These management systems make it easy for you to update your content without having to pay your site creator every time you need to make a change. 

It is also important that your site is scalable so you can easily edit content as time passes.  Be sure to only include necessary information because if you have a lot of text, images and flash components, updating will be a hassle and you’ll be less likely to do it on a regular basis.

One specific update you should make to your site is to incorporate all your social media accounts into your website. Many companies fail to do this properly, so it is a good idea to hire a professional to make sure you aren’t missing any crucial factors. It’s not enough to simply add a link or image here or there. You should also have a Facebook fan box, a “like” or “recommend” button, a Twitter “follow” button and official logos of the social media service providers.

It doesn’t matter how aware you are of the benefits of social media if you don’t take advantage of them. Your business will suffer and you will feel that you’ve wasted your time and money. 

Social media is a great way to get honest feedback from your customers. Take it seriously. Do not disregard the feedback just because you don’t like it. Your success relies specifically on your customers, so they need to feel appreciated and listened to.

Here’s an example of how not listening to your customers can hurt your business.  A local bistro serves great food—especially their scallops—but some of the customers complain that the website is poorly maintained. One couple reported that they made an online reservation only to discover that the company no longer honors online reservations. Another couple reported that the online menu didn’t match the real one and that they almost decided to not come to the restaurant anymore. There are probably other customers who actually did decide not to return for these reasons. Clearly, you will never be able to make everyone happy, but remember that your site is there for them, so make sure it caters to the users.

Regardless of your reason for not maintaining your site, you can’t afford to neglect it any longer. You’re paying for the site. Why not make it work for you? Farin Innovations – a Miami, FL website design and website development company - has been helping business owners for over ten years. See some of their many success stories on their site http://www.farininnovations.com/portfolio.