Thursday, October 18, 2007

Millions of companies across the world have created beautiful websites with great tools and information that they want to be their “number one sales person,” and are waiting for customers to beat a path to their door. Unfortunately, this isn't the Field of Dreams. Your website is like any other resource you employ; it takes time, money and development in order to stay productive and income generating for your business.

Several areas we look at, first, when evaluating a website include appearance, functionality, alignment with business and its customers, intuitive function and content. when someone goes to your site, you have less than 10 seconds to keep them there.

Next, we go deeper, and look at things like page titles, keywords, metatags, content and finally, search engine submittal. These items speak to how internet browsers will find you. If all of these are properly aligned, search engine spiders will begin "crawling" your site to see if your site will be of value to its browsers.

The combination of these elements, in addition to ongoing monitoring of where people go on your site and what they do, then making the appropriate changes on the site to increase the number of users who turn into customers is called "website conversion." This is where you start to see a return on your website investment (ROWI).

While you might feel that it is not important, or the “top priority” for your company, consider this: would you allow an employee that you hired to sit idly at their desk each day? Would you purchase a car or a boat that you could not drive? In many situations: maybe. But what if you could invest in that person or that car or that boat, and increase your capabilities or pleasure exponentially?

As we move into the 21st century, we will be looking at new ways to do business. Many barriers to entry emerging businesses have had are being crushed. New technologies and internet capabilities are allowing smaller companies compete, successfully, with the major ones! By taking their businesses online, small business owners are no longer necessarily 'squeezed out' by the big retailer down the street.

At Aepiphanni Business Solutions, we are dedicated to serving the needs of small business owners. We specialize in helping you develop strategies for your organization, and are committed to your success. If you have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at info@aepiphanni.com.