I am not sure which one is the worst to have, a good website with no visitors or a bad website with lots of visitors. Both the options are non productive. In today’s digital world, every organization should have a good website which generates some business for the organization.
Every website should have the basic pages like Home, About us, Products/services offered and Contact us. Some optional content includes pages like online demo, videos, blog, downloads, case studies, news,….etc.
A SME/SMB which does not have a website ( in this day & age, yes there are still companies owned by lawyers, accounting service provides, independent health care service provides to name a few….) should immediately go for a minimum 4-5 pages website which is called a Brochureware. These type of website are generally developed for SMEs which do not have web presence ( 1st web site), have very limited budget in the tune of Rs. 5000 to Rs. 10000 ( $100-$200). Brochureware are generally not updated frequently.
Even brochureware site can attract web visitors as high as 100 -500 per month with appropriate SEO/SEM/SMM. These visitors can easily convert into 10-50 leads per month and can generate some business for the organization. Once the SME has reaped the benefit of the Brochureware, the organization can graduate to a serious website with all the bells & whistles & some aggressive SEO/SEM/SMM. I am sure this will result into multi-fold business generation for the organization.
If the whole website design & development and SEO/SEM/SMM is done with careful planning & execution by a professional vendor, the ROI can be measured & can be achieved in less than a year.
Now let us look at organizations, which already have a website. 8 out of 10 websites of SMEs according to me do not have a website which reflects the true capability & reputation of the organization. I have heard several SMEs complain that I have a website but does not generate any business for me. Why? There are only two reasons: the website is not good enough for the visitor to do business with you, and secondly it is not optimized for SEO/SEM/SMM & hence there are hardly any visitors to these websites. One has to find out which is your problem (or both). Discuss this with your web site service provider & find the appropriate solution to fix the same.
Gone are the days when website just provided the info on products & services. In today’s competitive environment website is a business generating channel or tool. Every organization should ask how much business is generated by my website. If the answer is nil or insignificant, then you are leaving lot of money on the table for your competitors. You should seriously consider revamping your website such that it generates some significant business for your organization.
Here are some of the components of a good business generating website:
1. Good Website design
2. Good Website content
3. Good web site look & feel
4. Contemporary style
5. Good Navigation
6. Blog with good article
7. Basic on-page & off-page SEO
8. Basic SMM
9. SEM/PPC(If you have internet marketing budget)
10. Google Analytics
Also make sure that your website is W3C compliant, thoroughly tested for all broken links, optimized for various browsers ( with their earlier versions) , optimized for Mobiles & Tablets(various OSs).
If you do not have a website and are contemplating to have one or you have a website but are not satisfied with the look & feel or it is not generating any business for you (no ROI) or does not have some of the above mentioned components & are planning to incorporate some of these, Vaidya Consulting can help. Please contact us for a free consultation.