At Fusion Marketing Partners, we get the chance to talk to a lot of companies about their Websites. Since we work with companies that depend on their Website as an important part of their B2B marketing and sales strategy, our ability to diagnose and find areas for improvement is very important. And we rarely find a Website that can’t benefit from an upgrade. But the question is, What is the scope of the project – is it a major or minor effort to whip the Website (and the company’s online presence), into shape?
In addition to his day job, my son Colin has a part-time venture detailing cars. Colin and other detailers spend a good deal of time when they clean a car, delving into every small space to deliver an immaculate finished product, both inside and out. The effort takes hours, not minutes, and it is much more costly than a quick car wash. But sometimes, a quick wash is all you need to feel better about what you are driving. It’s cheap, it’s inexpensive and it does the trick.
Likewise, your Website may require a major overhaul (like the auto detailing) or it may require a few minor adjustments (like the quick wash). So how do you know the difference? First, start with an assessment of how your Website measures up by asking these seven questions:
1. Does the Website meet its primary objective (e.g. sales, lead generation, awareness, raising funds, establishing expertise, etc.)?
2. Is the message clear for your key constituencies (customers, prospects, parnters or whoever)?
3. Is the site optimized for organic search? Do you have your primary, secondary and tertiary keywords identified with a page or more of content dedicated to each?
4. Is the content on the site fresh, relevant and keyword optimized? Stale sites tend to be ignored by both prospects and Web crawlers.
5. Do you have the appropriate number and types of offers? We recommend that every page of the Website contain one or more offes.
6. Is the navigation on your site intuitive and easy to follow, allowing prospects to quickly find exactly what they are looking for.
7. Is the Website built on a solid architecture, making it search friendly, stable, easy to update and so forth?
After answering these tough questions, you will have a good idea of what you need to do to optimze your Web presence. Almost every organization can benefit from some Internet enhancements, and if you are fortunate, these will be minor. But if you need a major overhaul, or perhaps even a brand new Website, it is best to start on this as quickly as possible. Your competitors may be “detailing” their Websites and you certainly don’t want to fall behind in the game of Internet marketing. You can learn more about what we do to enhance online presence at the Fusion Marketing Partners Website.
