Most businesses have a web presence, but
by not providing the right information on
your company’s website, you can have an
adverse impact on customers and users.
According to recent consumer research
commissioned by webhosting company 1&1
Internet, a surprising 83% of Britons have
been negatively affected by being unable to
find contact details from a business’s
website. The problem made over half feel
angry and stressed, with one in five feeling
powerless and desperate. Alarmingly, the
research found the inability to find a way to
contact a business from its website to be the
biggest customer service bugbear for 77.2%
of people – beating both being held in a
telephone queue (77.1%), and being forced
to listen to bad on-hold music (42%).
The survey also found that 90% of
consumers want real-time live dialogue with a
business online, using live-chat, forums or
call-me-back facilities. A third actually want
them from the UK businesses they currently
use. By contrast, however, further recent
research among small and medium-sized
enterprises found that nearlyall businesses
did not offer such facilities and almost half
had no plans to introduce them.
Remember, customers have to find your
website first. Many consumers nowadays use
a search engine to track down the services
they require, and if your website does not come
up quickly you could lose potential income.
While there is no quick fix to occupying a top
spot or high ranking with any search engine,
you should be using search engine
optimisation techniques (SEO) to make the
most of your website. The costs for doing this
can vary, but you can do much of the initial
work internally with minimum expense.
Start by understanding what ranking you
currently have, the keywords and phrases
customers are using to find you and how you
can capitalise on this knowledge. There are
various free web tools which can also show you
what the competition is like for each search.
Be aware that search engines pick up and
penalise websites that contain duplicate or
similar content but ‘promote’ those which are
regularly updated and have links from external
websites. Initial analysis should indicate how
important your website is and help you decide
how much money you are therefore prepared
to commit to improving communication and
deploying SEO techniques.
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