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Buyer’s expectations are changing. Know the first rule before updating your finishings website

Websites tend to be put up and forgotten. I would bet that it’s the pattern and the norm for most supply chain players. There’s a brief moment of uncomfortable intensity to get it done and then, that’s it. It’s back to business as usual and the website is left to fend for itself. Besides, changes and updates to most websites can be very painful and are often expensive. Meanwhile, buyers you don’t know yet are performing Internet searches for services just like yours on a 24/7 worldwide basis. Without realizing it, they have taken control of the purchasing process because they can, and, because it’s just more convenient for them. Where they used to come directly to you to obtain the needed information, they are now relying on that website you put up and forgot about. Maybe it’s time to revisit your virtual storefront, make sure you’re meeting your customers’ changing expectations.

Control issue

The buyer has moved into the drivers seat. They have chosen the Internet and now you have to provide more of what they expect. To make matters more interesting, this behavior will only intensify. If there is any trend to watch, it’s to see just how much of this behavior moves from desktop to mobile. How do you gain back a little control? Let’s just say you need to decrease the likelihood that a qualified buyer will click away from your website as quickly as he landed there—if he did at all. This visual illustrates the challenges:

Source: Technoligence

Fact

Your website represents who you are and what your business has to offer. It legitimizes your company by offering some credibility; but most importantly it answers the ultimate question: Am I in the right place? Of course, all of this happens in a New York minute.

The first rule of strategic website design

So what will it take to refashion your website enough to hold their attention and show them—your company is—the right place? That depends entirely on your current website. You could be close enough to taste it, or you could be far enough away that you’d be wise to start entirely anew. To get you thinking about your own situation consider the importance of answering that question in the scheme of your own, individual website strategy.

“Get found”—because nothing else matters

If your business is not ranking high on a search engine results page (SERP), you’ve got work to do. If a customer cannot find you on the Internet, would anything else matter? This is why visibility has to be first in any website audit. You have to determine if your current site has the chops to potentially attract hungry search engines.

SEO (search engine optimization) along with the practice of effective keyword usage (words that people use to find what they are looking for) are just that, optimal. If your website has been up for more than five years, and without much attention, it may not be worth infusing with more content with the hope that somehow it will become more magnetic. Give your website a quick self-exam to appraise its basic “update-ability.” Here are a couple of really basic symptoms to look for, particularly in older site construction (programming):

Text images vs. HTML text—When critical text in your site is actually an image and not HTML (readable) text, you are wasting time and space. Here’s how to find out: With your mouse, try to copy important text from your website and then paste it into another document. If you were not able to grab the text, it might actually be an image of a text block instead of readable text and therefore invisible to search engines. While there may be a workaround to fix this problem, it does provide a clue as to what’s under the hood of your website.

Poor title tags—Title tags are one of the most important website design factors as far as the algorithmic weight given to them by search engines. They are basically keywords that show up in the URL address for that page. They should be the most popular keywords that lead qualified prospects to your website. They can be rather long descriptions (up to 65 characters) and they should be words used in your website.

Try this: Poke around your own website. As you land on each separate page, check to see what the title tag is that shows up in your browser window (the address pane). Are they legible and informative? So often those basic page descriptions that show up after the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) suffix look like gobbledygook—and they are. If YOU cannot understand them don’t expect a search robot to get it either.

Look for more on the topic of business website strategy in the near future.

INSIGHT:

When you think about your web presence, you have to think about your customer. How is his behavior changing? How are purchasing decisions being made with regard to the type of services you provide? How will visitors to your website answer: Am I in the right place? Can they even find you on the Internet? Buyer’s expectations are changing. Make sure your website meets the first rule.

I welcome your comments, questions or more discussion.

Image: Stahl Strategic Design

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