My Website Looks Great, But No One Can Find it!

A friend of mine voiced a complaint I hear often among small business owners.  “I can’t believe I invested the time and money to develop a website, and it doesn’t work.  I hired some tech guys that said they could build a simple website for me.  It looks great but and no one can find it!”

So what makes a small business website successful? A website is successful if:

➢ It looks professional. It has an attractive graphic lay-out and design that communicates a quality brand image for your business

➢ It works. It is user friendly, people can find the information they want easily and all navigation and links function properly

➢ It can be found.  People can find your website when using search engines like Google, Yahoo, or MSN

➢ It meets a business objective. It accomplishes a defined goal such as building credibility, inquiries, sales…etc.

When I looked at my friend’s website, I found it did “work” in that the usability and functionality were good, the problem was that the search engines couldn’t find it.  That is a problem, because it doesn’t matter how great your website looks, or even how usable and functional your website is – if it is hard to find, it can’t meet your business objectives.

All four key factors listed above must be present for a successful website, but rarely can one person deliver all four.  Why? Because each key factor requires a very different kind of expertise.

Full service agencies cost more but have teams of people to deliver all key areas of expertise, while individual web designers tend to specialize in one, maybe two areas.  Individual web designers tend to be either “Geeks” or “Artists.”  In my experience, both the Geeks and Artists tend to be weak in Marketing, especially in search engine optimization (SEO).  Therefore, small business owners should understand the specific capabilities and expertise of a web designer, before beginning website development.

For more information on developing an effective small business website, go to my website to download a free eBook for small business owners on “How to Save Time, Money & Sanity while Developing a Small Business Website.”

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