I’m a small business owner and the other day I had to fax a document to my insurance company.  What a pain!  To start with, I don’t own a fax machine.   My office uses virtual phone systems (Skype, cellular, and Google Voice) so I don’t even have a phone line to plug a fax machine into.   To fax the document, I had to take the 14-page stack of papers to a FedEx store and pay per page.

I assume the insurance company set up their fax process to improve efficiency; which makes good business sense.  I wonder, however, if they gave any consideration to the impact on their customer.  Their efficiency created a hassle for me that might make me examine changing carriers when my policy lapses.

So what does this have to do with your website?   Well, how much thought have you given to the way your website appears to prospective customers.  Is it up to date?  Is it easy to navigate?  Is the content relevant and important?  Can customers interact effectively with you to get answers they need in order to make a buying decision?  If not, you may be creating the web version of my fax nightmare.  In this case, however, if you don’t meet your prospects expectations you can be sure they will move on to your competition.

Conventional wisdom says that any business needs a website, just like they need a phone system, fax machine, and parking lot.  The truth is that in today’s world hard-wired phones, fax machines, and bricks and mortar structures are not required to operate a successful business.  The same is true of the traditional website, in fact, a poorly designed or out-dated site may become a silent liability.

People use the Internet to find information they need.  Your killer presentation may have wowed the prospect in his/her office, but if the boss visited your site and wasn’t impressed; you face an uphill battle to regain credibility.   Even with a rocking cool website, if a bad review of your company shows up in the same Google search, you could be loosing businesses without even understanding why.

So what makes a website relevant in today’s world.  There are many answers, but here are some tips to improve your site:

• Avoid the urge to make your site a commercial.  Save the sales pitch for closing the deal.  Instead, focus on making your site informational and easy to navigate.
• Let your customers buy online.  If your competition offers online sales, you need to be in the game or you’ll loose market share.
• Understand the information your prospects desire and give it to them.
• Make sure you show up in the search.  It is a good practice to search for the keywords you use on your website and track where your site appears.  If online competition is strong, consider hiring a professional to optimize your content.
• Update your content regularly.  A blog is a great way to keep new content flowing to your site.  This not only helps your search engine ranking, but also gives prospects a reason to come back to your site.
• Think about the sites you visit regularly.  How can you make your site a favorite for your customers?
• Consider website alternatives.  Social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn offer great exposure and the ability to easily interact with those who find you.  For some, these sites are taking the place of more traditional websites.
• Maintain profiles in the major Social Media outlets and link to them from your email, newsletters, and website.  Social Media sites offer low cost access (many free), are easy to update, allow you to directly connect with others, and offer tremendous search engine optimization.